BOSTON — Lynn native and Boston-based sommelier Charlie Gaeta Jr. is on Boston Common’s Power List of “culinary trailblazers” in New England.
It was a “surprise” to find out he was on the list, he said.
“It’s just really cool to be in the company of a lot of big names on that list,” Gaeta said. “It’s interesting to see your name next to the people that you’ve looked up to for a long time in the industry.”
The list also includes people he has worked for in the past and others he currently works for. One of them is Tiffani Faison, a chef who owns the Boston-based restaurant group Big Heart Hospitality. Gaeta is the sommelier at all six of her restaurants, he said.
But, Gaeta wasn’t always immersed in the world of wine. He first worked in finance, going back and forth between Boston and New York after undergrad.
“[I] became a kind of enamored and enchanted by bars and restaurants and sort of beverage culture, and ended up bussing tables on the weekends when I wasn’t doing my 9-to-5 to sort of see what this whole thing was about, to kind of pull the curtain back a little, and I just got the itch,” Gaeta said.
He started at the very bottom, he said, working as a busser, food runner, and barback.
“I became really obsessed with cocktails and beer, and then wine was really the last thing,” Gaeta said. “But once wine hit, it really hit.”
Once he realized he needed formal education to pursue a career in wine, he decided to attend Boston University Metropolitan College’s Elizabeth Bishop Wine Resource Center.
Now, as a sommelier, he said he curates wine programs and educates the staff. One of the locations you can find Gaeta at a lot is Bubble Bath, a high-end wine bar “right in the heart of downtown [Boston],” he said.
He said Bubble Bath has recently been hosting events that are open to the public. Every Monday night, Bubble Bath throws a party where a guest sommelier comes in, curates a wine list, and then works the bar with Gaeta.
On June 5, Bubble Bath had one of its best event nights yet, he said.
“We had Alyssa DiPasquale, the owner of the Koji Club, Boston’s first sake bar and just named [to the] top 25 bars in the world by Esquire,” Gaeta said.
“We’re really using the beautiful and very special space that is downtown and High Street and Bubble Bath as sort of a vehicle to do some really cool stuff, a lot of fun stuff that we weren’t able to do, obviously, during the pandemic,” Gaeta said.
Besides working in the restaurant scene, Gaeta also has his own wine label called “Gaeta Santa Barbara.”
“This will be the second year that two wines, a rose and a white wine, will be released into not only the Boston Market, but a handful of other markets around the country,” Gaeta said.
Right now, he is working on promoting the releases of those wines, as well as a red wine release in the fall.
Being rewarded for his work by being on the list only makes him want to work harder, he said.
“It’s a cool accomplishment, but definitely something that I hope will just motivate me personally and professionally a little bit more,” Gaeta said.
And if you are looking for a wine to pop open this summer, Gaeta recommended a white wine that is “crisp, clean, and refreshing.”