May/June 2010

by Jaymi Curley
Small towns persist in the American imagination as sleepy wayside places, consisting of one stop light and few options for a good meal beyond the country kitchen, barbeque shack or the ever proliferating fast-food chain.  But in light of a recent trend toward the revitalization of rural, historic downtown areas, the restaurant industry in many small towns is getting a major upgrade, and in turn is doing a lot to boost the fortunes of the surrounding community.

Across the nation, rural communities are committing local funds and using federal grants to accomplish large-scale downtown revitalization projects. These improvements are being targeted to expand shopping and socializing opportunities in small town centers, while also adding jobs to the community and restoring and making use of historic buildings that have often been boarded up and standing empty for years. Attracting new and interesting players in the local restaurant scene is a large part of being able to sustain the progress created by the downtown projects.

Emmitt Nolan, Main Street Manager for the City of Brunswick, has noted the positive changes that are happening as a result of his city’s Main Street revitalization. “People finally have started returning to the area.  We started programs like First Fridays where the retail shops, art galleries antique stores stay open a little later. We have kind of made it a destination, a shopping area, and so the restaurants are following.”

Some counties are experiencing population booms and are looking for restaurants to serve the appetites of the community.  John A. Henry J.D., CEO of Effingham County IDA, says “Effingham County has been working to attract restaurants to the Savannah bedroom community in the wake of a population boom. The community has grown nearly 43% in the past decade alone.”

Many Georgia chefs are seeing new opportunities by choosing to open up outside of the major metropolitan areas, and setting down roots in smaller communities around the state.  When Chef Jayson Ridinger, owner of Cargo’s Portside Grill in Brunswick, bought out the restaurant in early 2009, he saw the same charm and potential of the community that Cargo’s original owner had.
“There’s a family-oriented feel to this place,” he says of the city of Brunswick. “There is a micro-community here where all the businesses and the vendors, we all take care of each other. I’ve lived in Phoenix, Wyoming, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh. I’ve traveled all over, and you just don’t find this kind of atmosphere anywhere else. I love it.”

Chef Scott Dixon, owner of Scott’s On The Square in Gainesville, spent six years away from the restaurant business, but when he decided to open his own fine-dining establishment, it wasn’t Atlanta or one of the surrounding metros that attracted him.

“We had moved up to the Gainesville area about four or five years prior, and we loved the area,” says Dixon, “but thought it kind of lacked the variety of high-end restaurants that we had had in Alpharetta or Buckhead. And we always said if we were going to open a restaurant, this would be a great place to do it.”

Dixon says that opening his restaurant in a smaller community like Gainesville afforded him the opportunity to stand out and do something different. “What I didn’t want,” says Dixon, “is to be a kind of ‘me-too’ to the chains and casual type places that there are a lot of here. And in Atlanta, you have so many high-end places to eat, you just fade into the crowd.” With the market for high-end dining being relatively untapped in more rural communities, Dixon was able to make a niche for himself. “I think there is a very strong market open for [fine dining]. So many people who have moved up the lake and around that area were still going down to Atlanta to eat, or would want something of that quality and caliber.”

The fact that the fine-dining experience is offered by a locally owned business is definitely an advantage in a community that, while growing, still prides itself on having a hometown feel and an unyielding support for its homegrown businesses. “Most of our fine-dining restaurants downtown are mom-and-pop places. We know who is in the kitchen. We see them around town. But they are just updating our image. They are just an upgraded experience from the diners and such,” says Nolan.
Dixon agrees. “I have had a wonderful reception here in Gainesville, and I’m getting great feedback and encouragement from the people here.”

“Honestly, if I closed my doors tomorrow,” says Ridinger, “I may pick a new concept, I might pick a new business, but I’d still pick a small downtown to open up again, and that’s a fact.”
A chef’s creativity in terms of menus doesn’t suffer at all in the rural areas; the demand for high-quality and interesting ingredients prepared in diverse ways is just as strong in the small town square as it is in the heart of Buckhead in Atlanta. And the current trend toward locally sourced, fresh ingredients takes on an even greater significance.

“On some levels, the localization aspect of the ingredients is even more important here,” Dixon says. “A lot of our clientele aren’t that far removed from the farm. There are a lot of people that work in agriculture, and Gainesville is the chicken capital of the world. So much of what goes on here is centered around all things poultry. And there is so much great produce grown on farms, a stone’s throw away. We definitely try to embrace that.”

With the proliferation of celebrity chef, food-centered programming and the internet, there are not many food trends that escape the notice of even the smallest corners of the state.

“I think we have just as savvy a consumer here as any larger city,” says Dixon. “Many people who consider themselves ‘foodies’ and are looking for something – I won’t say cutting edge, but something out of the ordinary in terms of preparation. We may not have as many of them here as we do in Atlanta, but the people in the community respond well to our menus. For example, I did an espresso-and-cocoa-rubbed rack of lamb, and we ended up serving it with a semi-sweet chocolate sauce, which is something kind of different and out there. But I told people who were skeptical, ‘Hey, you don’t like it, I’ll make you one without all the stuff on there.’  I change my menus about every four months, and we had the dish on there the whole four-month period, and it became one of the most popular dishes.”

“Good food is good food, and with me, flavor comes first,” says Ridinger. “My goal is always to win the trust of my customer. Once I have done that, I can be comfortable maybe pushing the envelope a little, because I can count on them to go with me. One of the specials we had done recently was a rabbit alphabet soup, a really delicious rabbit soup with pasta letters and it was served with a rabbit leg tucked on the side. We also have had a blue cheese ice cream. It was a risk, but I can take a risk, because I am sure my customers are with me.  People want to be excited about what they are eating. If you are not doing all you can to prop that up, you are not doing yourself justice.”
By balancing his menu with traditional southern favorites, like Fried Green Tomatoes and Striped Bass, with more exotic elements like Thai Style Calamari and high-end comfort food mashups, like Lobster Mac-and Cheese, Ridinger aims to have a menu on which any customer can find a dish that will keep them coming back.

One of the major advantages of choosing small town life is the cost savings that can be recognized in some areas of overhead. The often high property values and rents in the Atlanta area can make opening a new restaurant there extremely difficult. Lower property costs in small cities can pave the way for a chef-owner to open a larger venue than might be possible in urban metro areas.
“If I had opened my restaurant is Atlanta,” says Ridinger, “it would have cost $1 million plus. I actually opened my first restaurant in downtown Brunswick for just a little over $120,000. It was the same equipment, the same everything, it’s just that everything costs so much more in Atlanta.”
“My profit margins are fairly close to the same,” Dixon agrees. “Our rent costs are definitely less than in Atlanta, and with the labor pool we have a slightly lower payroll cost than we would have otherwise.”

