An Interview with Thea & Morgan of Nido Wine & Market

Pictured here: Thea (left) and Morgan (right) Co-owners of Nido Wine Shop & Market. Not Pictured: Erin (the 3rd Co-owner).

Nido is a small wine shop and market located in the heart of Mount Pleasant. It’s run by three women, Thea, Erin, and Morgan, each of whom brings a different specialty to the table across wine, restaurants, and hospitality. The shop shares a converted townhouse with the highly regarded Filipino restaurant Purple Patch and feels homey and welcoming. The inside has warm lighting, lots of plants, and big wooden shelves full of new and interesting pantry items, fresh prepared foods, and racks and racks of affordable and approachable natural and low intervention wines. 

Running a small business is challenging at any time and doing it with the mission of making food and wine accessible is even harder. The team behind Nido has managed to thread the needle - providing high quality products in a way that feels approachable and fun. Beyond cultivating new and interesting food and wine often sourced from local suppliers, the Nido team, led by co-owner and sommelier Thea, has managed to build a reputation for bringing some of the most highly lauded natural winemakers into the space for tastings almost every Friday. It’s an example of Nido truly building a space for the community in a way that isn’t prohibitively expensive.

We had the chance to sit down with Thea and Morgan, two of the three owners/operators to hear more about how they ended up in DC, their experience building Nido and identifying new products, and what it’s like to run a community focused small business in DC today. 

This interview has been lightly edited for conciseness and clarity.

Let’s start with how you both found your way to DC initially!

Thea: I’m a somewhat native Washingtonian. Both my parents are from DC, I went to high school in DC and grew up between DC, Virginia and Puerto Rico for a little while so this is my home. I’ve left many times and I come back every time. 

Morgan: I grew up in rural Georgia and moved around for different jobs. Before moving I lived in Ohio, Minnesota and Florida. I used to be a competitive board gamer and would come up to DC for competitions at Labyrinth over on Capitol Hill. I really just fell in love with the city and sort of moved here on a whim hoping it would work out. Luckily it did. I’ve been here 13 years now!

I love that both of you had a long history in The District before starting Nido. What brought you together that lead to opening the shop?

Thea: I have worked in hospitality pretty much my whole life in some form or another. I’ve had some shorter stints in corporate as well but don’t need to do that again. I was up and down the East Coast for a while and then after 2020 when my good friend Erin (the other co-owner) had a restaurant here (in the Nido space) we had a quick chat, decided to put some thought and initiative behind it and after lots of hard work we reopened as Nido. 

Morgan: I had been running and working at restaurants and bars here in the District and have always loved hospitality. It’s very much my industry of choice. During the pandemic I ran something called Friends and Family Meal which was an industry specific food bank that worked with local farms. We had different pickup areas throughout The District at different bars and restaurants that were no longer operational because of COVID but opened their doors for the food bank. One of those places was Mola, the restaurant that was previously here and owned by Erin. Mola had sort of shifted into a provisions shop as many places did and was selling some of the basics like flour and wine. I was running the pickups and got to know Erin quite well. We eventually started talking about what Mola could be after the pandemic and what would happen if we converted it into a market with a lot of intention. 

The first person we thought of who we would want to work with is Thea because she is phenomenal and talented and we knew each other from the industry. 

“In theory you can walk into Nido with no plan and leave with a perfect picnic a full dinner or just a snack and a bottle of wine!”

So once you had decided to open the shop what did the process look like of putting all of the pieces together like the build out and merchandising?

Morgan: When we first started it was a lot of the three of us building and painting shelves, trying to figure out what we could do ourselves and what we could very much not. We would have various purveyors come in and do tastings to see what made sense. We went through many many types of tinned fish. It was a delightful time in a lot of ways. 

For our prepared foods it was a legacy that Erin had set. We looked at some of the things that had been on Mola’s menu and determined what could be packaged while maintaining the extremely high quality that Mola was known for. 

