The Right Wines Increase Wine Sales

I may have written about this before so stop me if I sound familiar. I recently took some time off my writing schedule to open a new restaurant in Florida. It’s a nice place but really more of a pub then a restaurant.

The food menu is chock full of standard pub fare, the bar is fully stocked and we do quite a bit of promoting for music and such. Things are going well, all be it a bit slower than I would prefer. (economy, not location or pub, whew!)

One of the owners is wine savvy and would like to see us expand our wine listing to more than just a house wine and feature card. He believes that a bigger wine list will help attract wine lovers to the pub and sites many of his friends as the reason. While I am usually happy to oblige, in this case I believe it would be over kill. Here is why.

As I have said we are a pub, Irish at that. We cater to the local shot and beer guys, happy hour crowds and draw from the local colleges for late night traffic. This is not normally, a wine appreciative group. While I admit, we do get the occasional wine drinker who may feel slighted, I fear that the moderate sales we are showing within that category are not a reflection of the choices but lack of interest from our base.

This is when you need to use your head. While I love wine and everything that is wine, I had to recognize that this place may not be a wine establishment. Don’t let pride or ego get in the way. Make the decisions that will help make you place more profitable. Having 5 opened bottles of wine for your glass pours is ok, but not if your selling 1 or 2 glasses per night. Waste is a terrible thing (someone else once said that).

Anyways, I have been asked again by the owner so I think it is time we sat down and talked about it. I will stick to my guns and until I see the traffic that will support a progressive glass pour program I will continue My way!

PS Just in case I have a couple of boxes full of wine at home, for just such an emergency! LOL!

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