An Idea For Your Social: Shop your Shop (or menu)
Cooking process reels are all the rage in my feeds these days. Personally, I'm a fan of @chefmaxmariola, @chefadamglick, and @laurent.dagenais. There are so many more that pop into my feed, but these guys are my speed. Unfortunately, we wine people don't make wine. Chefs have the creation thing to offer as entertainment. Nosing a wine in a glass and offering poetic tasting notes and generic pairing ideas, while looking well-dressed...Even writing that, just isn't that inspiring.
I was recently talking with a retail client abut this and I got creative on the subject of, 'well, what would be inspiring Christian?' An idea came up: Shop your own shop.
From a retail standpoint, from Sunday thru Thursday, a lot of customers come into the shop between 4:30pm-7pm because they are picking up a wine for dinner. As a born and bred retail lover, we all hope they walk in with a big bag of groceries, and a semblance of how they are going to prepare those groceries, and an open mind to talk about both the cooking of the dish and the right wine to go with it. That's just pure fun for any retailer. But, a lot of people walk in the shop because they are grabbing that wine to go with takeout.
Every shop has at least 1-3 go-to takeout spots that all of their customers go to regularly. A pizza spot. Chinese. Thai. Indian. Mexican. BBQ, etc...Go on seamless or Doordash and the list of choices is crazy, but remember that people want to eat now, and delivery time is sortable (and it's Tuesday. For me, Xi'An Famous Foods just opened around the corner from my Brooklyn apartment and I covet their spicy cumin lamb noodles for $15 (one of the best deals on the planet). These guys are consistently cranking each night.
So, from a social idea, I recommend this: Identify your customer's Top 5, very local (as in 1-5 blocks away) favorite take out joints. Pick one. Buy the best selling dish. Before buying it, walk your shop and pick out three different wines that you would recommend to that customer who walked in with that takeout in hand and needed a wine to go with it. Make your recommendations between $15 and $23. With these parameters, pick the best three wines you can select from your inventory. Next, go buy the takeout dish. Have a staffer film you. In the video, explain what you dish bought and why you bought it (give some props to the takeout joint). Explain the three wines and why you picked them- just as if you were customer explaining your recommendations to the customer. Then sample the food and taste all three wines. Select your own winner. (And if a wine doesn't work and you were wrong, call yourself out, and explain that too). Be you. Have fun. Post the video on reels (insta/facebook/tok). Lastly, make a floorstack display that features a sign saying: Winner This Week's Best Pairing with [Name of Restaurant's] [dish name]. Do one video per week. Do it on Saturday, so you can offer the video and featured wine Sunday thru Thursday of the following week.
From a restaurant standpoint, the idea is similar. Let's assume you offer an a la carte menu that is posted online as a pdf, and a winelist that is posted online as a pdf. (Ie- your guests are shopping you long before they walk in the door.) Do the same. Shop yourself. Assume you are a solo diner.
Give yourself an item budget for the meal: One app or small bite, one entree, and two beverage selections. Start with the food selections first. Then solve how you would best work over your beverage program to have the very best experience against those purchases. You are solving highest value-best experience at the lowest price.
Like the retailer above, explain why you selected the specific app and entree. What do you love about them right now. Talk about the value associated with those two- maybe there's super seasonal ingredients, or insane technique, or a decadence that is way greater than the dishes price, etc. Then talk about how you would work your own program from sit down through the meal. Would you come in and grab a class of cremant, cruise through the app with it, and then go into a glass of structured rose? Would you forgo glasses and attack the half bottle list? Here's one (that I often do)...would you start with a Pilsner and cruise through the small bite, and then move on to a top-tier BTG with the entree? Or, even better, is their a full bottle on the menu that is insane and a super value and you buy that bottle, cruise through the dishes drinking only half of it, and the have re-corked and wrapped up to go?
After you select the food, pick two different beverage program ideas- again, you get a max of 2 selections. You are seeking to deliver the greatest value and experience at the best price.
Then, filming yourself...order the food, order the two different beverage menus and see which one is the most inspiring and gives the best experience. This reel now becomes your new "somm insider" program to the menu.
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Anyways, I hope these ideas help and inspire. And I'm happy to make a cameo as the customer with the bag of groceries or the solo guest at the bar who tries out your insider menu....:)
Cheers!
Christian