That is the problem!
You have it so good
This. It’s not just about the wine. Yes it’s important, but increasingly so is the beer list, the mocktail list, the spirit list and the cocktail list.
And for those wondering the best percentage is the Mocktails.
Not the soda list?
No I am afraid not, soda (soft drink in our language) not the margin that it used to be, unless you are a McDonalds.
Fastest growing category is Mocktails too!
IMO, it’s always about the people. You need leadership so that everyone understands the business has to succeed for them to succeed, but that they have full support of the business in doing so. And then you need people that people want to come back and see. Yes, the food, wine, beer, mocktails, etc. need to be good. But thatma the ante to get in. After that it’s, as the kids say, the rizz.
1 Like
Fabulous post. Seriously good stuff.
1 Like
Means a lot - thank you !
One thing I failed to mention upstream about our dinner at Jupiter in December. Several days later, Annie Shi emailed to ask how we liked our dinner, the wine, which she mentioned by name, and the service (including wine service). She invited me to a wine thing at the restaurant. I appreciate the followup and personal approach.
4 Likes
that’s a great story. and it doesn’t surprise me that much. i’m shocked that operators don’t email guests. it costs nothing and takes a few minutes. pull the 3 or 4 interesting checks from the night before - not only the biggest - and email a thanks. it would hit so hard and engender so much good will. and it’s free.
2 Likes
We weren’t the most interesting table in the restaurant, by a lot. That would most likely have been John Legend and Chrissy Teigen’s table.
yes, i recommended it to her as well. funny you were there the same night. you could have both bragged about me to each other.
Are you saying sommeliers have nothing to do with pricing? Or choosing easy to find wines over rarer examples?
1 Like
more a visceral reaction to the notion that someone could be insulted by the price of something they’re not obligated to purchase (“tired”). and how that has nothing whatsoever to the subject of the article (“irrelevant”).
but clearly this thread evolved (devolved?) into anything and everything remotely related to wine and restaurants, which i suppose is to be expected.
as to sommeliers and pricing, sometimes they can control it, sometimes they can’t, or aren’t allowed to.
2 Likes
Don’t even get me started on this! This is a major restaurant and wine world problem. I was definitely the largest buyer of German wine by a long shot from at least three stores I can think of over the last few years. When the German buyer left I never heard from them again. How moronic is this!
Didn’t just happen to you, though my issue was more related to the regional distributor who started ignoring my favorite brick & mortar store. We would put in the DI orders and never…hear…back.
Our distribution system is certainly a mess, especially for imports. Several years ago, I was visiting a Barolo producer whose main wine sold for $39 in Italy and most of Europe. He had just returned from the US where it was selling for $85 on the retail shelves. His U.S. importers were trying to get him below $20/btl to them. Fact was Chinese importers were begging for all they could get and never blinked at his prices. He was cutting his US allocation in half and sending more to China. The distributors and liquor stores didn’t have a clue. They thought they had it on order, but couldn’t get it. The lazy importers were just moving their allocations locally because it was easy.
A lot goes on in the industry including wildfires, floods, poor production, and poor vintages where the growers sell most of their grapes off for plonk wines. The reps itb aren’t always so honest on disclosing the facts.
If you could really get 100% of brand value for free just by selling a brand’s packaged good then wine retail would be AN INCREDIBLY LUCRATIVE BUSINESS instead of the low-margin business it is. In reality of course it is LVMH that gets its brand value by the prices it can charge to anyone (retail customer, merchant, restaurant) who buys its product. The restaurant markup is determined by how much people want to drink Dom Perignon in that particular restaurant and therefore by the atmosphere, cuisine, experience etc. offered by that particular restaurant. So the restaurant is not in the packaged goods business but the restaurant business, and that’s OK because the packaged goods business is one of the few industries that might offer an even lower margin than the restaurant business.
i’m not sure what point you’re trying to make, but you’ve confused the ease with which you can sell something with the margin from that sale. they are two completely different things.