Not everything has to be bigger in Texas — some things work best just the way they are.

Sean Smajstrla, the owner of Texas’ longest consecutively running wine bar, could gut the 30-year old space and make it all chrome if he wanted, he said. But why would he?

“Don’t mistake yourself by going, ‘Bigger is better,’” Smajstrla said. “Bigger, better, faster, shinier, newer is not always the right direction. You can always clean it up. You can always make it nice. You can always make it better, but don’t lose the charm of what it was.”

The door to Lincoln Street Wine & Cigar Bar, one block off Fredericksburg’s Main Street, swung open for its first day of business on March 13, 1996, under the ownership of Smajstrla’s brother, Todd. Todd Smajstrla and his then-wife ran the business for five years before selling it to a businessman from Dallas. A few years later, Todd’s brother Sean entered the scene on a sweat-equity deal, assuming full ownership a yearand- a-half later, Sean said.

In the early ’90s, Todd Smajstrla frequently travelled to California’s upand- coming Napa Valley, he said. The quaint, family owned wine shops that dotted the hillsides inspired him. Todd hoped to bring the “cool” of these shops to Fredericksburg, he said, in the style of an Italian enoteca — an intimate neighborhood wine library.

Friends and Fredericksburg locals told Todd no. They didn’t want a market, he said, they wanted somewhere to sit and drink. Todd obliged and threw them a little something extra. Not only could guests enjoy wine at the shop, but any and every bottle of wine would be available by-the-glass, without exception.

“Here I am, [trying] to get people in Fredericksburg to try wines that they’ve never had before, and to try to build the wine culture here,” Todd said. “I mean, I can’t do it by the bottle, it needs to be done by the glass.”

Sean said he and Todd always felt “ticked off” by typical wine list structures. Extensive menus with intriguing options were, and still are, often limited to bottle-only sales, Sean said. The brothers found this inconvenient, particularly when they dined with friends or family who wanted to drink different things.

Todd agreed. Before he moved to Fredericksburg, he said he built an award-winning wine list at Lynn’s Steakhouse in Houston.

“We had 10 wines by the glass,” Todd remembered. “We had 35,000 wines on a wine list and put only about 10 by the glass, and I thought, that’s just not cool, you know?”

Lincoln Street Wine and Cigar bar opened with a portfolio of over 100 wines, Todd said, and an urge to flout the status- quo wine list. According to Sean, the options continue to grow and change today.

Today, Matthew Hamel, the bar’s self-described “certifiable cork dork,” said he refreshes the wine list with an average of eight new wines a week. There is no menu to hold anyone back. Simply find what you like, and if you can’t, consult someone who can — likely Hamel.

For 30 years, even the rarest, priciest gems at Lincoln Street Wine & Cigar Bar have been enjoyed by-the-glass. People are floored when offered a single pour from a $600 bottle, Sean said.

“We’ll open it up and pour you a glass. We’ll do it, every time,” Sean said. “Sometimes you don’t make as much, but then again, there’s always one glass left of that really good wine and everybody gets to try it.”

Maybe the brothers’ peculiar menu structure is what makes the little house on the corner of Lincoln and East San Antonio Street so persistently “cool.” The space is snug but it’s not quite cramped — a typical night at the wine bar sees a queue of friends and strangers trailing from the front door to the weathered counter. Pictures of Todd, Sean, dearly-missed dogs and old friends are taped to fridges and jammed into odd corners. Everyone seems to know everyone at the bar and those who don’t sure do a good job of playing along.

Most of the couches are 30 years old and it shows. Maybe he’ll get some new furniture one of these days, Sean said, but he certainly wouldn’t dream of re-decorating the place without the talented eye of his wife, Kirsten “Tula” Smajstrla, who runs Rathskeller Bistro on Main Street. Mostly, Sean believes in letting a good thing be.

“I still want to be different all the time, but I don’t want to lose that fun and funkiness from the beginning of it, because then it’s not recognizable anymore,” he said. “ I don’t want to lose the cool from when my brother started it 30 years ago.”

Sean isn’t entirely against change. When he first took over the business, he added a large outdoor patio with a chiminea. He extended the food menu and upped the live music offerings, too. When the weather is right tunes ricochet up to Main Street from the bar’s outdoor patio every night of the week.

A seasoned veteran of the hospitality industry, Sean said he stays focused on three core standards, and only ventures to add in new features when the rest of the business’s foundation is solid.

“Always keep your labor, your staffing, your people good and happy,” Sean said. “Your product good. Your pricing fair.”

Both Sean and Todd credited their knack for entrepreneurship to their self-starter parents, Sharon and Rodney Smajstrla.

Todd said that his late father often told him, “If you hit on something that’s working, stay the course.”

Rodney Smajstrla’s wisdom has shaped his sons, and in turn, shaped Fredericksburg. Today Todd owns Elk Store Winery and Distillery. Sean also owns Rathskeller’s Bistro. The brothers both make an effort to preserve the charm and familiarity of their institutions.

“If you’re trendy you can be the hottest thing, zero to 60,” Todd said. “You can do the hot thing but you can be yesterday’s news six months later, a year later, whatever. You have to always keep changing with the trends.

“But if you decide to do something classy and iconic, then you just have to execute. And if you execute well, people don’t want you to change. You become an icon of the town.”

Under Sean’s ownership, the icon that is Lincoln Street Cigar and Wine bar is safe, sound and packed full of enough tannins to age like fine wine.

“Just be exactly what you are, but offer the best in wine, offer the best in service and offer the best in mood,” Sean said. “Be nice to people.”

Lincoln Street Wine & Cigar Bar 111 S. Lincoln St. Fredericksburg facebook.com/lincoln.street.wine