In addition, the presence of historic buildings with space to let or purchase can mean that architectural details an owner might pay a premium for to have built into a space in a large city can be available for much less.

“A lot of these old building historic have the high ceilings, the exposed brick, and even the large glass storefronts,” says Nolan, “They make excellent restaurant spaces. There are some good deals to be had as far as spaces for sale or rent. Also, there are grant monies out there at the state level that a lot of people aren’t using. It is just a matter of spending the time to fill out all that paperwork, but there are ways to get help with costs.”

“Downtown is gorgeous,” says Ridinger. “There is a story that comes with every building. It just makes the whole experience richer.”

While lower costs can make opening in smaller communities attractive, there are a number of challenges that come along with that decision. Dixon notes, for example, that since the entire pool of customers can be much smaller, it can be difficult to draw in the stable base of regular repeat customers that is the bedrock of a restaurant’s success.

“We are trying to be seen as something more than just a special occasion type place,” he says. “There are definitely some challenges in that area.”

Nolan also sees that economic impact in Brunswick. “The economy being what it is now, and with the number of restaurants we have now, the challenge is going to be that the piece of the pie they are getting is smaller.”

Chef Ridinger says that his difficulty is in luring the well-heeled “island people,” inhabitants and visitors to nearby St. Simons and other Georgia sea islands who are reluctant to cross the bridge to spend their dining dollars in Brunswick.

One way in which Chef Dixon faces down this challenge is by identifying his restaurant as fine-dining but with a comfortable twist. “We call ourselves ‘casual fine-dining.’ It tends to make us more approachable,” says Dixon. “We want to designate ourselves as fine dining, because we want them to think of us more as chef-crafted food with higher quality raw materials across the board. But we still want them to feel comfortable to walk in the front door with jeans on and have a meal or a drink. We could go the coat-and-tie route if we wanted to, but that’s not what I think people want now.”

Ridigner relies on his offers of special wine dinners combined with excellent service to translate into word-of-mouth raves from his discerning customer base. “Everything we do, we have to always be on our game.  Outstanding food and outstanding service — this is what I tell my staff all the time. We have to always be competing at a big-city level. Our food, our quality, our service has to always be at the highest standards.”

The type and strength of the industry in the surrounding community can also make a big impact on the bottom line.

“We still cater to the business customers, particularly the medical community, which we have a lot of up here. We have the top heart center here, and with the size of the medical community, it is a big help,” says Dixon.

In turn, the presence of a fine-dining option can be a big help to local business, particularly ones trying to lure top talent from larger, more cosmopolitan areas. “A doctor who was being recruited by one of the hospitals told me that my restaurant was one of the deciding factors that helped sway him to relocate here from New York,” says Dixon. “He’d come in for lunch with the doctors who were trying to get him to join the hospital. Then he came by to visit after he had made the move. He told me that he’d felt good about the fact that there’d be at least one place to eat where things reminded him a little bit of New York, in a very different atmosphere.”

There are also any number of quirks in small communities that an owner in a large city would never have to consider, but that can impact the business heavily. “We’d been open a few weeks,” recalls Chef Dixon, “and on every other Wednesday night we had been packed, but on this one, we were empty. So I asked my bartender—a local guy—where was everybody? He just looked at me funny and said, “Well, people go to church on Wednesday.”  There are those kinds of dynamics you never think about. You really have to be plugged in to the community.”

Strong community involvement can be a make or break proposition in a small town, especially for a chef who comes from outside the community. Ridinger says his restaurant donates numerous gift certificates to local charities and does appearances at local events to cement his brand firmly in the Brunswick area.

Dixon finds his business interests supported by his deep involvement with a number of local committees.

“The most important thing for us here was really immersing myself in the community and getting involved.  My involvement with the Chamber of Commerce and really getting into the local business community was invaluable to gaining acceptance here. Now I am on the board for the Chamber of Commerce, and I serve as the associate director for the downtown association.”

Above all, a chef who takes a chance on a fine-dining establishment in a small town gives something back to an entire area. “The fine-dining options add culture to our community,” says Nolan. “You’re in a small place like Gainesville, but you feel like you could be in Atlanta, maybe New York.”

April 2010

by Christy Simo

Restaurant Forum recently sat down with some of Georgia’s top chefs to get a perspective on how chefs are finding new ways to attract diners while meeting reduced budgets and adapting to today’s technology-obsessed diner. Guests included Micah Willix, executive chef of Ecco; Riccardo Ullio, chef/owner of U Restaurants; Tom Harvey, executive chef of Murphy’s; Ron Horgan, executive chef for the Ansley Golf Club and president of the Atlanta chapter of the American Culinary Federation; Jonathan St. Hilaire, executive pastry chef for Concentrics Restaurants and owner of Bakeshop; and Jaime Adams, executive chef for Veni Vidi Vici. Thank you to Buckhead Beef for hosting the roundtable at their Atlanta culinary center.

What is your favorite item in the kitchen?
Adams: A wood-burning rotisserie. I wouldn’t know what to do without that thing. We cook six to eight ducks and six-eight chickens a day, and a small, whole pig (about 30 pounds) about every 3 days. And we do a lot of lamb. We get this good lamb from Pennsylvania, broken down into its primary cuts. We cook it on the rotisserie, with the legs together, the smaller cuts together.
Willix: I’m a simple person. I like the range. I have a wave-touch range I really love. It’s nice because it’s a continuous top, and you can put two pans on each eye. It’s like a favorite child.
Ullio: I don’t have a very special piece of equipment, but I’ve always been a big fan of a food mill. I think it’s far better for making sauce than a processor. It’s old school, but it’s nice.
Adams: I don’t do any immersion cooking, but I do do all my rotisserie stuff and braises, it’s really good to pack them in the bags and reheat them that way. I like to get them off the spit when they’re nice and hot, particularly when it’s a lamb or pig. It’s great to get them off the spit, press them, and then put it into the bags.