We also try to be very seasonally driven. We work with local farms and try to find things that we are excited about and since we’re the owners and decision makers we have a lot of leeway to try something that we’re excited about. 

Previously having worked for other people and done buying with other people it’s really nice to have the freedom to be able to lean into the excitement that we feel about things. Thea leads a lot of that process today. 

So what does that identification process look like? I’m sure everyone wants to know how you find the next cool brand that people haven’t seen before!

Thea: So I read a lot of blogs and am pretty tapped in on purpose when it comes to food and beverage. I cook a lot at home and am still somewhat involved in the restaurant scene here and there so I spend a lot of time thinking about what people are cooking and trying to understand their needs. 

For example, how many times have you read a New York Times Cooking recipe and it needed a specific type of Kosher salt that is randomly hard to find? I take that observation and then make sure we have it on the shelf. 

I also think about dietary needs and just watching patterns. Via Erin, almost 90% of our food is vegetarian or vegan. That is in respect to the neighborhood and how we eat. Our food is very much designed to be on the healthier side even though it’s grab and go and can be complemented by anything else in the store. 

In theory you can walk into Nido with no plan and leave with a perfect picnic a full dinner or just a snack and a bottle of wine!

So do you spend a lot of time thinking about sharing new fun things for people to try? 

Thea: It’s definitely something we think about. A great example, since it’s right behind you, are the roquefort biscuits. I’m not saying that anyone needs these in their life but if you’re a martini girlie it’s such a great accoutrement. 

I think as more and more people are entertaining at home they want to create memorable moments they can share with their friends or family. For example, they may have a martini garnished with a cute anchovy olive and a little snack. 

Helping introduce people to a missing ingredient or an item that rounds out an experience is something that all of us are super passionate about.

I’m curious about all of the tinned fish, it’s super popular right now so I would love to hear your perspective. 

Thea: I think personally it’s part of the privilege of aging to be able to remember being shamed in elementary school because I ate tinned fish with my mom and my grandpa. Tinned fish is a very familiar food item for me and I have vivid memories of eating deviled ham and sardines and hot sauce on the hood of my mom’s car. Now I’ll show my mom a $22 tuna belly in extra virgin olive oil from a niche village in Spain. In my lifetime alone tinned fish has shifted from a sort of shameful poor people food to an elevated luxury. It’s definitely interesting.

I think that’s a great observation and not something a lot of people think about. What do you think is the next “tinned fish” if there is one?

Thea: I think it’s just food, unfortunately. I think with the state of the world food is the aspirational thing. It’s unfortunate but I do think being able to create those moments in general is the biggest carryover I have noticed since stepping away from restaurant hospitality. More people are asking where to source cheese knives or asking if we can get tinned fish cookbooks or how to use an egg pasta. So just in general I think people are thinking about food. 

Morgan: You know I’m not sure if I can put my pulse on what the next big tinned fish is but I do think non-alcoholic beverages are part of that same wave. I feel like beans had their moment and they could rise again. I could see people splurging on that. 

Thea: The other sneaky one for me has been potato chips. I never thought I would spend this much time thinking about potato chips, trying to figure out how much time it is going to take for them to get here from whatever country we ordered them from or trying to understand if the value of the potato chip is worth the time spent shipping them. I think potato chips are familiar enough that people are more comfortable trying fried egg potato chips or foie gras potato chips. We currently have a French brand that has fun flavors. It’s a bit like grabbing your bag of Lays but trying something new in that experience. 

Morgan: I do think there has been a great community that has been built up and a lot of people are thinking about those smaller luxuries. We have a seven year old that comes in and picks out a new tin every time he’s here and has for years,and we have people who come in and the first thing they ask is what new potato chips we have in. 

So people get really excited and there is a community of people who come to find what that new thing is, whether it's tinned fish, potato chips, or one of our seasonal dips. 

“I never thought I would spend this much time thinking about potato chips”

Shifting over to running the business, how do you balance work between three co-owners?

