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Picture this: You’re with a group of friends at a Michelin-starred culinary temple, poring over the oversized, leather-bound wine list to find the perfect drink to start dinner. By remaining aware of your table companions’ cost expectations on a shared check, you find a trio of appellation village White Burgundies in the range of $110 to $150 and ask for the most fitted sommelier which bottle he thinks would go best with the oysters you’re about to order. You already have an idea of which one you’re getting, but it’s there, so why not let it do its thing? Swiping his finger down the page to about $500 (while virtually obscuring the name of the wine he’s suggesting), he intones: “These are very good choices, sir, but I would recommend this one.” »
We don’t need to just imagine it; This happened to us and we know we are not alone. Friends of ours who were celebrating their 25th anniversary at one of the city’s best restaurants a few years ago entrusted the sommelier to choose a special bottle of wine and when the check arrived, they were shocked: “Don’t Don’t worry, I have the perfect bottle,” which adds up to almost $400 before tax and tip. Rather than sharing the joy of a wonderful holiday dinner, the only feeling any of them could conjure up was, “That was horrible.” I will never go there again and I will tell everyone I know. Discussing this article with our editor, he recounted the experience of a friend who visited a trendy new chef-driven downtown restaurant with two of his own bottles and paid $200 corkage for each . Despite these fees and the $800 he spent on another bottle, the somm continually pressured him to buy more wine, and when he offered to buy another, the somm tried several times to sell him another bottle for $800 to $1,000. Additionally, during the meal, the somm repeatedly told him to “take care of the staff” and even checked the bill to see what tip he had left.
This goes against great hospitality. Having both worked in restaurants earlier in our careers, we have a lot of respect for hard-working people who bring knowledge, experience and attention to their customers and who can earn a large portion of their income in tips . But we draw the line at when scare tactics can intimidate diners into spending way more than they planned on a bottle of wine while making them feel powerless in the process. Sommeliers, like doctors, have an unfair advantage when dealing with the public: They possess a body of specialized knowledge that can render even the most confident person speechless when confronted with a series unfamiliar options.
Even their colleagues are fed up with this behavior. Grace Newportwine and beverage director at Epic Steak in San Francisco, noticed that his colleagues at a previous job were constantly pressuring customers to go over budget. “They were viewed with suspicion by their colleagues and guests seemed uncomfortable during these interactions,” she says. “On rare occasions, guests would request a new attendant. » Irene Miller, wine director at The Cuckoo in New York, tells us of an incident with a colleague at an upscale Italian restaurant where she worked: “The sommelier completely misread the table and was pairing wines like Masseto and Conterno, with huge price tags. When they received the bill, they almost died! In this case, unlike our friends, the customers complained to the staff and not to their social network, and the restaurant removed the price of the wine from the bill.
“Oh, we thought you said ‘send me some money for the house’, but you said ‘send me to the poor house’.”
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That said, if you’re feeling constrained or just want to avoid an awkward situation, you can remedy this by setting a budget and sticking to it. If you’re not laying your cards on the table, the wine professional may ask you a few leading questions to determine what you’re willing to spend. “I’m very enthusiastic about this to customers when I’m selling wine,” says Alex Cuper, wine director at Chicago’s. Le Che And Brazier. “I’ve had cases too many times where someone was describing something and I had the perfect bottle and I brought it to them and it was way over their budget. I ask, “Do you have a price that you are comfortable with tonight just so I don’t pull something that would make you uncomfortable?” Sometimes people are great and give a range, other times they say “something reasonable” or “it doesn’t matter”, and then I try to get a little more out of it. Cuper, which has a list ranging from $80 to $1,200, has a wide variety of options, so it doesn’t have to look too long to find a suitable bottle within a striking range of the amount on offer. “I keep a rule of thumb: It seems fair to offer them about $25 more than that budget, especially if it’s the perfect bottle.”
We all feel constantly rushed, from tip checks at our favorite coffee shop to recommended tips on already exorbitant food costs, so being pushed up on a bottle of wine sometimes seems like the final straw. break the camel’s back. Dining out should be an enjoyable experience, and the majority of sommeliers are there to ensure that this is the case, but despite the skills that many of them possess, we don’t know of a single one who is a true mind reader. “I usually ask a few questions to get an idea: what region, what grape, and then what price,” says Cameron Nadler, New York-based wine director at Bond Hospitality, which runs a private club. Zero link and Italian restaurant by Sartiano. “If it’s a type of interaction where you shouldn’t bring up monetary value in a conversation, I usually give them a few options at different price points.” Nadler, with a bottle list of up to $9,000 and a high-flying clientele, has much greater negotiating room. “Typically, I would pay $150 to $300 more than they tell me they’re willing to spend for one or two bottles,” he says. “I’ll definitely give them a few options in their price range, but it’s always nice to offer something a little more upscale if they want to try something new.”
“The restaurant’s profit comes down to alcohol, plain and simple,” Miller says. “There are limits to what people can eat, and therefore spend on food, but the limits are crossed when it comes to wine. » However, she is not in the habit of making Coucou customers regret their wine choices, adding: “In fact, we really like it when you give us a budget. This saves everyone time. And don’t be intimidated into paying for something you don’t want. Rather than trying to upsell a product, most professionals think it makes sense to offer a reasonable substitute. “I always have a variety of alternative wines that would meet a certain demand. For example, if we have a guest who asks for a bottle of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon for $60, they won’t find one on our list that matches their criteria,” says Newport. “In this case, I would suggest a Cabernet Sauvignon from elsewhere in California that will fit into this lineup, while still being consistent in style with its Napa Valley counterparts.”
When things go wrong and customers feel like they spent more than they wanted to, it’s usually up to the beverage director to put things right and make sure it doesn’t happen again. “Often a customer has no problem spending more if the experience is worth it, but if they don’t have a pleasant experience, I try to find out where the service outage occurred and I teaches my teammate how to better read the customer and provide solutions for them and their guests,” says Harley Carbery, corporate wine director of Station Casinos in Las Vegas, which operates a variety of restaurants including T-Bones Chophouse & Lounge and Blue Ribbon Sushi & Grill Carbery is right when he points out that most sommeliers get into the industry because they truly love wine, winemaking and the experiences it creates for guests, and he notes that the arrogant type doesn’t last. usually not for very long. “Customers are very savvy and we don’t take that for granted; they can spot when someone is being dishonest,” he tells us.
Carbery gives extremely sound advice: “Don’t be afraid to speak up. The sommelier may know more about the wine he’s trying to sell, but you, as the diner, are the most important person in the restaurant. You shouldn’t have to hold out when ordering dinner, but by knowing what you want to spend and announcing the upsell when the upsell is served, your restaurant experience should be enjoyable for everyone and not leave any bad taste in the mouth.
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