St. Hilaire: [A sous vide machine] is good for fruit too. You can press melon and put it in there. We used to do that with watermelon. You press it and put it in there, and it comes out just a deep red. Then we infuse it with a vanilla-mint syrup. Then we just take it out and grill it and use it as part of a dessert. We cut the cubes up, but also when it shrinks, it’s just this deep rich red color. Some of the other melons do that too. And if you crank it up high enough, you can cook up figs, or anything that you can press down and do a nice block. With the figs, you can cut it up and lay it out, and do a homemade fig Newton. But you need that machine to press it all down.

Diners are holding their dollars closer now, and they want more value. Have you made any adjustments to your menus to accommodate that while also increasing your margins?

Adams: Absolutely. Otherwise you don’t survive. We’ve changed mostly the type of stuff we’ve carried. There’s no more super expensive steaks. Lobster we haven’t had in the building in I don’t know how long, except for Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve. But the expensive fish, things like Halibut and sea bass, I don’t even touch that stuff any more. You’re always looking for lesser-known stuff that’s inexpensive, and then you use your experience to make taste good.
Adams: I sell more trout than just about any fish. It’s fairly mild, and all sorts of people will like it. It just flies out of the restaurant. It’s not on the menu, but I just use it for specials. It’s just the go to. We also do a $29 fixed price menu, three courses, for the last couple of years. We just rotate things in and out of that format for specials. And that’s 50% of our business.
Willix: I think like everybody else, we’re just trying to buy a lot of byproduct stuff. With fish, if it’s a byproduct fish, then we’ll buy that. I try to keep two kinds of fish on the menu at all times. I can usually have two fish that are uncommon, because nobody really has a go-to fish. We sell a lot of cod and a lot of arctic char, things like that. Arctic char is a fish that’s really inexpensive all year round. The same with meats. We don’t sell any luxurious cuts. We try to use everything. Every time we buy something we figure out what we can do with the waste. We either make sausage or meatballs, or make a sauce out of it. We use everything we possibly can. Last year we changed our menu from being composed main plates. We took the whole entrée section and broke that down into a la cart. That actually drove our check average up a little bit because what happened was you take a $29 plate and you break it down and sell the vegetables for $6 and the main dish for $25, you’re making more money off of people who usually order two sides.
Ullio: We really haven’t changed anything, but we’ve never really had that many expensive cuts of meat on the menu. We have a veal chop and we have a rib-eye steak. Those are our two high-dollar items. But we have a lot of pasta. I think we’ve always been a value-driven restaurant anyway. So we have a lot of pasta on the menu and a lot of risotto on the menu. If you’re just going to drink a glass of wine, you can go and eat for under $40. But you can also order the veal chop and order a bottle of wine for $400 at Sotto Sotto. So we really haven’t had too many changes. We don’t do a whole lot to the menu anyway, because any time we do, people seem to get angry. We have a pretty loyal customer following that always wants the same thing, so anytime we change the menu seasonally, we still get a dozen or so people who are like “Where’s this, we came for this!” And I tell them, “We took it off the menu, try this, and they say, No, we want that!” So we haven’t changed hardly anything at all.

You mentioned seasonal – does your menu rotate?
Ullio: It rotates around six, seven times a year, usually twice a season. But we don’t change it a whole lot. Now this time I’m going to keep one of our winter items on because everybody loves it. We sell so much of it and so many people request it that I think I’m going to leave it on. Because I hate to lose any business right now, you know? I think that for me it’s come to the fact that it’s not so much price driven as that you have to keep people happy. I think that people are just much pickier. And you can’t afford to piss anybody off. Now I think it’s much, much more crucial to make everybody happy. When they used to go out four times a week, now they go out once or twice. So now they’re really looking forward to it because they’ve been eating ramen noodles in front of the television the rest of the time if they can’t cook themselves. So when they go out, they’re going to be like “We’re going to go to Sotto Sotto. I love it there. Well get the veal chop, because we really, really like it.” So they go there and they get the veal chop, and maybe it’s overcooked. Before it was like, oh well, it’s overcooked, but the last time I had it, it was really good. But now it really makes a huge difference in their mind that the veal chop was overcooked. They’re going to talk to everybody, they’re going to go on Yelp and say their veal chop was overcooked. People are stressed because of their money, so there’s a much more emphasis towards customer satisfaction.
Harvey: People seem to feel like they have more riding on everything, including their cheeseburger on Tuesday. They’re just putting more emotion into every little thing. I came to Murphy’s five months ago after being at one.midtown kitchen for three years, and at Murphy’s looking at year to year, our check average is up significantly. Our wine education program has gotten so good that our PCAs have risen a lot. So our main focus is being sure we’re keeping our cover counts covered. You can’t always look at sales. One thing Pano taught me while working at Buckhead Life is that when you talk about numbers at Buckhead Life, when they ask you “what did you do last night?”, it’s really not about sales. The cover counts are always the thing. We can always work on check average, as long as people are coming into the restaurant. That’s what we were always worried about. So we’ve been very fortunate that Murphy’s has a very strong brunch business, which helps you a lot in terms of costs. Every frittata you sell drives food costs in a good direction. So we really try to be sure we’re putting more on the plate. We’ve increased portions a little bit if we’ve felt like people were leaving a little bit hungry. And as we’ve given more and more, the alternative cuts become more important. Our No. 1 seller right now remains the brisket. That’s a great thing to have as a No. 1 seller, because you can make money on brisket. It’s hard to make money on grouper. And when you’re No. 2 seller is grouper, right now the moratorium is on it, but those prices climb all year, and who knows what’s going to happen when fuel costs go back up. It was really bad two years ago. But executing the slow cooking has always saved us a lot in every restaurant I’ve worked at. Things like brisket and some of your second cuts – if you do them well, and you get one or two of those into your Top 5, it gives you some room to give away things like nice fish and to not have to go higher. The species like triggerfish and some of the nice stuff coming out of the Carolinas, we’re able to promote to the customers that these fisheries are —rather than grouper and snapper and what’s in the gulf, where we’re trying to come back from decades of overfishing—these fisheries are being run right now so there’s never going to be a sustainability issue. And people are really into that. Just like “farm-to-table” is no longer a novelty. People are thinking about farm-to -able in the grocery store. That wasn’t going on 10 years ago. And sustainability—they’re teaching it to little kids in school, and kids are coming in wanting the sustainable fish. It’s become a part of our life more every day.

