Daily Inspiration: Meet The Cave Wine Storage

Today we’d like to introduce you to The Cave Wine Storage.

Hi The Cave Wine Storage, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In 2008 I stepped into the role of “Resident Troglodyte,” the overseer of The Cave Wine Storage.

The Cave Wine storage is a little-known, eclectic, intimate wine storage facility tucked away in the basement of the historical Hotel Glendale, occupying space that was once the restaurant and social room. The original wood floor remains intact and the rumor of ghosts persists.

On the National Landmark of Historic Places, The Hotel Glendale opened for operation in July, 1925 and just celebrated its 100th birthday. The Hotel was a vision of extravagance, of everything positive and possible, including the plan for dirigibles to whisk guests from the rooftop to DTLA in 20 minutes. “The City of Glendale,” the air ship named by Thomas Slate, much like the hotel itself, never got off the ground. Slate Aircraft sunk, the Hotel never itself maintained the glory of its vision. Over time it went through owners and phases, a rundown flop house, a refuge for seniors, an affordable place for working class and students.

It is currently called Glendale Flats. Last bought and fully renovated in 2015, it is a mixed-use building with retail and apartments, The exterior brick walls are now featured with original wood floors. The apartments are cozy and intimate and retain their historic touches while providing a modern living experience.

And The Cave Wine Storage is intact. It opened in 1982 and would expand over the years, with temperature-controlled storage for all sized collections. In 2008 when I first took it over, it looked like a Nixon era man cave replete with black velvet paintings, macramé plant holders, and archways sealed over with cheap paneling.

The first task was to renovate it. I visited my competition to help me see what we were that no one else could be. I focused on featuring the building, its architecture, and its history. The archway was exposed, the macrame went, the history room at the Glendale Central Library was raided and those archives now line the walls of our entryway. We are dimly lit, very Cave-y. It is like stepping out of the world into a subdued, quiet other. There is no place in Glendale like it.

(As a nod to the era preceding me, the black velvet paintings remain.)

After that, The Cave had to teach me what it was about and what my ultimate purpose was, and this took some time. I anticipated stepping into a stereotype of old, conservative, snooty men. WRONG. People who drink and collect wine are as varied and diverse as wine itself and overwhelmingly generous. I’ve tasted amazing wine, and good wine ruins you. I highly recommend it. I know more about AC than I ever really wanted to. I’ve witnessed more than one “whatever happens here stays here” moment, and those remain my favorite memories. But it was one guy, one visit, that clarified my purpose: a lot of parents have birth year wines for their kids. One day a guy who hardly ever does so comes in and retrieves one bottle. It was his daughter’s birth year wine, and they would open it at her wedding. I would learn so many bottles have a story for these people, and that day I understood myself to be the keeper of the stories

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The Cave Wine Storage opened December 21, 1982. It was the decision of the then owners whose initial plan was to re establish the basement restaurant. Much of the original equipment and footprint were intact, I’m sorry to have no pictures of it. City red tape interfered, they were themselves avid wine drinkers, so was born The Cave. One of the gentlemen, now in his 90’s, still cellars here. He designed the AC system.

The larger partnership dissolved putting the building up for sale, and this was the Great Wait and See Era for The Cave, which has the same owners as the building. Several potential buyers had no interest in inheriting the cellars. We were very fortunate that the prevailing bid did, and I carried over.

At some point I took over the whole building, and that was a very fortunate next step. Going from a 25-hour a week job that allowed for my personal endeavors to having a 50-hour a week job that allow for my personal endeavors took some adjustment, but I also get to oversee this town’s most iconic residential building and all its secrets.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I just wrapped up a successful 2026 LA Art Show, represented by Bert Green Fine Art. The show was featured on Forbes.com and the top pick at Artillery Magazine. We had a satisfying reception and a very good number of sales.

I am an active member in my community and this particular show was in response to the hate and harassment focused on me, online and in person, since 2023. Extremists who initially built their fear tactics on what they perceived as CRT in public schools shifted to the transgender community for a very long time before the current fear and violence against our immigrant community and those who stand with them.

During the trans-scare segment of national hate, I was chronically deadnamed and misgendered, verbally and physically harassed, filmed in public, doxed, featured on podcasts, a social media kicking boy, a red flag, anointed a mentally ill pedophilic groomer.

The show was about this experience.

I am proud of being able to, and having the means to – or maybe wherewithal to – process everything that happened to me. In 2023 when this started, I made the conscious decision to step fully into it, to not let these people decide me. I didn’t hide. I didn’t retreat. I went to hours long city meetings where I couldn’t go to the bathroom for fear of attack, where I was being filmed and harassed and yelled at. Over and over. I never stopped.

How do you think about happiness?
Painting – makes me happy? HAPPY?!?! LOL, I don’t know about that word, but there are moments that satisfy, lots. There is something about painting that can calm me and remind me who I am like nothing else. For a long time it was the only space in which I got to breathe, exhale.

When you nail the coffee you just made, got it JUST RIGHT. There’s a lot of that with food.

When I wake up in the middle of the night and listen to the silence – my bed is under an open-all-year window. Or feel the air in the dark. When you are walking and your mind is wandering and you are smiling over something random.

I took in an abandoned cat this year and I let him outside – which every single person told me not to do. But there are times when there is a light breeze and he is chasing leaves carried by it and I get practically choked up watching him do this, play.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://greyjames.art
• Other: https://thecavewinestorage.com

Image Credits
Some images courtesy of the archives at Glendale Central Library.