Since April 2016, VineThinking has been a platform for me to share sales ideas with the beverage industry. Some years have been idea-packed, some a bit quiet, but the archive has become something I’m proud of and, based on our website traffic numbers, something that continues to be sought out by others (this was our most Read More…
Category: Restaurants
Marketing, switching, and loyalty
When a wine shop or restaurant tries to reach an audience, most do it wrong because they don’t start with the right questions. The right questions hinge on three terms. Marketing is all about presenting your story and brand to both a new and an established audience without the goal of the sale (which is selling, Read More…
Price tells a story (some customers don’t want cheaper prices)
I was recently involved with organizing some tastings over a couple of evenings for a retailer, putting together wine lists and sale pricing, plus customer handouts, etc. There were two tastings over two nights, with the same wines, for the same type of customers. As organized as I try to be with my spreadsheets, sometimes Read More…
The trap of the in between
It’s easy for a wine shop or a restaurant to be average. Have average products for average people, give average service, and try to compete on price. It’s lazy, but plenty of businesses out there survive with this premise. I also think it’s easy to be genuinely exceptional. To have fantastic wines for amazing customers, Read More…
What is missing?
Late August is a unique time in the wine sales and retail game. It’s a moment for a pause, a final vacation, a little breath before September rolls in. It’s also a great time to ask what is missing and start to work to fix it before the busy season hits. For a sales rep, Read More…
Today is different than tomorrow (end of a quarter)
Today is the last day of Q1. It’s a much different day than tomorrow, the start of Q2. What do you do today vs. tomorrow as a wine sales rep, restaurant owner/manager, or retailer? Today, you work super hard. You push for the final sprint ahead of the finish line. You make that extra sales Read More…
Know your history (and that things change)
The history of wine trends, facts, and fads is always good to keep in mind, mainly to recognize that some trends grow roots and stick, white others blow away with the wind. The sands shift with the tides. For those relatively new to the wine business (be it wholesale, restaurant, or retail) here are some Read More…
Your Wine Onboarding
When your organization hires a new employee, they have obviously been vetted a bit and know something about wine. But where they fall on that spectrum varies for each hire. So does your company: Sit down with them, taste through a bunch of wines, get some input from them, learn how they describe the wines Read More…
Selling Wine vs. Taking An Order
You sell wine when you guide the process, when you frame choices for the customer, and when you present options (paths) that lead to the company’s (and your) ultimate goals. You are an order taker when the customer is the guide, when the customer frames the choices, and when the customer presents the paths that Read More…
More is not better (focus on focus)
A wine by the glass list that is 90 items long is confounding for the customer (and impossible to train a service staff on, much less preserve the quality in the bottle). A Chardonnay section in a wine shop that has three times as many wines as the other sections is obviously trying to appeal Read More…
A super simple restaurant wine training hack
The upended labor market due to the pandemic is making for stressful times to be a restaurant owner. Trying to find qualified labor, good and communicative people to work the front of the house, is more difficult than ever. This leads to hiring people that might not have been hired before, with less knowledge and Read More…
Calm waters and making waves
Swimming in the calm waters is easy. It’s fun. It’s what everyone wants to do. Swimming in the waves is harder, it’s challenging. It’s demanding. It’s not what everyone seeks out. It takes a special type of person to seek out the waves. And then there are the wave creators. The ones that make the Read More…
Free is never free
Freebies abound in the liquor industry. Look at the umbrellas on the patios, the credit card embossed checkout books, the logos on the beer mugs. And behind the scenes, free cases are delivered to retailers. Free menu printing, or covering the costs for someone else to do it, is a regular offer for restaurants. And Read More…
Wine Inventory as Wine Marketing
Inventory is one of the most mis-understood aspects of the wine world. A wholesaler that commits ten percent of their annual revenue to a single purchase of five thousand cases of Hungarian Viognier is going to run into an inventory problem. A restaurant owner who has a wine buyer that overbuys on Barolo and ties Read More…
