Anyone who has worked successful restaurants in different places—on the East Coast, the West Coast, or anywhere in between—will tell you the same: Each market is different, but in many ways the same. Wine lovers, at least in America, respond to pretty much the same things, no matter where they are.
Six rules of thumb will always keep you on the straight and narrow, wherever your restaurant may be:
1. What’s the point of price gouging? A lot of sommeliers assume that when you brutally mark up a popular wine—say, 25% cost (i.e., four times) as opposed to your usual 33% to 36% (about three times)—you’re doing yourself a favor by discouraging guests stuck on name brands, and encouraging them to look at alternatives. No, you’re not. Guests aren’t stupid. They’ll shell out for wines they know but will always remember that you made them pay, say, $75 for a wine that competitors are selling for $50. All you’re doing is making yourself look stupid and probably losing business for your restaurant.
2. Sheer volume never makes up for higher costs. It is possible to stimulate sales by selling wine at lower markups, but just slightly. Unless you can achieve crazy success, like a consistent doubling of dollar sales, lower prices rarely make up for profits lost by reduced markups. Besides, price is just one of many reasons why guests order wines. They’re attracted to comfort labels, but are also compelled by well-reasoned, enthusiastic staff recommendations. They respond to promotions and are open to new wines highlighted in food contexts. They love the idea of smaller glass portions in flights of two to four wines, and hate meager portions in one-wine orders. Above all, they are motivated by quality—if a wine is truly good, they’ll keep buying it regardless of price or name recognition, and they’ll love you for it.
3. It is not good to upsell. As self-evident as this concept may seem, the objective of every successful restaurant is to wow guests, not to get them to spend as much as possible. Never take your staff’s eyes off the ball by exhorting them to do otherwise. If anything, check building can hurt you. Do the math: Would you rather your guests pay $100 and feel a need to come back next week and dozens of times thereafter; or $500 or $1,000 and have them never return and just look back upon their visit as a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Logically, the ideal is roomfuls of return guests, not sparse crowds of guests you'll never see again.
4. Don’t be a snob. The sommelier trade has a bad enough reputation as it is for focusing exclusively on “somm wines”—esoteric selections that do not appeal to the common palate. Many guests, for instance, still prefer a soft, fruity wine like White Zinfandel, but selections of bone dry, sharply acidic German Riesling or Savennières sec won’t do it for them. The logical thing is lightly sweet Vouvray demi-sec, or German Kabinett or Spätlese, which obviously can be as glorious as any wines yet are as fruity and easy to appreciate as any White Zinfandel (actually, more). Can’t stand typical California Chardonnay? Join the club; but there are still lots of California producers crafting sleek, innovative or terroir-driven Chardonnays chill enough to melt the coldest sommelier’s heart. The object is to steer guests gently, and more cleverly, towards where you want them to go. You need to compete with a unique, interesting wine program, but not at the expense of alienating possible guests for life by making no effort to appeal to their basic taste preferences.
5. A “great wine list” does not necessarily equal a “great restaurant.” This is not to say that a crafty, comprehensive or award-winning wine list is useless. Only that it does not automatically correspond to incredible guest experiences, which is what actually generates return business. A celebrated chef, for instance, does not need to offer a thousand dishes, just a few exquisite ones. The same for overstuffed wine lists, which might impress guests, but ultimately have nothing to do with their actual sensory experience of any wine. A big, fat, bulky wine list, in fact, only prevents you from being flexible—being able to adjust your selections according to seasons, the time of day, special dishes, or even your latest whims or unexpected discoveries. Don’t let an ungainly, costly wine program, compiled to achieve “greatness,” drag you or your business down. Which brings us to our final rule....
6. Wine is a condiment, not the main event. Let’s get real: Wine is rarely better than the fourth, fifth or sixth reason why guests return. Most return business is garnered by outstanding service, fantastic food, favorable location, not to mention factors such as perceived value or atmosphere. That’s why restaurants exist—so people can eat and be served with a reasonable degree of convenience, emotional fulfillment, a sense of comfort and a little bit of adventure. Which is why it only makes sense that the best wine programs are those with built-in affinities, consisting of wines chosen to fit with whatever restaurants have to offer as a whole, not to satisfy a wine program manager's ego or to impress other sommeliers.
Long ago Danny Meyer said that identifying one of his places as a “wine restaurant” is like calling Yankee Stadium a “mustard ballpark.” It is possible to be sneaky by choosing wines that do an incredible job of amplifying the experience. But in the best restaurants, wines serve to complement the main event, not to detract from it.