Age to impress: Just a Tish Wine & More savors five years of success
Published 6:03 pm Tuesday, September 30, 2025
After successfully reaching five years of business, Just a Tish Wine & More continues to unite patrons. (File)
Reporter photos/Noah Wortham)
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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor
While spending a nice Saturday out with her daughter, Kelly Davis was perusing the items at a thrift store when she received an urgent phone call. On the other end was Kayla Lopez, the manager of her business in Columbiana, Just a Tish Wine & More.
“Kelly, I’m so sorry to do this, but I need help,” Lopez said. “We’ve had a bunch of people come in, and I really need your help.”
Wanting to help her employees, whom she believed to be under strain, Davis quickly dashed to her car and traveled across town to her business, where she pulled into the parking lot. She entered Just a Tish Wine & More through the back entrance. As she opened the door behind the bar, she looked up and was greeted by a shocking scene—more than 90 people shouting “surprise” with mischievous grins on their faces.
Hors d’œuvres featuring every snack one could imagine were spread across the bar, along with a large decorative wine display—featuring the numeral five created out of beer cans.
Initially stunned by the jolting scene, the realization of what was happening slowly began to sink in. All of her employees, customers, friends and family members had conspired together to surprise her for the fifth anniversary of Just a Tish Wine & More—and they got her good.
“It was very heartwarming to see the community,” Davis said. “It was a great surprise. I felt very loved and appreciated.”
Scripts to sips
For Davis, wine was a longtime passion—it was the perfect hobby to pair with traveling and a great way to spend an evening with friends while socializing. As someone who also worked as a pharmacist for a living, wine was also a science—a way to pair ingredients and sides for the ultimate sensory experience.
“There’s a lot of chemistry involved in winemaking,” Davis said. “It’s not just mashing up grapes… and (then) you get this wonderful wine.”
The very first inklings of what would become a future business began with a simple dream.
“I always dreamed of having a neat little cellar in my basement, and I was going to name it ‘Just a Tish’ after my grandmother,” Davis said. “That’s what she would say when you asked her if she wanted a glass of wine.”
Davis also had aspirations to open a business in her hometown of Columbiana. With those two goals in mind, she began to look for the right space to rent and eventually settled on a spot at 113 West College Street next to Golden City.
“I just thought it would be a neat thing to have in Columbiana,” Davis said. “I love little wine shops. I visit wine shops all over. Anytime I go anywhere, if there’s a wine shop, I’m going to be in it, just checking out other people’s passion and love for the wine world.”
She began to furnish the spot and get the business ready to open; however, there were a few hurdles left, including obtaining proper permitting and one unexpected roadblock, the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these obstacles, Davis was eventually able to open on May 1, 2020 to a surprising amount of success even with an ongoing pandemic.
“Opening a business during COVID was difficult, but actually, the wine business went really well because people couldn’t go to restaurants, they couldn’t get out and socialize, so they were having their wine at dinner at home with their family,” Davis said. “We didn’t know how it was going to go, but it went well.”
In addition to an unexpected perfect storm of circumstances, the small space lent itself well to teaching David the tools of the trade as she began to better learn how to run a business and serve her customers.
“I didn’t know what to expect, and I certainly didn’t know what to expect business-wise during COVID,” Davis said. “I’ve never run a business before, so that was all learning. I thought it did it well. It was just me, and we were paying the bills and rocking and rolling.”
Just a Tish Wine & More secured a place for itself in the community, building up its customer base and improving its services for the next three years, until Davis learned about an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
Finding the right pairing
While the first location for Just a Tish Wine & More was a great way to learn the tools of the trade and to build up a customer base, it was too small to accomplish Davis’s goal of offering the perfect place for people to socialize and buy wine.
The initial location of Just a Tish Wine & More offered a small bar that could seat five people as well as a couch seating area. The business offered a selection of retail wines and a few gift items.
A piece of property at the end of Columbiana Main Street, across from Blue Agave, became available for purchase and offered an immense amount of space. Seeing the value in the new opportunity, Davis partnered with her siblings, Christy Brasher and Corley Ellis, to buy the new spot at 112 South Main Street in December 2022. After painting the inside, ripping up the carpet and decorating the interior, the newest version of Just a Tish Wine and More was ready for business and opened on May 10, 2023.
“It was great,” Davis said. “I think everybody was happy for us to be on Main Street, and that (outdoor) patio was a game changer for us. I feel like this building was meant for us to be here.”
In addition to a new, larger location for operations, Davis was also able to secure a helping hand that would allow the business to thrive and allow her to keep working as a pharmacist on the side. Lopez came on board with experience from previously working at Hope Farms in Fair Hope and has assisted Davis in bringing the business onto social media and helping make the magic happen.
“She’s fabulous,” Davis said. “We finish each other’s sentences. We’re two peas in a pod. She knows me and what I want and everything she does is perfect.”
Now, Lopez has been working at Just a Tish Wine & More for more than a year and serves as the manager, handling operations on days that Davis spends working as a pharmacist. The duo works together to serve both longtime clientele and new patrons.
“I love it,” Lopez said. “It is truly a job that I come in, and I feel at home. I feel like I was meant to be here. Kelly has been wonderful to work with and to work for. We complement each other really well.”
Five years in, Davis continues to strive to make Just a Tish Wine & More a safe place for locals to socialize while enjoying a glass of wine as well as the perfect destination to secure bottles of retail wine from across the world.
“Wine is a resource that facilitates relationships and conversations,” Davis said. “For us, it has been an avenue to grow friendships and grow relationships and enjoy good food. I’d love for people who haven’t been in to stop by and get to know us, just say ‘Hello’ and see what we have to offer. I think once somebody comes in, they’ll be hooked.”
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