When things go wrong
In the relationship between a wholesaler and a retailer or restaurant, things will go wrong. It’s just a matter of time. A forgotten invoice. A screwed up delivery. A change of vintage from the 95 point wine everyone wants to the new vintage, which is only 85 points. Or something bigger. A shift in the Read More…
A very special case: having the whole wine list
To own the entire wine list at a restaurant, wether it’s a coffee café that happens to pour a couple of house wines at night, or the hot new restaurant with the hot new chef that is packed every evening, is a very particular situation that deserves a different playbook. A few thoughts: You’re a Read More…
You’ve made the choice
If you’re a wine retailer, you’ve made the choice to not have Memorial Day or Labor Day off. You made the choice to work weekends. You’ve made the choice to be in one spot, waiting for customers to come to you. You made the choice to know that every New Year’s Eve, the day before Read More…
Wine and Bagless Vacuum Cleaners
Bagless vaccum cleaners don’t perform their job as well as the old-school cleaner with a bag that you toss out when full. This has been proven time and time again and is the advice you hear if you go to a good vacuum cleaner repair shop and ask. But for most people that buy bagless vacuum Read More…
Ideas (for restaurants)
Have a restaurant that wants to move more wine, or attract more of the serious wine crowd? Here are some ideas. Half price wine night – Can be a weekly event for one month, or keep it going all year long. Pick the slowest wine night of the week and do 50% off all bottles. Read More…
Thanksgiving week empathy
This is a tricky week for the wine sales rep. Retailers are busy. Too busy for sales calls. But they may need the emergency will call. Displays have to be stocked and looking good. It’s the classic situation of “you can’t sell it if you don’t got it.” Restaurants are historically a bit slow (but Read More…
Buying motivations
A critical question when selling wine to restaurants and retailers is this: who is really making the decisions? The wine buyer might be making 100% of the choices. But usually not. An invisible hand exists in all business, and the motivations of the owner is often a controlling force within an organization. Sometimes for better, sometimes Read More…
The irony of competition
There is a grand irony in the wine business. First, the more wholesalers there are, the better it is for retailers and restaurants. It makes for competition, it makes for more choice, it makes for opportunity to buy wines that nobody else has, it allows for a retailer or restaurant to stand out easier. Second, Read More…
Broken locks
Embarrassing story, but a good lesson to be learned. I was recently at a restaurant. Not just any restaurant, but a well reviewed chef-driven hard to get into place of the moment kinda restaurant. I went to the restroom. Had to go. Happens to everybody. It was a small one room restroom with a crappy lock Read More…
A short guide to a great (quick) staff training
You’re a wine sales rep and you sell wine to a restaurant. You ask the manager if you can come in for a pre-shift wine training. They say sure, swing by at 4:15 on Friday when all the servers are here but we’re not yet busy. Oh, and you’ll only have ten minutes. The irony Read More…
Trust
Trust can’t be measured, so as a result it’s rarely discussed in a performance or account review. There are few numbers we can attach to these questions. Therefore, because these are unquantifiable, they have become some of the most unspoken points within our industry. When you really think about it, isn’t this what it’s all about? Read More…
Opening new accounts – the first touch
Opening new accounts is the lifeblood of the wine wholesale business. If you’re not opening new accounts on a regular basis you are beholden to the slicing up of the market by competitors. New business is the only way to stay ahead of that curve. A simple prospecting tool is, of course, email. Make a form Read More…
The shotgun and the arrow
Two different wine sales reps, from two different companies, with two different ways of presenting wines and ideas to the same restaurant buyer looking for a new Cotes du Rhone by the glass. Sales rep 1: “Thanks for the time today. So I brought five Cotes du Rhone at a range of prices. All are Read More…
Natural Wines, Something Different, and Group Categorization
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the ‘natural wines’ movement lately (highly recommended is Isabelle Legeron’s new book). Not so much about how they taste or if they are good. I’m more interested in the marketing of the wines and the creation of the category. Those of you that have been in the business Read More…
Happy (Wine) Independence Day!