Have you seen that in your restaurants as well – are people asking where their produce or meat is coming from?
Horgan: No. I’m at a country club so our demographics are totally different. But we push the full range of menu, from your basic chicken fingers and steamed broccoli for the kids to fillet, and they want prime New York strip. So we have to serve that. But the benefit that we have is they pay every month their dues. So I have a higher food cost I’m sure than anybody here. So that’s where the offset goes for me. I’m always shopping, talking with the fish guys about what’s good, what I need to stay away from, but I’m not being driven that way yet. That’s kind of my feel on that.
Willix: We don’t have a lot of guests who care. I think there’s an elevated level of pride in the service staff and the cooks who know that that’s what they’re doing. And then I think they sell that to guests. Guests aren’t coming in and asking “Is fish sustainable, is this fish organic? We don’t put it on the menu. We kind of leave it up to the servers to promote that if they want to. And it seems like those items that we do put on the menu, they definitely push a lot harder. But I don’t think we have anybody asking for it.
St. Hilaire: Not really. I guess that’s the lucky thing I have. A 50 lb. bag of sugar costs me $14, $16. My price point is completely backwards from restaurants. We use a lot of eggs, sugar, butter. My chocolate I had to change. We were using Varona chocolate, but now we don’t really use Varona, we’re trying some new chocolates from all over the place. There are more and more chocolates coming up that are really, really good. It’s a vicious cycle of the big chocolate companies buying the smaller one, so it kind of helps with the cost a little bit. But I’ve definitely found myself going even away from Cacao Barry to other ones that I think are much better. I spend a good amount on honey because we use it and it’s such a great flavor. I buy a 35-gallon tub from Francos and it’s $250.
Harvey: Really good honey’s worth the money.
St. Hilaire: And it is really good honey. You can tell the difference. Especially if you’re doing a Panna Cotta, it’s right there. But overall, we use the organic flour and we get some stuff out of North Carolina. Right now it’s wintertime for us, so the produce is at a minimum. We’re kind of waiting for springtime so we have all the fresh fruit.

So you do rotate your menu items seasonally?
St. Hilaire: Yea, we change everything. It’s probably changing every day. Our Danishes change every day. We’ve got a nutella croissant on, we’ve had pistachio croissants on, hazelnut, it’s always changing up every day depending on what we want to do. The desserts, the jars, we’re just always changing, every day. I hate seeing the same stuff all the time. Being open now for a few months, people are coming back asking where are the espresso buttercreams, so we’re starting to get that, which is nice. You start to realize what you need to keep on. Our breads have kind of stayed the same, but we’ve forced the envelope making baguettes, parmesan breads, and some other interesting rye breads just to see what people really will enjoy. But price-point wise, I find people are enjoying more bakery-style bread, just great artisanal breads rather than going to the store and buying that crappy baguette. They don’t mind coming in and paying $2 on a fresh baguette.  It’s a better product.
Ullio: It’s more about value than it is price, and value is all about the perception. Harvey: Yea, we don’t sell more specials because the specials are cheaper. We sell more specials because the servers are behind it and it looks great and it tastes great. They know if you can get one on the table, the rest of their section is going to order it. We always call it the domino test at the bar. At lunch at the bar, if you have a good special and one sells at the bar, then four more—our bar is always full at lunch—you see it go right down the bar. If you have a great special, you can sell it to the whole bar.

How has social media such as Twitter and Facebook affected your job?
Willix: You model your restaurant as your home, and you want to bring people in and show them a sense of hospitality. Then they don’t want to tell you what’s wrong or how you can improve your meal or their experience. They just go home and complain about it behind your back. We can’t do anything to improve that (experience) in retrospect. I could have done a lot for you, but you didn’t say “Hey, this is overcooked.” They’d rather go home and complain about it as soon as they can.
Ullio: We use Open Table as a weekly guide to how well the restaurant is on it. Yelp is a much younger demographic, but Open Table is your regular diner, someone who dines out all the time, so we read Open Table religiously. Open Table is actually very useful. The people on Open Table are a lot more fair.
Adams: It’s like the two sides of the Food Network. The Food Network has elevated us all, but it’s also made everybody a critic. Everybody’s an expert.
Ullio: If you filter through it, you can get some general trends.
Harvey: It’s great for us, because when I got to Murphy’s, one thing I wanted to address is that if we’re a busy, lunch sandwich place, our grilled chicken sandwich should be a standout. It should be our signature thing, not sort of an afterthought. So we worked on it and changed the specs for it. And I tell you, when you go onto Open Table and you see two comments in one week that they loved the grilled chicken sandwich, then you know. It gives you something you can show to the cooks and servers to show that we’re gaining ground here. Open Table is probably the most useful because you see it quick. You come out of Valentine’s weekend and by Wednesday you’ve got three or four reviews of people who ate there for Valentine’s Day. And you know if you hit it right. Then we’ll go and put it in our logbook for next year. We watch the websites religiously. Twitter is the one that’s different to me. I always tell my servers, it’s one thing when people have a good enough or a bad enough experience in a restaurant, they’re actually going to go home and take the time to fire up their computer and put a comment down. With Twitter, you don’t even get the cooling-off period. They’ll tweet it at the table, while they’re still there. The feedback is so immediate now. It used to be that just getting to a computer, at least there was some sort of delay there. But now if anything’s wrong, there are people who really are looking forward to getting it out there on Twitter.
St. Hilaire: But sometimes it’s good in a positive way. Sometimes my server will come back and say “they’re tweeting” and I’m like, “tweeting about what?” And he says, “She really likes the chocolate caramel tart.”
Harvey: I’d say the immediacy of Twitter has made it a whole different game. We have a long-term server who handles our Facebook and Twitter stuff. Anybody who runs verbal specials, you’ll hear from customers “This is a great special. Why isn’t it on the menu?” And our new answer to servers is “Tell them to become a follower on Facebook and Twitter and they’ll know when it will be on again.” I’ve had good response, so that’s our automatic answer now. Don’t come into the kitchen and ask me why it’s not on the menu. Don’t come ask me when it’s going to be on again. Tell them to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. You have a constructive answer. I always tell our servers if you really don’t know fine, but our goal is, be prepared enough that you don’t have to leave a guest’s question hanging. Be confident and speak a certain way. It may be a matter of massaging a guest through it, then come ask after service so next time you’ll be more ready. But anytime they have to come off the floor to ask a question, you’re setting up the server. The guest is already thinking, “Oh, the server is not really an expert.”
Adams: We have the servers line up three or four times a week and tell them never leave the table with question. Now if they’re asking for white asparagus and it’s January, go ahead and say no. Do anything but leave the table. Because as soon as you leave that table, you’re giving up some confidence in you. They just want to know if they can switch out the potatoes for the asparagus. Say yes to them. So it’s a big deal.
Harvey: The vast majority of what we get is good feedback. If someone has a bad experience, we’ll try to track them down and invite them back. We just want to invite them back in and turn a bad experience into a new good one.
Horgan: We have internal email that goes to all the members, and they can contact us through that. We’re a captive audience, so it’s a lot more one-on-one communication. If somebody is not happy, they don’t go home, they get comped right then. Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often but sometimes it does.