Morgan: Thea is the General Manager and on-site person. I am here a couple days a week and cover a lot of the administration like taxes, filings, payroll and insurance. Then Erin is largely in charge of the kitchen and all of our prepared foods. Thea is definitely the lead person as GM and Somm. 

Has that balance shifted as you have added staff?

Morgan: For a long time it has just been the three of us and a couple of folks that have worked in the kitchen since the beginning. We recently shifted from only being open a couple of days a week to being open every day and we have been really lucky to be able to bring people in that are truly wonderful. They share our values and can represent us really well because it is very scary to go from just us to really trying someone else to represent us. We’ve been very fortunate to be able to have a couple of employees where we can actually be open seven days a week without necessarily losing our minds. 

My understanding is that for a retail shop one of the largest expenses is rent so being able to open 7 days a week is a way to make sure you are really using that space. 

Morgan: That’s correct but just to add I also think with a market like ours people anticipate us being open seven days a week. We want people to be able to come in for dinner any night of the week or come grab a sandwich or a bottle of wine and I think it’s nice that we’ve been able to expand to allow for that to happen.

“We want people to be able to come in for dinner any night of the week or come grab a sandwich or a bottle of wine.”

What would you say are the highs and lows of running a shop like Nido day to day?

Thea: The highs and lows of being a part of any community. So one example is the first sweep of everyone getting laid off this year, that was awful. For a month and a half people were in here sobbing. I was happy that people wanted to be present here but I was also seeing family members and friends lose their livelihoods so watching the entire community suffer has been devastating. It’s very emotional. 

I lived in this neighborhood for a decade before we opened Nido and seeing people get deported is traumatizing and seeing people lose their jobs and have to withdraw their kids from school is incredibly difficult. So the emotional toll is definitely the hardest part. It’s hard to balance because there are new faces who don’t necessarily have any concept of what is happening around them and they shouldn't have to bear the brunt of it but the ebb and flow of community in general can be really challenging. 

I want to talk about tariffs a little bit since I think tariffs more acutely impact small and local businesses than some of the larger players. What are you are seeing on your side of the counter?

Thea: I don’t think there is an overarching answer and things shift day by day. For two months out of the year wine importers fully stopped importing and we’ve started seeing markups. I don’t think that anything that is happening is good for the country or people. Wine is already inaccessible and unaffordable for the average person. I have dedicated 15 years of my life to expanding the conversation by taking something that is traditionally seen as elitist and trying to shift the conversation. I want someone who is 21 years old and lives around the corner to be able to learn about wine in an enjoyable way. I think with tariffs that will slowly become distant once again. 

Morgan: As a neighborhood spot it has always been very important to us even though we’re a specialty store to make sure we have value oriented and accessible items. For example, we’ve always had 2 for $20 wines and tried to provide a range of options at different price points. It is rapidly becoming very difficult for us to provide those things at approachable price points that we stand by. One of the great things about the shop is that if it is on the shelf it is something we specifically like and care about.  Having some more affordable options like a $10 bottle of bubbles is something that we care about. 

We are going to try to hold onto that for as long as we can but there might be a time where we can’t. One of our core values is to be neighborhood accessible and make sure there is something for everyone. We want to make sure that people have access to a community space and good wine and food that doesn’t cost a million dollars. 

Right now with tariffs kicking in and some existing inventory we aren’t going to see a steep mountain but there is going to be a gradual increase and we are trying to absorb increasing costs to make sure things stay accessible. 

I know you have work to do but before we go I would love to hear about your wine selection and some of the work you’ve been doing to bring producers on site. I think that is such a special part of Nido!

Thea: For our wine section I try to almost never have anything that is over $100 unless it is quite literally exquisite. Outside of that we narrowed the focus to Mediterranean and then widened that to varietal and UNESCO definitions. We do live in climate change so varietals are shifting and where they are able to be able to be grown is very different and constantly changing. We use it as a way to educate. For example, someone who has never had a Syrah from Alsace would learn that they started planting Syrah about 8 years ago because Alsace has become so hot the Pinot Noir grape was withering on the vine. What someone does with that information afterwords is up to them but it’s important to provide that context. 