Happy Independence Day to all! There are a few readers of this blog that are outside of the United States, so here’s the short version of why July 4th matters in America: this is the day we celebrate the spirit of our country, the founding fathers and what they believed in, the standards by which freedom Read More…
The Power of Wine Maps
In our business we are lucky because we get to talk about places. Places have history, places have stories, places have culture, and places have identity. And by using a map in your trainings, seminars, sales pitches, and presentations you bring forward the sense of place. Some hints and tips: Purchase and download the iPad Read More…
Give them what they want and they’ll get what they expect
It’s supposed to make so much sense: just give the customers what they want. Of course it’s not that simple. Let’s break down what all customers seem to want, what all customers do want, and what all customers really want. A few no-brainers that customers say they always want: Lower prices … the number one answer Read More…
A simple wine by the glass formula
Designing a wine by the glass list does not have to be rocket science and it does not need to be frustrating. Here is a straightforward formula and a few tips to make sure you cover all the bases. The Formula for a good by the glass list 50% or more of the wine list Read More…
The slow build to the big payoff
It’s February, so here’s a little challenge for everybody: What wine or wines can you place in a shop, or on a list, in front of customers right now, which you might hope to sell two bottles a week? Maybe three on a good week. Not a big seller. Nothing that will set the spreadsheet on fire. Read More…
Four tips for a perfect wine staff training
A staff training, getting in front of the people that will actually enact and conduct the transaction that leads to larger sales of your product, is an incredible opportunity. It’s an opportunity to instill confidence and excitement, and also an opportunity to screw up royally. Here are four tips for a perfect staff training. Announce Read More…
Find the customers that embrace the New and Unknown
If you do what you did yesterday, you’re doing okay, right? If you buy the brands you have found and like, and they do their job, you’re okay, right? Most people are satisfied with most things, and this applies to wine. Most people buy what they know and are comfortable with. Most people want things Read More…
We are all salespeople
Servers at restaurants are salespeople. Hosts who answer phones and take reservations and greet customers and say goodnight to them are salespeople. Bartenders are salespeople. Retailers that put wine the hands of a customer and earn their trust are salespeople. The ones that ring up the order at a wine shop are salespeople. The delivery crew at Read More…
Success, and the people around you
Congratulations, you are a successful restaurant owner/operator (or artist, or musician, or sales rep, or wine retailer)! You watch your P&L statements like a hawk. You pay your employees fairly and on time. Your vendors appreciate their relationship with you for the same reason. You open multiple locations, each building more success for the other. Read More…
The Reactive Rut
I had a great conversation last night with a local wine retailer. Her shop is small, based on convenience for the neighborhood, and with more and more competition moving in she’s having a hard time standing out and growing her business. The backbone of her business is reacting to the needs of her customers on Read More…
Your emergency kit is empowerment
What happens when … … your delivery driver drops the wrong case of wine at the wrong account? A case of wine very important to an event that evening. … one of your servers spills wine all over an impeccably dressed guest out for a night on the town with her friends? … the very Read More…
Sharing vision
Sharing vision is one of the most important aspects of any of our wine jobs. It shapes the meetings, sets the stage, outlines the expectations, and points out the differentiations between you and rest of the world (otherwise known as “them”). To share a vision you first have to have a vision. A vision is different Read More…
The trouble with robots
Robots are kind of awesome and fascinating. They work fast, they work hard, they don’t complain, they are masters of efficiency. The problem with robots is that they do or say the same things over and over (and over and over and over and over). What many people fail to realize is that being a Read More…
The goal of inducing curiosity (via a Coravin)
It’s one of the most effective but overlooked sales techniques. It’s the key to success for many legendary brands, but can easily be replicated into our industries. It’s curiosity. One of my wine consulting contracts is for a successful privately held restaurant group. Three locations, over $1 million in wine sales. They specialize in burgers (really Read More…
The power of loss over the power of gain (Loss Aversion)
If you’re traveling and looking for a place to eat, where do you turn for advice? Many of us whip out the phone and look at Yelp. And when we look at Yelp, and as scroll through the reviews, what jumps out? It’s not the four and five star reviews, because there are so many Read More…