How do you choose your center of the plate options?
Willix: Most of it depends on what fish looks good that week. Ninety percent of our specials are based on me talking to the fish guy that week. What’s he got that we can get a good enough price on to do a big enough portion and put some nice stuff on the plate with it.
Horgan: I’ll rotate between lamb, veal and pork for our meats, because if I tried to sell lamb every week, they’d just get burned out. I also have a lot of the same clientele. We have 1,400 members, but we don’t have 1,400 clients that come in and eat. I have maybe 150 families who use it regularly – a couple times a week. So when I do a menu, it’s for 3 months. But then the specials, I typically use three fish.
Adams: What I always try to look at when we’re deciding what to put on the plate is if it’s something that people are wanting, and how are we going to package it to make it appealing to people. The people who are paying to come in deserve our skills to make stuff that they’re going to want. We have to package it in a way that’s appealing to the broad public. If we don’t, we’re not doing anything for anybody.
Ullio: You have to run it like a business. It’s all about the numbers, and it’s all about the people coming in and eating, and eating again.
Horgan: And integrity. You can have integrity with the simple things.

How do you think the celebritization of chefs and the popularity of the Food Network has affected your job?
Harvey: Harvey: I can’t believe how interesting people think my job is. I’m just amazed, because to me it’s a commercial art, but it’s a blue-collar profession. It’s a skilled trade. There’s nothing mystical about it. If you’re putting in the hours and doing a good job, you make a product that people want. It’s different because it nourishes you and sustains you, but when you do it your whole life, it just seems remarkable that people think it is. It’s just what I do. And that’s a product of television.
Ullio: I think it has something to do with the fact that the general public can’t cook. In Italy, when you tell people you’re a chef, they’re like, “Oh, ok. That’s great.” Because they can cook. All families cook. Cooking is centered within the family, and most people eat good family meals. So what you have is this big mystique. It’s kind of like being a musician. It’s something that most people can’t do here. In a lot of places, cooking is part of life. Where as here, it’s not. A part of life is opening a TV dinner or opening a box and dumping it in water.
Horgan: It’s just our culture. It’s like farm to table. That’s been going on since the beginning of time. It’s a big thing over the past couple of years and now it’s becoming a way of life again. People are learning how to cook and eat again. But you can earn more money now. If you are willing to put in the time and the effort and get a couple of breaks, then you can get into a position that is worthy to be called a chef.
Adams: The celebricizing of chefs and how that’s affected my life the most is the expectations of the cooks that are coming up the ranks. They get this idea in their head that they’re going to go to culinary school right out of high school. I see these people all the time. They come out of school thinking that they can come out a chef. It’s on TV and it’s glamorous, but they don’t know the first thing about what it takes to get that food on that plate and make that person happy who’s buying it.
Ullio: Look at American culture. America has always been the land of dreams. It’s always been the land of fads and the City of Angels. It’s always been “go to America and the streets are paved with gold.” Yea, but you’re going to have to work to get that gold. Everybody has a dream, and everybody wants to be glamorous. And now the dream has come to the culinary industry. Next thing you know it will be the farmers.
Harvey: There’s no doubt that you have kids that are smart, who 20 years ago their parents would have put their foot down and never allowed them to be in this business, and now it’s respectable. There are people coming into the restaurant business now who would have never before considered it a career choice. That’s a good thing. And it’s not just in the kitchen, but also for the front of the house. You’re getting people who could be more successful in more traditional white-collar business roles who are coming into restaurant management, and that’s a blessing to us. Because you’re only as good as your GM. It’s as simple as that. You think about opening a restaurant as a chef, the first thing you’re thinking is who is going to be the GM of this place? Because you know you gotta have somebody who’s going to run it the right way. That caliber of people being in the business might even be more important than the number of cooks. I’d love to see general managers and restaurant managers get a little bit more famous just because it elevates the number of people and the kind of people who do it.
Adams: I always tell the parents of these kids who come to me thinking about going to culinary school, get them graduated from high school, get them working in a restaurant. The best restaurant they can get into as a puppy out of school—peeling potatoes, washing dishes—get them into that restaurant. Because they’re going to realize one of two things. One, this is the coolest place I’ve ever been. I want to do what that guy’s doing, and if I work really hard I’m going to learn how to cook stuff, but right now I’m happy doing potatoes and the salads. Or you’re going to find “Oh my god, what in the world was I thinking? I will go to college.” A lot of parents come in and say their kid wants to be a chef, and they ask what’s the best school? And I say work in a restaurant right now, and by the time you finish high school, you already know if you want to pursue it.
Ullio: There’s a lot more to the restaurant business than just cooking. There are a lot of people who open a restaurant and they don’t understand anything about finances and they get investors. And guess what, 10 years later, they haven’t made a dime. Because you have a 25% rate of return plus you gave away 70% equity in your business, so you’re just as broke as when you started. And you’ve been working 90 hours a week for 10 years.

Are there any trends that you are seeing or incorporating in your restaurants right now, or something you see that you think is on the verge of being big?
Adams: We’ve been farm to table for 25 years. We find the best ingredients, and we present them to people. Now the carrots and the celery and the onions are not necessarily going to come from the organic farmer, because they cost 50 times as much. But I’ve been using Elysian Fields lamb for 8 years now. We buy good meat and the best fish, and that’s all part of what we do. And now it’s called “farm to table.”
Willix: It’s a marketing ploy. Any good chef has been trying to source the best product. You can’t be a chef unless you source good product. You can’t make good food unless you source good product. So we source good product and we’ve been doing it forever. I think as far as trends go, if you’re trying to find the next trend, and you have a business, then you should just close it. Because finding the next trend means that’s one more thing that’s going to go up then come right back down.

