Sommelier & Waiter wine encounters?

[stevebody]

Just had this discussion again with one of my customers, spittin' mad because he went to El Gaucho in Seattle and was charged $120 for a Kathleen (Katherine?) Kennedy "Lateral" that he later found out he could get for about 40 clams retail. I talked him gradually out of the bell tower and got him to surrender the rifles but I've certainly been there enough times that the rifles don't seem out of line for some places.

The reasoning that I always use when talking restaurant wine sales to both owners and servers is that every bottle of wine you sell is like seating an extra person at that two, four, or ten-top. Since tips are based on percentages of your total bill, servers should be standing on their heads to sell wine and they could and should lean on the owners to set prices that make the wines not only possible but attractive. I did a seminar last week with a Woodinville restaurant and explained this to the servers and I could almost literally see little cartoon light bulbs winking on over their heads. One of the women told me afterwards that she had always treated wine the same way she treated appetizers and desserts. Now, she saw, they don't have no apps and sweets that cost $45 apiece! Cha-Ching! And the owner, who is also the chef, got my not-so-subtle hints about pricing and told me she was going to Foodie's flat-rate-over-cost scale. It was only one restaurant but it's a start....