A day of planning, a day of pause
Welcome to Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is always a strange one. Shoppers pack the stores, movie theaters are busy, many restaurants open early to catch the breakfast and brunch crowd, quite a few people simply stay at home and eat leftovers and watch TV. Wine shops are busy but not overrun (nothing compared Read More…
A great use for Thanksgiving Eve
What are you doing today? If you are a wine sales rep or a wholesale manager, here’s a little secret: today is one of the best days of the year to visit unsold or unopened restaurant accounts. Why? Because today the retailers are so busy they don’t want to see you. And your solid on-premise Read More…
The problem with choices …
… is that most people second guess their decision. When faced with a huge number of choices in front of them, most people will fret and fuss and debate and contemplate until the frustration leads to simply grabbing something that they hope will work and going for it. It’s the video store syndrome. Remember those Read More…
Practice does make perfect
There is no short cut around practice. Simple as that. Does U2 just jump up on stage one day and pull off a perfect show? No way. Does an olympic swimmer casually decide to just swim really fast for that week? Of course not. Does a great restaurant built on customer experience just assume the new Read More…
Monday challenge: The Supermoon Effect
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers. Something to push you into an uncomfortable spot, to make you see things in a new light or direction, with the goal of growth. This week’s challenge: The Supermoon Effect. Last night more people than ever before paused what they were doing, walked outside, and watched Read More…
A new haircut
Yesterday my wife went to a new hair stylist for a haircut. She was tired of her old stylist for no reason other than “it’s time to change things up.” She came back with not only an awesome haircut, but an exceptional story about customer sales and the overall transaction. When most of us go for Read More…
Perceived value through having options
I’m writing this from a large, nice, off the beaten path privately owned hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s a good, clean, practical building with very nice people working the front desk. A large free parking lot. Gentle hum of I-90 out the windows. Hot water is hot, cold water is cold, coffee is good, and free Read More…
A simple buying strategy for smaller restaurants and wine retailers
Smaller restaurants and smaller wine retailers start off at a competitive disadvantage compared to their larger competitors. They don’t have the buying power, name recognition, attention, press, coverage, and influence of their bigger cousins. But that’s only if you look at the dollars, and especially if you look at the dollars of value per vendor. Read More…
Monday Challenge: 60 day sprint ahead, be ready!
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers. Something to keep everybody on the right track toward accomplishing the right goals and moving your wine career forward. This week: the 60 day sprint and how to be ready for it. ### Welcome to October 31st and happiest of Halloweens! A favorite holiday around our Read More…
The power of thinking you have control
Walk in to an elevator, press the button for the floor you want to go to, and nothing happens. What do you do next? If you’re like most people, you press the door close button. Sometimes it works but with a delay, sometimes it closes right away, and sometimes you have to hit it twice Read More…
Hiring Great Wine People
How do you hire the top performers for your wholesale operation, restaurant, or retail shop? How do you find the wine energized people out there, the ones that can do their job extremely well without thinking the wine world revolves around them? (Which is a monumental problem in the wine business.) How do you, as Read More…
The Little Things
… the way the server picked the dirty knife off your plate, set it down, and took the plate away instead of just giving you a new knife. … the way the manager was being mean to the bartender. … the way the sales rep that just walked in interrupted your meeting “just for a second.” Read More…
Considering Portugal: Encruzado
I just returned from leading a small group through Portugal, via our little side-business travel company, The Flying Grape. You can catch photos via The Flying Grape Facebook page (website coming soon). When thinking about new and shiny, and categories of wines that your competition does not have, Portugal should come to mind first. There is Read More…
Simple ideas for better restaurant wine service
It seems every restaurant’s wine service can be easily improved. With so much attention being paid to craft cocktails today, let’s take some of that energy and attention to detail and apply it to the wine program. Here’s a smattering of ideas that any restaurant or wine bar can use: Have all wines by the Read More…
Monday challenge: Breaking from the normal
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to the readers, something to give a concentrated nudge in a certain direction. This week: breaking from the normal. The normal is a staff training where you hold up a bottle and talk about it. The normal is the parade of sales reps waiting in line at the Read More…