Ullio: I think we’re going back to simplicity. Chefs that have their own farm—that’s something I want to look into. See if we can find some people that are farmers that are willing to partner up with you, and then you can ask them to grow produce for you according to season, and how much we’re going to use according to this and how to split up the acres. If you can spec that out, get what you want, it allows you to control more of your product.

Adams: I think the real trend that’s good for restaurants is just buying a little bit more locally produce wise. There are more people cropping up that are within a 100-mile radius that can provide a lot of stuff. That has a lot of value to us as operators as well as for our guests. Guests love it when we tell them that stuff. They don’t choose to come to our restaurant because of that, but they’ll choose to continue to come back.
Willix: It’s a good business practice too. We’ve cut out pretty much all of the big companies. We do as much local as we can with the smaller guys. It’s just better business. We can do better deals with them. We help them and they can help us. You’re always trying to build relationships with local farmers. I don’t think it’s so much that you can market it but you have a relationship with them. You know where it comes from. Going someplace and seeing how something is handled … you don’t always know where it was before it got to your kitchen. It’s nice to know, to be able to go and figure out what’s going on with that product. How is it being grown? How is it being handled? It’s almost inspiring or motivating to see something come up, and it’s a little bit more pressure on you to do the right thing with it.
Horgan: The only downside I see to the local and the organic is the pricing. I still find that the pricing is a little out of whack. It is getting better. It’s a selling point, but until I’m able to make it a selling point for me, I can put that on my menu and it wouldn’t affect anything.
Ullio: You’d be surprised though. If people knew, if you give it to them, then they’ll like it.
Harvey: One of the more positive things is that over the past couple of years, for us with the locally grown and small farmers, the problem has always been logistics. I used to have eight trucks a day coming down this road, and that’s not really helping the environment. But if the supply chain can get more consolidated, then you can really start to get results. That helps the pricing part too, because it’s not just about how it costs on the invoice. It’s also about how many times a day does this guy have to put his knife down to check in an order. We’re all about using fewer purveyors where we can. [Several companies have] seen this coming, and they’ve done a pretty good job of making it easier for us to use local products without having to rewrite the whole how you’re going to order and how you’re going to receive this stuff. And that’s been very positive to see. Certain companies are doing a great job and are doing it really well. It’s just more cost effective.

Have you seen any change in Georgia’s restaurant industry over the past 10 years, and what do you see in its future?
Adams: It’s gotten a lot more sophisticated in the last 10 years. We’ve become a much more important restaurant market. Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have been sitting around this table. There’s an environment here where people like to eat really well, and the good, ethical and strong operators will survive. They will continue to make great food with great service, and prosper. It’s great to be a part of this market, because it’s grown up so much over the past 20 years. Twenty years ago, there was nothing. The influx of all the people from all over the place has really helped each other get better and better and better. And that’s a great thing.
St. Hilaire: I moved down to Atlanta in 1999. Everyone was still serving big cakes. I had a couple nice meals at a coupleof places, but the pastry was definitely still lagging behind the food. It runs the gamut now, where 10 years ago it didn’t. It was just pie and big chocolate cake and crème brulee. Now you can really be more creative. You can really have fun using herbs and bacon, and spiciness in the ganaches and things like that. It’s definitely gone full circle in a way that’s only gotten better.

by Diana S. Barber, J.D., CHE

Have you ever been surprised to learn that your vendor or supplier agreement did not expire, but continued on for another year or longer because you missed the window to cancel the agreement prior to automatic renewal?

Sure, if your vendor is meeting your needs and you are comfortable with the relationship, you might not ever need or want to terminate your agreement or the relationship.

However, a number of reasons could cause you to want to out of that agreement. If your supplier changes ownership or begins to sell you inferior products or service fails to meet your expectations, for example, changing vendors may be important to your ability to service your own customers. Also, if technology changes the way you operate your business or the owner of your restaurant has a closer relationship with a competitor of your vendor or supplier, you might want or need to change your vendor or supplier for pure business reasons unrelated to the vendor’s or supplier’s quality.

Small printed vendor forms cannot only be difficult to read, but can be full of traps to keep you in the relationship longer than you want to be. Below is a list of clauses essential to all restaurant vendor and supplier contracts to reduce your liability exposure as well as some clauses you should avoid in your negotiations and the written agreement.

1.    Need Early Termination. Because any number of reasons can arise in which you want or need to terminate your current supplier or vendor, make sure you negotiate an early termination provision that allows you to terminate for any reason or no reason during the term without having to pay a fee or penalty. Usually, a 30, 60 or 90 days written notice to your supplier will be fair and sufficient to avoid such penalties. There may be a certain time period in which the vendor must recoup out of pocket investments so be flexible on the early notice provision if it makes sense. The time period is negotiable and some vendors will not agree to allow an early termination. Other vendors and suppliers show confidence in their products and services by allowing an early termination clause. Although some agreements provide a termination mechanism for nonperformance of the parties, an early termination clause provision will allow you to avoid the task of justifying your termination of the agreement.

2.    Check Licenses and Permits. Do your homework on all your vendors and suppliers. Ask for copies of their business and operating licenses and permits. You need to know who you are doing business with and that they are current on their licenses and permits. Be particularly cautious with new vendors or suppliers with whom you have no prior relationship or good references. The clause in the contract should obligate the vendor or supplier to obtain the proper licenses and permits, keep all of them up to date and provide copies to you upon request. Additionally, the failure to have, maintain and provide such licenses and permits to you needs to be expressly listed as a default under the contract.

3.    Obtain an Indemnification. The contract should provide that the vendor or supplier will agree to indemnify, defend and hold you, the owner or manager of the restaurant, your officers, employees and agents harmless against any acts or omissions of the vendor or supplier (including their employees, agents and contractors) that directly or indirectly cause harm or damage to your restaurant or anyone in, on or about your restaurant, such as employees, patrons or other vendors/suppliers.

4.    Obtain Current Insurance Certificates. An indemnification from the supplier or vendor is only as good as their ability to stand by their agreement. If the company providing the indemnification has few assets to make good on any claim, it is essential to have a third party to look to for relief if you suffer damage. At a minimum, the vendor or supplier should list your company and the owner/manager of the restaurant as an additional insured (or named insured, if acceptable to the vendor) on the vendor/supplier general liability insurance policy. The clause should obligate the vendor/supplier to provide copies of insurance coverage via a certificate of insurance, obtain sufficient amounts of coverage depending on the type of product or service offered by the vendor, keep the insurance coverage current and provide that the insurance company will give you written notice of any lapse in coverage. Obtain copies of the certificate of insurance upon signing your agreements with vendors and suppliers and keep them on file for future use. When damage or injury occurs, it will be very difficult for you to obtain this vital information about the insurer from the vendor/supplier. Failure to comply with these requirements needs to be a default under the contract.

