Tom Dugan Makes Space for Monrovia Wine and Cheese Aficionados

Tom Dugan loves meeting new people in his second career at , a job vastly different from his former one.

Dugan spent decades chasing after criminals as a federal agent for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, but now he enjoys making friends with locals who come to share his passion for good wine and delicious cheese. 

The shop, which Dugan co-owns with his wife, Janet, opened in 2006. It carries about 250 wines from California and 60 to 70 cheeses from around the world, as well as gourmet jams and crackers. International wines are available to those who join the wine club. They also offer three different kinds of non-alcoholic wines, dry sodas and iced teas for those who prefer to avoid alcohol. 

When Dugan was growing up, his family moved around a lot because his father was in the FBI. He knew he wanted to be a federal agent, but after graduating from Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, VA, and Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, he choose to work for a different branch of government—the Postal Inspection Service.  

After Dugan transferred to California in 1971 for his job, he and his wife began learning more about wine. On weekends, they would go to wineries on the Central Coast, as well as Napa, Sonoma and Temecula. Closer to home, he and his wife often visited shops like Red Carpet Wines & Spirits and Le Petit Vendome, which had added tasting bars to their stores, on Friday nights. 

“We found ourselves going frequently to one or the other. It became a very social thing,” he said.

The Pasadena resident also enrolled in wine classes taught by Yvonne Rich. Rich, who was once on the cover of Glamour, is a fascinating person who has taught many classes in her home and still attends tasting events, said Dugan.

“A lot of people who are into wine know her,” he said. 

Prior to moving to California, most of Dugan’s experience with wine involved “fruity European wines that didn’t challenge you at all,” which often came in a crockery bottle.

“After the bottle was done, the women would put a candle in it,” he remembered. “I doubt that I ever had a good wine in my life until I came to California."

These days he prefers to drink Pinot Noir made by the Freeman winery in the Russian River Valley. He’s also a big fan of Syrah.

“Kris Curran makes a wonderful one up in the San Ynez Valley,” he said. 

Dugan said his wife is more knowledgeable than he is with regards to cheese, but Jeff Schultz, their cheese manager, introduced him to one that he especially likes: Brillat Savarin.

“It is so close to something that literally melts in your mouth. It’s decadent,” he said.

Dugan wasn't immediately sure he wanted to go into the wine business when he retired from the Postal Inspection Service after 33 years. He took a year to study genealogy and traced back 12 branches of his family, mostly originating from Ireland. In the meantime, he and his wife began discussing what kind of business they could work on together after she retired from her position in hospital administration at Methodist Hospital.

“Nothing really struck both of us until she came to wine and cheese,” he said.  He added that his wife was the one who started crunching numbers and figured out what it would take in seed money.

“She’s the brains in this organization,” he said.

After considering several locations, they decided on their current location on 115 West Foothill, which formerly housed a skateboard shop.
 
“You can’t help but drive through Monrovia on Foothill,” he said. “It was a neat town. We’d started coming out here to go to the movies and going to a few years before that.”

Today, the shop looks drastically different from what they originally encountered. As a skateboard shop, it was rectangular and surrounded by concrete walls. Today, the wooden walls are finished and painted a golden color on one side of the interior, while the other side is dark red, reflecting the colors of cheese and wine.

“It looks exactly the way I designed it. I’m really happy,” Dugan said.
 
However, the shop took longer to open than they had anticipated. They’d expected to be ready in six months, but encountered some design problems. After ten months, they were finally ready to open their doors to the public.

“We didn’t have a grand opening. We just unlocked the doors one Saturday afternoon,” he said.

Dugan said that the first Sunday they were open, two people strolled in by chance while going out for a walk. When one of them expressed surprise that he carried a good bottle of wine that is often difficult to find, Dugan let him take the bottle, telling him that he could pay him back next time he came into the shop. The patron returned a few hours later. “And I think he gave me a bottle of wine,” Dugan said. “We’ve been friends ever since.”

About three months after they opened, they noticed there was a lot of space on the walls, so they decided to fill them by featuring local artists in the section next to the tasting bar.

The art displays change every six weeks, and their wall has displayed the works of a variety of artists whose talents include paintings, sculptures, and photography. Currently they are displaying the works of Marianne and and their photographs of Ireland. Dugan also visits the land of his ancestors whenever he can, and he and his wife have a home about two-and-a-half hours from Dublin.
 
California Wine & Cheese also hosts private parties and dinners in The Cellar Room, which was added to the shop about 6 months ago. The dinners feature four or five courses, including dessert, and each course is paired with a wine. About once a month, they host a wine producer who will come and talk to the patrons about the wines they offer.

“Our whole focus is on people exploring wines and comparing wines and hoping they discover one they’ve never discovered before,” Dugan said.

Dugan enjoys being able to bring people together who share their love of wine. He said that a few years after they had opened, a frequent guest at the shop invited him to a party. Halfway through the party, one of the guests mentioned to Dugan and his wife that everyone attending was from Monrovia, but they’d never known one another until they opened their shop.
 
“Janet and I were going, ‘Oh, wow!’” he said. “It was kind of emotional for a second to think about that. That’s something that makes us feel really good.” 

He said his favorite thing about Monrovia is the community. 

“They’re friendly and they seem to know each other,” he said. “I jokingly refer to it as Mayberry, but in the best sense of the word.”