Restaurants Try Their Hand at Wine Dinners
A Good Pair Makes for a Full House
November/December 2006
By McCall Mastroianni
The odds of finding a wine dinner in Atlanta have risen dramatically in recent years, causing dining establishments to reinvent their game plan when it comes to preparing these events. How do restaurants go about winning the jackpot when planning these events? Local Atlanta area restaurateurs share their tips.
THE STARTING HAND IS A SIMPLE PLAN
The first rule of wine dinner planning is to keep it simple when it comes to the amount of courses and wines served. Matt Bradford, the wine director at Canoe, an 11-year-old Atlanta institution located on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, suggests having no more than four or five courses paired with wine.
“The first wine served should be fun and exciting and something that pairs nicely with the first course,” says Bradford. “Champagne is good; it’s a social drink that gets things going and usually pairs well with any first course. As the wine dinner progresses, it is important to make sure your wine and food proceed from lighter to richer – with wine, this [typically] means white leading into red,” Bradford adds.
Vajra Stratigos, Beverage Director of Fifth Group Restaurants, agrees: “There are not as many rules as people believe,” he says in reference to planning and deciding what to serve for a wine dinner. “The important thing to remember is the intensity of the wine and food, so each can be paired appropriately.”
Stratigos also finds that offering creative themes makes wine events more appealing to guests. For example, comparing different wine regions or different varietals adds an educational, hands-on approach to a wine dinner. Hosting dinners with a regional theme and serving wine and food from that area is another effective way to provide guests with a unique wine and dining package.
Another thing to keep in mind when planning a wine dinner is the season. Time of year often affects the overall success of a wine dinner. “Fall and winter tend to be more successful times of the year,” says Andrew Fotos, Proprietor of Rainwater Restaurant in Alpharetta.
Richard Marmulstein, co-owner of Dick and Harry’s, an upscale, contemporary American restaurant in Roswell, finds that too many of his guests are traveling during the summer for a wine dinner to be successful that time of year. It is important for the schedules of these regulars to be considered as half of his wine dinner guests come to most all of the dinners, whereas the other half are often reached through print coverage or notices sent to the restaurant’s e-mail database.
When planning a wine dinner, Fotos treats it as a dinner party in every aspect – from the seating and ambiance of the room, to the menu to the staff and how they interact with the guests. “You want conversation about the wine, how it paired with the food and discussion about the vineyard to take place, because, in the end, a wine dinner should have an element of education to it,” says Fotos.
A VINEYARD YOU CAN BET ON
Most restaurants make choosing the wine a priority, then design a menu to enhance the wine. Rainwater finds that boutique and higher-end wine brands tend to draw a larger attendance. “There is a direct correlation between the vineyard and the establishment,” says Fotos. “The most successful wine dinners for us are those with a high-end, well-known vineyard and a charity benefit combination.”
“When selecting the wines, I prefer to showcase not only the wines that the vineyard is known for, but wines that the public may not know that the vineyard produces at all,” says Fotos. “Variety and education should always be the goal.”
Marmulstein likes to “offer a ‘big daddy reserve’ wine with the main course” as a hook for guests to recognize that the dinner and wines offered are superior. The restaurant recently hosted a Joseph Phelps wine dinner and served the winery’s 2002 Insignia with Bison Tenderloin as the main course.
“We look for a winery that can offer several different varietals, so we can serve several courses for the dinner,” says Marmulstein. “A good selection of wine, whites and reds, within the same family makes pairing easier. I also look for different taste profiles, so that we’re not serving guests similar wines throughout the course of the dinner.”
STEMWARE STRATEGY
Proper stemware helps enhance the flavors and aromas of the wine – and should be used.
Bradford recommends crystal stemware to show the wine best. He prefers stemware made by a company that has different glasses for each varietal, such as Riedel. When pouring wine for each course, Bradford also recommends filling a glass no higher than halfway.
“You can always pour lighter and touch it up as the course goes on,” says Bradford. “By pouring light, you ensure that there isn’t lingering wine in glasses when the next course is up.”
A SWEET SUIT
When it comes to pairing wine with dessert, “The simple rule is the wine needs to be sweeter than the dessert in order for it to pair well,” says Bradford.
Another winning combination to make any wine dinner a more memorable experience is giving guests a souvenir to take home with them after the dessert course. Wine representatives often attend these dinners and bring wine openers. At a wine dinner at Dick and Harry’s, a Beaulieu Vineyard representative presented attendees with trivia questions and gave away a bottle of wine to one lucky guest. For the recent Joseph Phelps wine dinner, Marmulstein worked with a local art gallery to bring Thomas Arvid paintings into the restaurant for guests to view during the wine dinner. These added touches leave a lasting impression on guests.
ONE OF A KIND
As more and more restaurants have begun hosting wine dinners in recent years, Fifth Group Restaurants has branched out in an effort to distinguish itself from competitors.
Sala-Sabor de Mexico, an upscale, authentic Mexican restaurant in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta and one of Fifth Group Restaurants’ seven concepts, offers tequila dinners several times a year featuring brands such as Corazon, Patron and Don Julio tequilas.
According to Stuart Fierman, director of Operations for Fifth Group Restaurants, it really helps to feature tequila that has a well-known brand name because that recognizable name will draw people in.
“It’s like having a dinner with Cakebread wines,” he says. “People will think, ‘oh, that’s a high-end product,’ and become interested in attending. Planning a successful tequila dinner comes down to having a great product combined with an enticing menu.”
Having a fun, festive environment is also very important. An extended cocktail hour before guests are seated for dinner encourages them to relax, mingle and get to know one another before dinner. Seating all guests together at a large table(s) will encourage conversation.
Sala-Sabor de Mexico generally has 60 to 95 people at each dinner. During the cocktail hour, the restaurant serves passed appetizers (usually three different items) with margaritas. Following is a three-course-seated meal with each course having a paired drink.
“The key here is to make sure you have the mixed drink and then a plain shot of the tequila it’s made with on the side, so people can try it both ways,” advises Fierman. “Also, like wine, you want to try and look at what you’re serving and pair the flavor and characteristics of the mixed drink with the food. For example, if you’re serving something spicy, you should have a drink that will take the edge off the spices. It’s important to keep in mind the acidity of the drink and/or the dish, so both can be paired accordingly,” he adds.
Like Sala, Ecco, another Fifth Group Restaurants concept, is experimenting with new and exciting drink-oriented parties. The restaurant is hosting a special Modern Spirits vodka tasting that will feature four different themed stations that are decorated to mirror the theme of the vodkas. One particular vodka contains honey, and its station will be decorated with a beehive.
During the tasting, there will be a shot of each of the vodkas and then a cocktail made with the vodkas. Since the shots are plain and served neat, they can be paired with a more complex appetizer. The mixed drinks will be paired with a simpler food.
“Experimentation is everything,” says Stratigos. “What matters is you and your guests enjoy the drinks and experience. Remember that neither the drink nor the food should overpower the other.”
THE PERFECT PAIR
With a full deck of options for wine dinners available around the city, providing stand-out satisfaction for Atlanta’s foodie set comes down to more than just an ideal match-up of grapes and grub. Like a hand of poker, guests never know what they’re going to get, and picking a wine dinner amongst the masses can often be a gamble. Pay off means paying special attention to your customers. Giving them the gift of knowledge, even if this means raising the stakes with an inventive twist on the traditional wine event, will better their chances of walking away from your table with a smile.
McCall Mastroianni works for Melissa Libby & Associates, a PR firm with several restaurants among its clients. She can be reached at (404) 816-3068.
