Today we’d like to introduce you to Candice Dublin.
Hi Candice, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Strangelove was born in 2019 and the concept has more or less stayed the same since we finally opened in 2025: All day coffee and wine, with a robust retail bottle shop as well. The shop is a collaboration between Figure 8 Coffee and Small Victory. While I’m not involved in ownership, I’ve worked for the Small Victory team since 2017, building a wine education on the side along the way. Josh Loving (Small Victory) has been a fixture in the Austin wine scene for years, and his love of small producers and natural wine inspired me to finally take my wine knowledge to the next level and complete my WSET 3. I’ve built the wine program at Strangelove to be approachable to wine drinkers from all backgrounds, while stocking the shop with plenty of Easter eggs for the heads. I never want a guest to feel like choosing a wine is a stressful experience, or give the impression that I’m only doing this to prove something about myself. Going out for a drink should be fun! That being said, everything in the shop is “natural wine,” although we prefer to think about it as “wine made on a human scale.” The producers I carry are stewards of their land and are making wines that are expressions of their home and their particular skills in the cellar. I do my best to keep the shop stocked with wines from underrepresented regions and love to talk about winemaking history with guests who are surprised to see wines from places like Slovakia or Lebanon. I am currently working towards a degree in Classical Studies and hope to someday complete a project, maybe a book, uniting my love of history and my love of wine.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Covid was a major obstacle that made it much harder to open. The space was leased in 2019 and then the hospitality industry shut down. Figure 8 and Small Victory were working hard to keep their current businesses alive and Strangelove had to sit on the back burner for a few years until everyone’s heads were above water again.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve worked in hospitality since I was 16, so I have a solid twenty years of experience in this industry. I spent my teens working in restaurants, and my twenties were spent working in coffee. Like many people I eventually got into cocktails as a hobby at home, buying cocktail books from the 1930s and 1940s and making drinks for my friends. I got my first job at a bar around 2015, and was quickly promoted from barback to bartender. Over the years I developed an interest in wine and went down the WSET path. Thinking about what I’m known for, it has to be for being a nerd, but I wear that title with pride. I’m a history buff and an avid reader, so my cocktail, wine, and spirit knowledge is deep. If a guest has a question, I’m the one who can answer it.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Do your homework. While it may feel like unpaid labor, that’s the only way you’re going to get better and advance your career. The people who fake it will always stay at a certain level and never go farther. Also, take care of your body. Make time for sleep, make time for a lunch/dinner break, don’t drink too much just because it’s free and available.
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