A bottle of the Bell House Winery’s wine.
Submitted photos
Bell House Winery opens on old Holy Family property
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Dawn Davison-Monk sits in the winery she opened in Sugar Notch. The Bell House Winery is located in the former Holy Family Church.
Submitted photos
The Bell House Winery’s was designed by owner Dawn Davison-Monk’s daughter, Shelby. It appears on every bottle of wine produced at the winery.
Submitted photos
SUGAR NOTCH – When Dawn Davison-Monk first began planning the next phase of life for the former Holy Family Church property, there were a number of ideas on the table.
But the flagship concept for the former church building and its corresponding rectory, as Davison-Monk proposed to the Sugar Notch Zoning Hearing Board, was a winery.
That winery, officially known as the Bell House Winery, is a passion project of sorts for Davison-Monk, whose background is in construction and real estate, as well as her family. Her daughter Shelby Monk has put a fair amount of time into the business herself. In fact, Shelby designed the insignia that is attached to every bottle of wine produced at the Bell House.
While developing the Bell House Winery, Davison-Monk pulled from her and her husband’s own experiences in wine making, brewing and visiting other wineries. The site of the former Holy Family Church happened to perfectly align with what she had in mind. What was once the church basement is now used for making wine, and the rectory is the retail and sitting area.
“I feel like I didn’t pick the building for a winery; I felt like the building picked me to put a winery in it. It had a commercial kitchen. It had this great woodwork. There really wasn’t much to do,” Davison-Monk noted on the church and rectory’s solid, existing infrastructure. “We put an ADA bathroom in and a counter for a tasting room.”
As a general rule, the Bell House has embraced its familial origins as it grows. The people they have brought in to work are trusted friends and family who have embraced the business.
“We do have a full staff right now of all different ages and all different passions, and everyone’s kind of becoming a wine connoisseur,” said Shelby. “It’s a great job because you get to meet so many different people and it’s a relaxing environment.”
Visitors to the Bell House can enjoy an outdoor or indoor seating area, with plans for more expansion in the works. In doing so, Davison-Monk is hoping to pump life into what otherwise could have become another pair of dilapidated buildings. The Bell House’s successful first weekend earlier this month would appear to signal a long run of success may be in the complex’s future.
Davison-Monk and her daughter have emphasized the branding sphere, building up a solid network through social media and word of mouth advertising. While most of their opening weekend customers drove to the location, the Sugar Notch community has been providing a bit of foot traffic and, in turn, showing support for their town’s newest business.
“Across (the opening weekend), it was a different crowd each day. I think every single day we had people from Sugar Notch that were walking here or driving two minutes down the road,” Shelby said of the local support. “But I also heard a lot from Mountain Top, from the Back Mountain, different parts of Nanticoke as well. I feel like there was a good balance of people who were showing up.”
The Bell House Winery is located at 828 Main St., Sugar Notch, and is open Friday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.