PEORIA MAGAZINE March 2022

M O M A N D P O P

T he year 2021 was supposed to be the year that Mike Vandy realized his entrepreneurial dream after a couple of decades toiling as an accountant for others. The 45-year-old Bartonville resident had spent the year before doing his homework and writing up a 40-page business model. He was going to make and sell wine for a living – imagine that! – opening his Waters Edge Winery & Bistro in a high-traffic location of walkable, vibrant Peoria Heights. Thirsty customers would flock in to consume it in profitable amounts. He was ready to take the plunge, to pop the cork. “I had looked at every single pro and con, and it all pointed to my happiness,” he recalled recently. Ah, what is it they say about “the best-laid plans of mice and men”? Indeed, Vandy was moving full steam ahead on building his urban winery when March 2020 blew in to deliver a one-two punch that he never could have seen coming: the arrival of a global pandemic, and a POPPING THE CORKS IN PEORIA HEIGHTS Mike Vandy is raising a glass after his perfect storm BY MIKE BAI LEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY RON JOHNSON

AT THE EDGE Waters Edge Winery owner Mike Vandy pours a glass of his popular red.

MARCH 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 35