ALLENTOWN, PA _ Brothers-in-law Shivang Shelat, 27, and Sanket Mehta, 32, of Bethlehem Township have purchased the Wise Guys Beer Depot, which has two locations: 209 W. Union St. in Allentown and 7560 Beth-Bath Pike in East Allen Township. Jeff Barber of Lehigh Financial Group LLC in Allentown secured the SBA financing for the brothers-in-law to purchase the business which opened in 2011. The brothers-in-laws recently closed on their loan.

The brothers-in-law say they will continue to make beer a priority as well as add items to both stores so that customers can enjoy one-stop shopping. “We plan to add more craft beers, IPAs, imports and domestic beers so that people can have a larger variety to choose from,” Mehta said. They also plan to at least double their slushies offerings, since it’s one of the fast-growing product lines for beer stores.

In addition, they plan to continue offering and adding lottery, cigarette and tobacco products, gaming machines, candy, snacks and more to both stores.

The brothers-in-law own Friendly Food Mart and Birdshack Fried Chicken at 3606 Nazareth Pike in Bethlehem Township. With their customer and food service experience, they had been looking to expand when the beer distributorship became available. “The opportunity came at a perfect time for us even though it has been a bit of challenge with the pandemic and the snowy weather,” Shelat said. “We are excited to grow our customer base and serve them well,” he said. They hope to have the new beer and food offerings in place at Wise Guys by summer, when beer sales are hot.

Husband and wife, Joe and Jodi Toroks, had operated Wise Guys. The Toroks opened the East Allen Township location opened in January 2018.

Barber said, “The brothers-in-law are extremely experienced business operators and will be super successful with the new beer store purchases.”

Lehigh Financial Group, LLC is a leading source of innovative real estate capital solutions and financing options for commercial customers. The company, based in Allentown, serves the Lehigh Valley region by providing capital for businesses and investors locally, regionally and nationwide. For more information on Lehigh Financial Group LLC, please see our website at http://www.lehighfinancialgroup.com.

 

 
Information provided to TVL by Beth Orenstein on behalf of:
Lehigh Financial Group, LLC
122 North 5th Street
Allentown Pa 18102
http://www.lehighfinancialgroup.com/
 
 

 

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