Chicotsky’s Liquor and Fine Wine
From the left are brothers Robert and Mark Chicotsky, former co-owners of the 90-year-old Chicotsky’s Liquor & Fine Wine store located in the Cultural District of Fort Worth.
Since the early 1930s, Chicotsky’s Liquor & Fine Wine has been one of Fort Worth’s longest running family-owned businesses. Over the years, this 90-year-old Fort Worth institution has been overseen by three generations of Chicotsky-related family members, which started with the company’s founder Morris J. Chicotsky. However, come this weekend, Chicotsky’s Liquor & Wine will no longer be emblazoned over the door. Instead, a new name will appear over the hallowed entrance as The Hotspot, a Houston-based company that has a similar store in the city of Katy, Texas.
“This week has been bittersweet for us,” co-owner Robert Chicotsky says with a sad tone. “I'm going to miss seeing the wonderful people that shop with us, but on the other hand, I'm looking forward to semi-retiring as well.”
Robert and his brother Mark, both grandsons of founder M.J. Chicotsky, took over the family business in 1986. Since then, the sibling co-owners have done their best to continue in their grandfather’s footsteps, which are some hard shoes to fill, according to Robert. In fact, before there was ever a Chicotsky’s Liquor Store, M.J. started out as a grocery store owner, eventually opening the Chicotsky Shopping Center in 1950.
Chicotsky’s Liquor & Fine Wine
Chicotsky’s Liquor & Fine Wine founder Morris J. Chicotsky.
But M.J.’s legend goes beyond the business realm. His story is one almost any immigrant can relate to. Originally from a town near Krakow in Poland, M.J. found his way to the U.S. after serving in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He immigrated to Texas during the Galveston Movement, eventually moving to Corsicana and then Fort Worth. Before opening his first storefront, M.J. would make a name for himself as a grocer and butcher peddling goods from a pushcart.
He opened a kosher market in 1923 between Eighth Street and Houston Street. Ten years later, M.J. established a new grocery store that also had a dedicated space for wine and spirits for the new market that opened up after Prohibition.
In 1951, the mayor came out to cut the ribbon on the Chicotsky Shopping Center on West Seventh. The construction was a project of M.J.’s son, Dave Chicotsky and his son-in-law, Louis Sandler, who were partners in the grocery business.
By then, M.J.’s son-in-law, Mike Korman, had taken over the liquor store business along with his son Hank. They owned the business until the Chicotsky brothers bought it outright in 1986. Since then, the Chicotsky brothers gained a reputation for offering great customer service and taking on the personas as the “Booze Brothers” for a series of adds that promoted the liquor store. The promotion was a takeoff of the characters John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd played in the movie “Blues Brothers.”
The names stuck. To this day, they are readily called that.
“We’re grateful to Fort Worth for letting us be their Booze Brothers,” Robert says. “We look forward to the golden years ahead, embracing each day with the same spirit and love that our customers have shown us throughout the years. Fort Worth raised us, inspired us … and our customers, our dear friends, allowed us to serve them — it's been our life's greatest honor.”