Connect your wine to something bigger and greater
Of course you think the wine you’re selling tastes better than the competition. And guess what? That doesn’t really matter. Playing the game of “mine is better than that” is a fool’s game because the rules can change constantly (via personal opinions). Would you throw money on the table in Vegas if the rules constantly changed based Read More…
The easiest, fastest, and most effective restaurant staff wine training ever
Training the staff at a restaurant can be a lesson in frustration. First off, it’s like hearding cats, trying to get everybody organized. Then, if the sales rep is doing the any of wrong things, it will go overtime and the attendees will be bored or antsy. Want to do the easiest, fastest, and most Read More…
Monday Challenge: TMI
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to the readers. Something to think about during the week of wine work. This week: become conscious of TMI, too much information. Over-explaining and over-detailing a wine is all too common. I see it all the time when reps are trying to train the servers at a restaurant, and Read More…
Polo, Sailboats, and Top Level Wine
Briefly think about these three worlds: professional polo, recreational sailboat racing, and the upper crust of the wine world (I’m talking Grand Cru Burgundy, first growth Bordeaux, Cult California Cabernets). What do they have in common? They have a tiny audience. I’m not just talking about a small audience. This is not the 1%. This is Read More…
Happy Labor Day 2016 … on your mark, get set …
We’ve reached the end of another summer and the SOND selling season is just about to kick off. Over half of the wine sold in the United States is sold in the upcoming four months. A couple of weeks ago I urged you to take your foot off the gas. Now it’s time to do Read More…
And what if the wine sucks?
If you’re in the position of wine sales (which does not just mean wholesale or winery level, but also restaurant and retail … anywhere in the chain of movement toward the end consumer), how do you handle the wine that truly sucks? I’m not talking about a single bottle that is chemically flawed. I’m talking Read More…
Wine Markup, Margin, and Profit
The benefit to learning even the slightest amount about finances and bookkeeping is that is puts you far ahead of the average person in the wine business. The two terms that are used incorrectly most often are markup and margin. I’ve heard them used interchangeably by sales reps, and I’ve heard them mixed up by people Read More…
Why do you buy a new wine?
This one goes out to the buyers at restaurants and retailers everywhere. It’s a simple question with far reaching implications, and one that I want you to think very carefully about. Why do you buy a new wine? The quick and cheap answer is “because it’s good” which means nothing because everybody’s definition of good Read More…
Getting comfortable
In the world of selling wine it’s easy to get comfortable. VERY comfortable. The restaurant that buys most or all of their wines from you doesn’t need to focused on very much. Just kept happy. The big brands that are popular with the public don’t need to be popped for in store tastings. Just merchandised. Read More…
Monday Challenge: Multiply the success you already have
Every Monday I throw out a challenge, something that can be done relatively quickly but have dramatic effect. This week: sharpen your pencils and pull out the spreadsheets … time to multiply success by choosing the right category and the right customers to focus on. The process is simple, and rooted in the idea that Read More…
Fewer choices make for greater sales
Sheena Lyenar’s 2009 book The Art of Choosing is a must read for anybody in the wine business. Her research focuses on the intersection of science and emotion when it comes to decision making. The “Jam Study” is a key part of her research. During this experiment, tables were set up at a busy premium Read More…
How to kick ass with a quick, simple, and effective staff wine training
Learning how to lead an effective staff training is one of the superpowers every wine rep needs to learn. It’s key to be able to convey the right information, not get bogged down in what doesn’t need be discussed, and achieve the goals that lead to higher sales of your wines. Amazingly, more reps screw it Read More…
Effective staff training: What servers don’t need to know
If you’re training the service staff at a restaurant on your wines, it’s just as important to figure out what they DON’T need to know as what they DO need to know. The amount of information a server needs to know on an average night is pretty daunting and changes constantly. What is out of Read More…
Do you really want the main stage?
Here’s a fabulous story from Moby’s new autobiography Porcelain, talking about playing Lalapalooza in 1995. Lalapalooza in those days ran two stages, with the primary and bigger acts on Stage One and a handful of relative unknowns on Stage Two. Moby was booked for the second stage, which “had made me feel like a techno Read More…
Who is your real competition?
