Our tale begins in 2016. Sunshine Foss, a former designer, and her husband Remo have just signed the lease on a commercial space in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. The couple resolves that if they can’t find someone willing to take on the lease within two years, they will convert the space into their own wine and spirit shop.
That was the beginning for Happy Cork, a boutique wine and liquor store created for the local community by one of its members.
Sunshine went to work filling the shelves with more than 200 different brands and labels in all price ranges, from a bottle of bubbly for $70 to a white or red for $40, down to a $6 can of She Can rosé. The emphasis is on black and minority-owned brands.
When the pandemic struck in 2001, the Fosses kept their heads — and their business. They were a mentor to other minority-owned businesses, showing them how to sell their product at a time when customers were scarce. Sunshine’s sunny disposition was also a great help. Personally knowing and contacting friends who ran their own businesses, she began to sell their products — including Brooklyn Tea, coasters, and chocolates — while they promoted hers.
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