5.    Provide Details of the Product or Service. Many managers make assumptions regarding the quality of product or services they are expecting to receive from suppliers and/or vendors. These assumptions can be very expensive. If you are expecting first-class or luxury quality, it is essential to spell it out in the agreement. The standards of quality should be communicated and then delineated in the contract in sufficient detail to avoid disputes later on during the term of the agreement.

6.    Need to Provide the Term of the Agreement. It is essential that the contract contain a beginning or delivery date and an expiration date. Be clear in the contract as to your expectations to avoid a dispute. In addition, make sure all blanks (including the blank for the date at the beginning of the contract) are filled in prior to executing the contract, and certainly prior to the commencement of services.

7.    Define the Remedies for Nonperformance. The contract should contain provisions that will explain the procedures or remedies for nonperformance or poor performance. Written notice of the default, if it is to your benefit to require such notice at all, should be delivered by certified mail or overnight delivery in order to track receipt of the notice. It is common to allow a certain time period to cure defaults prior to terminating the agreement, if possible to cure under the circumstances. Make sure your contract contains these provisions so you will know how to handle these types of situations or that you made an informed decision to leave them out of the contract.

8.    No Automatic Renewals. Make sure your contract does not automatically renew so your company is not obligated to accept the products or services for another term. Some agreements provide a certain time or window for you to terminate the contract, usually 30 or 60 days prior to the anniversary date. If you allow this type of clause without having an early termination right as mentioned above and you miss this cancellation window, you will be locked into another year (assuming it is an annual renewal term). Even with an early termination clause, it is best to have the term of the agreement expire on the anniversary date and a new agreement may be entered into between the parties. Over time, too many variables can change and the best way to protect you and your business from a bad deal is to avoid committing yourself to long-term arrangements. At the very least, if automatic renewal must be part of the deal, you should be compensated for allowing the clause into the contract.

9.    No Restrictions on Assignment. Many standard vendor and supplier forms prohibit the customer from assigning the agreement to another party. There may come a time when the restaurant changes ownership or management and there is a need to transfer the agreement to the new owner or manager so that the product and/or service will continue uninterrupted. Having the flexibility of assignment built in to all your vendor/supplier agreements will save you the time and money needed to obtain vendor/supplier approvals of the assignments when an event occurs that requires obtaining consents. The reverse is not true. The vendor, however, should not be free to assign the contract without your prior approval.

10.    No Personal Guarantees. Some vendor and supplier forms require the owner or manager to sign a personal guarantee primarily used for securing payment in the event the restaurant business is unable to pay. I suggest you negotiate the deletion of these clauses. Provide financial records or bank references to the vendor or supplier to achieve the comfort level needed to omit this requirement. If you do enter into a personal guarantee, make sure you fully understand all of the ramifications to your personal assets. On suggestion is to allow them for a set period of time only.

Although not exhaustive, this list will go along way in reducing liability to your restaurant. Carefully review each one of these clauses in all contract negotiations.

Diana S. Barber, J.D., CHE is a hospitality lawyer and also teaches full time at Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality, J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. For more information, Ms. Barber can be reached at (770) 813-9363 or dsbarber@gsu.edu.

This article contains general information. It is not designed to be and should not be relied on as your sole source of information when analyzing and resolving a specific legal issue. Each fact situation is different; the laws are constantly changing. If you have specific questions regarding a particular fact situation, we urge you to consult with competent legal counsel.

March 2010

By Harry Haff, , CEC, CCA, WSET Advanced Certificate, Chef Instructor,
Le Cordon Bleu, Atlanta

A wine list can present many challenges for a restaurant owner or chef, but when the list is balanced and the wait staff knows the wines and can make knowledgeable recommendations to the guest, it can coax the best out of your menu. Yet many restaurants have wine lists that do not seem designed to compliment or augment the menu, and some servers do not know how to sell the wine.

When these situations occur, too often the result may be poorly selected bottles of wine that do not pair well with the foods ordered, or the guest may select a glass of a house wine that seems safe and the restaurateur loses a potential sale.

How can these situations be avoided and turned into opportunities for greater guest satisfaction and greater sales for the operator?

The menu, whatever it is, should direct how a wine list is developed. There are several menu factors that should influence the wine list: Style of cuisine with compatible wines, calculating the average entrée price and pricing a list to be a reasonable companion to the menu. In addition, a well thought out list provides multiple price points on the wine list for each entrée on the menu, both in wines sold by the bottle and glass.

If your restaurant serves a highly seasoned cuisine, say food from southern Italy, your wine choices should be equally robust to stand up to the flavor and texture levels of the food. This does not mean the list is to have only wines from southern Italy, but the style represented by these Italian wines—full flavor, almost overripe fruit, mouth filling, juicy, chewy—should predominate on your list.

The wine list needs to be balanced by matching food and wine styles. Not everyone likes big wines, so make sure there are some more gentle reds available other than those listed above. After all, not every item on your menu is a blockbuster in the taste and texture department.

As part of a balanced list, make sure there are Old and New World wines fairly and proportionally represented. Remember, the goal is to sell wine to everyone who orders your food, and easily recognizable varietal labels and brand names as well as Old World regional labels can appeal to a broad spectrum of your guests, from the novice to the aficionado.

Knowledge is key to driving your wine sales. Consider the following information compiled by Russell Research in 2006:
•    42% of people who describe themselves as wine drinkers are intimidated by restaurant wine lists
•    Of this knowledge group, 43% consider themselves novices
•    63% of the self-named wine drinkers prefer a large selection even though many admit their knowledge level is not great
•    Guidance is overwhelmingly important—73% of wine drinkers want more guidance when ordering wine in a restaurant
•    And 52% go beyond guidance and want recommendations by the restaurant to assist in making their selections.

Just as there are descriptions of food items on the menu, descriptions on a wine list should provide some information about the taste profile for a wine. Guests and servers can make better wine choices to pair with their already selected food with well-written, short descriptions. This allows wine novices the ability to gain some confidence before ordering.

For the more experienced guest, no one knows all the wines that may be placed on a list. A guest may be tempted to try something a little unfamiliar if he or she has a good reference point for that wine, perhaps by having a short description comparing this wine to one that that may be more well known.