For restaurants, is it any other place that serves food for money? Or is it places that serve food similar to yours and charge the same or less? Or more? For retailers, is it any other store that sells alcoholic beverages? Or is it other stores of similar size and reach and impact? Or is Read More…
How to conquer Impossible!, How?, and Yeah … Right
It is entirely within the realm of possibility to double your business in the next 12 to 24 months. Honestly. There is a scary side, however, and this scary side brings up excuses and prevents most people from ever thinking they can do this. For wine retailers, the first excuse usually comes down to physical Read More…
Welcome to the last half of July
We are entering the deepest part of summer: the six week stretch ahead of SOND (September, October, November, and December … which is traditionally when half of the total wine sales happen in the United States). That means two things: Time to start planning. Get out the calendar. Halloween, the presidential election, Thanksgiving, holiday shopping, Read More…
Needs and Wants
There are things your customers need to know. There are other things they want to know. And there is a fundamental difference. NEEDS For a restaurant, your customer needs to know when you’re open and closed. They need to know how to get there, and if there is any construction in the way. They need to know Read More…
Measuring Sticks and Managers
Managers are good at managing people, which is very different from leading people. “Management” is a term that goes back to the early part of the industrial revolution when factories and assembly lines proved incredibly profitable if the system was managed correctly. The measuring stick for the factory production of that time was not the Read More…
Wine Motivations
Wine buyers (retailer and restaurants) purchase wine for a kaleidoscope of reasons. There’s a deal It tastes great It’s popular nationally It’s not popular nationally It has limited availability The label is awesome They are doing you a favor Their boss told them to. They’ve liked it in the past They’ve never heard of it Then Read More…
Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Every once in a while a site comes along that provides so much pure information and advice that you simply can’t ignore it. One such site for me is Barking Up the Wrong Tree, run by Eric Barker. Join Eric’s newsletter list and absorb his findings into your job. All of his findings are based on Read More…
Happy July 4th, and a Marketing Plan
Happy July 4th to everybody. America’s holiday. Fireworks, grilling, and good times for all. So let’s make use of it. Lesson Part 1: If you need photography for your blog, Facebook posts, tweets, etc. you have an amazing and legal archive at your fingertips within the Flickr Creative Commons. Here’s what you do: Go to Read More…
The risk of being comfortable
Your business is going well. Not great, but humming along. You do the same thing every week, the same good customers show up, they buy the same types of wines. Life is good and predictable and comfortable. Watch out. There is always somebody around the corner. A new wine shop getting some press. The hot Read More…
A July 2016 wine challenge
Think of your network in your wine world. Think of the people that are either relatively new to it, or so constantly enthused about wine that they still have that buzz of excitement whenever you pour something for them. The people that know enough to know they love it but don’t know enough to get Read More…
The weakest wine
Yesterday I wrote about choices, and about being the person to stand up and be remarkable and make a fuss when things aren’t quite right. There was some chatter on the social channels afterwards about the post, and I want to riff a bit about one line in particular, coming from my examples of situations: Read More…
There’s always a choice
“But I have to …” is the core message I hear from many in the wine industry when they are privately complaining about their job. It might not be those exact words, but the essence is that there is no choice for them in the matter. Three examples: The wholesale rep who has to do Read More…
What the customer needs
Your customer needs new ideas, fresh thoughts, new information, and a sense of confidence from you. In other words, new challenges. A server at a restaurant should be able to explain a strange ingredient on the menu, or talk for at least a few seconds about the Godello vs. the Garganega. A wine retailer should Read More…
“They’ll do you right”
As a wholesaler, it’s often best to not have a monopoly on a wine list. Majority, yes. Monopoly, no. There is a draw that the owner/buyer at the restaurant will feel toward to question of “I wonder what working with other companies is like?” There is no magic number, for it’s based on the size Read More…
Monday Assignment: Thank you