We also create opportunities for really fun themes. Someone came in recently and their dinner party theme was the former Austro-Hungarian empire and we were able to built a set of bottles for that. We’ve had people host a Roman Ruins themed dinner party and there’s an Artichoke Party that happens every year. Oftentimes people hosting a dinner party come in want help getting a few bottles of wine that go really well with each other and their meal and I can very much guide people through that. 

We also live in one of the greenest cities in America so people are also grabbing things to go to the Arboreteum or Roosevelt Island and we can make sure we’re helping them find the right bottle for that wether that means a screw top or something that’s a bit lighter and doesn’t need other be chilled. 

That’s amazing and I think really connects to your Friday tastings!

Thea: Exactly. One of the biggest things we do is host a wine tasting every Friday and try and bring in a winemaker to talk about their wine. When I used to work in Michelin starred restaurants they would bring in a winemaker and it would be 50-50 if the winemaker would even get a chance to talk to the staff. More likely than not they would be engaging only at a fancy dinner. One thing I am very proud about is being able to bring in these winemakers who more often than not are actually farmers. We had a winemaker last week, Darik Trowbridge whose winery is 27 years old. He is on the front lines of climate change policy in California and the world. There’s a movie about him that’s fantastic. 

He was here last week and was able to relate to people in the neighborhood and really dive deep into how wine is ultimately an agricultural product of the land. I feel very proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish here to dismantle the idea that it’s elitist or inaccessible. 

We spend as much time as possible making sure we are incorporating the spirit of community and local agriculture into as much as we can do. We are in partnership with two local farms and offer a CSA or even something as small as a bag of parsley. It’s not as if our collard greens are from a random farm that’s 1,000 miles away, it’s from Moon Valley who we have a deep relationship with. 

Morgan: Focusing on wine as an agricultural product is one of the most important things to me since I grew up on a farm as well. When we bring in winemakers there isn’t this elitism that exists around wine where it only gets poured at a fancy dinner. The winemakers are talking about the planet and growing practices and so being able to create a space for that conversation is something we really care about. We hear from winemakers all the time about how much fun they have when they come because they get so many questions from people in the community who really care. The community that has become sort of the Nido family is so amazing and the fact that winemakers from around the world recognize and notice that is something really special. 

I think that’s a great place to end it, thank you both!

Thea & Morgan’s “Best Of” List

• Favorite Restaurant In DC?

  (Morgan) Amparo Fondita - It’s wonderful, like homestyle Mexican food with handground tortillas. Chef Christian does a fantastic job.

  (Thea) Currently between two spots: Moon Rabbit & My Little Chamomile with a special mention for Baan Mae. Chef Seng is amazing and does such a good job of opening up doors for young Asian chefs across the country as well as the broader Lao community. They have a steamed dumpling that has peanuts on the inside that I think about all the time.

• Favorite Place For A Drink?

  (Thea) Reveler’s Hour - I love it. They have single handedly brought back the Julia Child’s martini in DC!

  (Morgan) Golden Age - Great classic cocktails and originals in Dupont Circle. Plus they stay open late which I really like.

• Favorite Thing In The Shop Right Now?

  (Thea) Sumoi Barmei - It’s made by my favorite winemaker, Ignasi Segui. If there was one winery and winemaker I have had the privilege of being able to follow my entire career it is him. His family has been on the same land since the 1400’s and he started this winery around 2007. He farms about 20-30 hectares and is extremely focused on the land. He makes so many expressions of so many grapes. I could drink his wine forever and never be bored. 

  (Morgan) Loew Vineyards Local Honey- It’s really deep and rich and comes with a little dipper. The Magpie And The Tiger Honey Chili Crisp is amazing and it’s a local producer. as well!