What do we want when we eat at a restaurant? Comfort foods and wine lists that we recognize? Or rather, do we eat out to experience foods we are loathe to tackle in our own kitchens and to experiment with wines we have never tasted?
I fall firmly into the second camp. I am a pretty decent cook and love dinners at home with friends and loved ones. So when I eat out, I will probably not order the pasta with fennel sausage and kale that I made last Tuesday.
And so it goes with the wine list. If all I see are the usual suspects (to be found on any supermarket shelf or airline coach section), I probably will not order any wine. If I really love the food, then I will bring BYOB, if the restaurant allows it. As I do at one neighborhood bistro in Atwater Village that I love to frequent but seems to have an aversion to changing up the wine list.
Granted, I am in the wine business, so perhaps it takes a bit more to pique my interest. But I believe that most intelligent, urban adults who seek out interesting restaurants, are also seeking interesting wines. NYC and San Francisco have been centers of interesting wine lists, with Los Angeles quickly and quietly catching up.
Restaurants are an opportunity to be adventurous, to step out of our norm. If not, why not stay home?
This was all brought to mind when I read the SF Chronicle review of Baker & Banker restaurant's wine list. I know the sommelier, Collin Casey, is a passionate wine lover who wants the wine list to be as exciting and transporting as the food.
But the reviewer seems almost irritated that he himself is out of the loop, that he does not recognize the wines the Casey has so carefully chosen for the restaurant list. He grumpily suggests that there should be some wines he knows.
I suggest he stay at home. All will be familiar to him there.
I had this conversation with another wine professional last night. She is friends with the reviewer and also suggested that wine lists should feature some well known brand names. But I responded that there are many chain and suburban restaurants that are perfect venues for branded wines. Why should a cutting edge, artisanal restaurant that is creating hand-crafted food, not have a wine list that is in sync?
I believe they should be featuring wines that are made by small producers and have not been over-processed.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
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19 comments:
I whole-heartedly agree! If servers can articulate what's special about the menu and ingredients, they can do it with the wine list, too.
Unless you are at a cookie cutter restaurant, the diner needs to understand that the wine list, like the dinner menu, is an extension of the creative vision of those who put it together. That's the fun in it!
I was a sommelier for awhile and now I help write wine lists out here in Jersey and nothing is more fun than turning up the quirky and imaginative for diners.
Also, as an aside, I also represent the wines of Darcy and Huber in NY and NJ. My day job is working for David Bowler Wine.
Happy Monday!
brava! well said amy!
amen
Comfort AND excite.
But not overwhelm!
Seems like there's a pretty strong corollary in restaurants that put a lot of thought and care into their food doing the same with the wine. If a customer trusts the place enough to order from the menu, why in the world should the wine list be any different?
Many of us would love to see wines you can't find at the local grocer - but according to this study just out - the best thing a restaurant can do (for their bottom line) is offer something familiar that clientes have tasted before.
In "..the decision-making process... was the fact that the consumer had tried the wine before and liked it....Therefore, they were more apt to order it from the wine list."
How American Consumers Select Wine
http://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/?go=getArticle&dataId=56883
If you're going with the artisinal, hand chosen, eccentric wine list, then you better have someone on the floor that can make the customer "comfortable" with what you've chosen. That means being able to explain the choices, where they come from, what they taste like and how they pair with the food etc. Otherwise your customer may just blankly stare at a list they know nothing about and order iced tea instead.
There is no bigger pet peeve of mine these days than restaurants that boast a "farm to table" philosophy with their food menu, but whose wine lists are dominated by big brands from the big distributors.
While I sense this is changing, it doesn't help when prominent critics lambaste the few outliers willing to take risks. Or, as is more often the case, the critics don't even pay full attention to the wine list and any discrepancies that might exist.
I meet consumers every day who are willing to take a leap of faith on something they've never heard of, whether an oddball grape variety or a no-name winery from an unfancy appellation. All they want or need is guidance from trusted sources, and restaurants should be commended, not scolded, for leading the way.
I completely agree. I look forward to having a nice glass of wine with my dinner when eating out and I am so tired of seeing the "same old wines" on every single wine list. I work in the industry and it's frustrating to see distributor's "quota items" all over the wine list selections. It's especially frustrating when the restaurant has exceptional food but a poor list. It makes me want to order a beer or water if I don't like the beer selections...or stay home with a decent wine and not a wine from any of the major corporate players...
Why is a restaurant's wine list any different than its menu? Michael Bauer would never dream of excoriating a fine dining restaurant for failing to have a "safe" entree option, "Can you believe it? They don't even got a burger in this joint!"
Say it like it is, Amy. The Chronicle reviewer is an idiot when it comes to wine. When we opened our restaurant ten years ago on Mission, he chastised us for focusing our glass program on wines that we painstakingly had grown and made specifically to optimize the experience of our style of Asian-fusion cuisine -- also saying we should list wines he "knows." He just didn't get it, and I seriously wonder if he would ever get it. Such a pity for a newspaper that otherwise is the wine-savviest in the U.S.
I agree with you..Give me a passionate sommelier with some interesting titles that I do not know, and I am one happy guy!
Amy, you need a trip to Bergen soon. I know my wine list would excite you. Just in case you forgot:
http://vinosseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Vinmeny10March1.pdf
-cheers
I'm amazed that anyone thinks there is one way to
operate a restaurant. Innovation is how we progress.
Any approach an owner chooses is fine if it succeeds.
If the critic was perplexed by the approach taken he might have enquired about how the approach was working. If he found out it was working well, how could justify making the criticism that he made.
Critics often seem to think the best world is the world they would choose rather than see what is good in the unfamiliar.
Jill, I agree that usually food critics merely skim over the wine list. Los Angeles is lucky to have Jonathon Gold, who seems to enjoy eclectic wine offerings.
Joseph/Vinosseur,
I would love to come to Bergen and check out your list in person!
Cheers,
Amy
I am with you here: Why have "brand name" wines at non-chain restaurants? Makes no sense. Big Bauer Fail here.
I like your blog and what you write on your posts, congratulations ;)
i'm all for wine lists that will excite and expose diners to new varieties and regions, but as many folks above have mentioned and i'll emphatically echo - it's all about the wine service. if the restaurant cannot bridge the gap between what its diners are familiar with and the wines that they are offering (by way of knowledgeable staff and wine directors/sommeliers - the list, although esoteric and unique, is not worth much.
Well said!
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