Starting today, every Monday morning will be the “Monday Assignment” … a gentle kick in the butt in a certain direction to achieve a certain goal. This week: say thank you. Not to everybody, and not to the obvious. I’m aiming at the middle, the ones that don’t hear it often from anybody, including you. Read More…
Sometimes there is no good reason
A major point of frustration for many wholesale wine reps is when they see a competitor’s (usually declared inferior) product get a prime spot in a wine shop, or a new by the glass slot at the restaurant they have been working on for months. Why did that wine get in? Often there is a great Read More…
How to …
How to get into an unsold account: Show up. Ask questions. Network. Show up. Ask questions. Network. Repeat. Repeat. Don’t stop. It takes work, it takes time, and there are no shortcuts. How to advance in the wine industry: Show up. Ask questions. Network. Show up. Ask questions. Network. Repeat. Repeat. Don’t stop. It takes work, Read More…
Appreciation of circumstance
No job is perfect. There are plusses and minuses to all work situations. Consider yourself lucky if you’re working at a restaurant that has continuous staff wine training (beyond sales pitches by sales reps), and encourages or invests in outside education. Consider yourself lucky if you’re working at a retailer that encourages the whole staff Read More…
Never assume you know how a restaurant will do
No stars. Zero. “Poor,” the lowest rating possible, was the New York Times review in October of 2005 of the newly opened New York City restaurant Ninja. Frank Bruni’s review has even made the Ten Most Scathing New York Times Restaurant Reviews of All Time list. Referring to a choice of routes to your table (one Read More…
Your wine list is a bonus, not a primary reason (and that’s a problem)
People got out to eat for many reasons, and they choose which restaurant to patronize for many reasons. Primary reasons for choosing certain restaurants: buzz or anticipation, reputation, location, price, quality of product and service. If a restaurant doesn’t have most of those figured out, then it’s going to be a tough go for them. Bonus Read More…
The glass debate (and I’m not talking about Riedel)
I’m talking about optimism vs. pessimism. Here’s a new take on it for you. Take a (wine) glass and fill it up halfway with something good. Now ask yourself the common question, is it half empty or half full? Are you looking toward possibility or are you thinking negatively? Now dump that liquid into a larger Read More…
Don’t assume anything
I went to test drive a new car a few years ago. They copied my license, handed me the key fob, and said “have a good test drive.” Getting into the car and looking at the fob I couldn’t figure it out. There was no place to put a key, and there wasn’t a start Read More…
Wine Descriptions: A Challenge
For one day or for one week, try this: every wine that you have to describe to a client or customer, only talk in terms of music. It’s a fun challenge. What wines are like old school rap? What wines are like opera? What wines are like Led Zeppelin live? Can one wine be the Read More…
Is Your Business Model Distinctive?
The Harvard Business Review recently published a quick read called Your Whole Business Needs to be Distinctive, Not Just Your Product. In it they cite the normal line up of Apple and IKEA when it comes to something distinctive. “The most effective companies don’t rely on distinctive products, services or brand for differentiation; instead, they focus Read More…
High Impact Staff Training, Nine Ideas
When training the service staff at restaurants about wine, here are some things to keep in mind: Some of the people in the crowd are probably 21 years old. This might be the first wine they have ever had. Nobody is born knowing what a good wine is or a bad wine. They just know Read More…
Leadership and Management, very different things
Below is one of the best little videos featuring Seth Godin that you can find. The meat and potatoes of it (as it pertains to this post) is in the first 1:15. I know you have an extra minute and fifteen seconds, so please watch it. The application of what he’s saying onto every aspect of Read More…
What if they don’t like the wine?
It’s the trap of our business. You cut the foil while telling the story. You pop the cork. You pour the glass. They lift it to their nose then take a sip. They reject the wine. “Nope!” “Crap!” “What the hell did you just pour me?” The trap is that you can’t help but be tainted Read More…
The magic words: No and Sorry
“Can I make a reservation for next Friday night at 7pm?” No, sorry, we are fully booked. “Can I buy more of that awesome rosé you had in the store last week?” No, sorry, it sold out and there’s no more until next year. “Hey! Send me five cases of that Sauvignon Blanc that I Read More…