Just as guests look to menu descriptions to assist in making food-ordering choices, so too do guests look for guidance when it comes to knowing something about a wine to be ordered. No one wants to make a mistake when ordering a wine for the table—it makes them assume both a social and financial risk and can negatively affect the dining experience for the host as well as the guests.

Consider choice: When given multiple choices, customers generally up-sell themselves for their choice. But choice can be a double-edged sword: more than 25% of guests ordering wine in restaurants say they are confused and overwhelmed by the variety of choices present. So your list needs to be balanced regarding the number of choices.

The Russell Research study indicated that respondents preferred a list of at least 32 wines. Using the precepts above, discipline yourself to use these 32 selections as a good starting point for matching your wine items with your menu items. If you decide to expand your list, consider:
•    Does each addition balance my list in relationship to my menu? Am I adding items to have at least three choices of wines, at different price points, for each entrée?
•    If I have a specific theme in my restaurant as reflected by the menu, do my selections on the wine list enhance the dining experience for this cuisine or theme? Does each wine add something to the enjoyment of the menu items?
•    Just as I employ cross utilization for ingredients in developing my menu, do I have cross utilization for my wines? Can each wine be a good choice for more than one entrée on my menu?

If I change my menu, I should change at least some selections on my wine list to reflect and compliment changes in my menu. If the chef is crafting a summer menu of lighter salads as entrees, grilled poultry and seafood items with perhaps fruit relishes or salsas, the wine list in my establishment that served so well for hearty winter fare will not be compatible or in balance with my summer offerings.

Unless your theme prohibits change, think about adding rosés from the south of France or even (gasp) white Zinfandels for easy summertime enjoyment. Rosés from Spain and the Loire have inexpensive purchase points, are well matched with warm weather fare and easy to love, due in no small part to their versatility. This type of example can be extended for any seasonal menu changes you might make.

And speaking of, in the Untied States there are more than 40 million people who like white Zinfandel. Think about it. Can the wine that gets no respect be integrated into a respectable wine list?  To answer this, simply think about why the wine list is there!

When it comes to price points, all operations are unique so I cannot tell you how to price specific wines, but I do know there needs to be a reasonable relationship between entrée price points and wine price points. For example, if your entrees average $20, a good place to have most of your wines is in the $40 per bottle range, or two times the price of the average entrée. Factored into this relationship will be your purchase point. No one can afford to undercharge for food or wine. Starting with the menu, the wine list prices and purchase points will follow.

Much of what will sell wine in your operation has to do with education and making your guests feel comfortable in the choice of wine they have made to accompany their food. This is where staff training comes in.

Most servers do not know a lot about wine. Just as your chef needs to explain the menu to have servers knowledgeable about the food, so too do they need to be familiar with, and knowledgeable about, the wines that will go with food. If wine follows food, then servers need to know and be comfortable about what it is they are supposed to sell.

Staff tastings with menu items is crucial. When your list has three choices per entrée, taste your staff through each one explaining as you go.  Servers sell what they know and are familiar with. It is your job, and the job of the chef, to increase the knowledge of your wait staff on the specific wines on your list and why food and wine pairings work.

If your servers “get it” about how the wine list follows and compliments the menu, they will have the confidence to recommend good choices to your guests, just as they would food items. When that happens, your sales will increase and your customers will return because you are creating a perception of value and trust through your efforts.

Harry Haff teaches Wines and Beverages, Cost Control and a variety of hot foods and baking and pastry classes at Le Cordon Bleu, Atlanta. A hospitality professional for more than 25 years, he has an intense interest in and knowledge of wines and beverages.

Tipping the Glass – Georgia’s Restaurateurs on Trend with Wine and Beer

March 2010

by Shannon Wilder

When it comes to beverage trends, the clear expectation is that flavor is going to carry the day. But what comes to the fore in this economic environment is that, across the board, savvy restaurateurs are focusing as much on the experience surrounding the drinker as what’s in the glass, whether it’s wine, beer or non-alcoholic beverages.

According to data from the Beverage Information Group, people in the United States consumed nearly 3 gallons of wine per person in 2008. Many are the first round of Millennials—those born roughly between 1980 and 2000— who are now of legal drinking age and who are more savvy about wine at an earlier age than previous generations.

Many diners, including Millennials, will continue to be cost-conscious through 2010 as the economy slowly rebounds, and that means bottles of wine between $25 and $50 will continue to be frequent sellers.

Unique Experiences Reign
Diners have been cautious regarding who they spend their money with, and that won’t change in 2010. Restaurants who can provide these cost-conscious patrons a unique experience without them spending a bundle will be rewarded with repeat and loyal customers.

For Joël Brasserie in Atlanta, that unique experience translates to wine tastings and dinners, educational wine seminars, and its French-born sommelier, Perrine Prieur.

Prieur, who grew up on her family’s vineyard in Burgundy, has an extensive knowledge of wines from around the world. Diners often seek out Joël—recognized in both 2007 and 2008 with Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence—and Prieur because of her deep understanding of French wines.

Prieur helps educate diners and attract people to the restaurant with monthly wine seminars. The budget-friendly events are $35 for an hour and a half session, complete with hors d’oeuvres, and focus on wines of a particular nation or region, such as France, Italy, Spain or South America.  She also uses the seminars to focus on new and upcoming trends such as organic and biodynamic wines.

And while the more pricy wine dinners are nothing new, they still do attract diners looking for that unique experience and will continue to be popular in the coming year.

Prieur says she enjoys planning wine dinners for her restaurant’s clientele. “Every month, sometimes twice a month, I try to get winemakers here,” she says. “I try to do wine parings but it’s boring to do always the same wines. Each dinner needs to try something different.” So far, she’s hosted vintners from Chile, Argentina, Napa Valley, Oregon, Bordeaux and Champagne. A recent wine dinner focused on a vineyard in Burgundy that uses organic practices.

As far as the wines themselves, more clear fruit flavors are starting to overtake the woodsy notes, and brighter flavors are gaining popularity.

Staying Green and Close to Home
It’s no surprise that the organic and local movement is starting to infiltrate the beverage world given its popularity in chefs’ kitchens, and organic and local wines will continue to pick up steam in the coming year.

While there are several Georgia wineries gaining recognition, Prieur has noticed that it’s been difficult to carry Georgia wines in the restaurant, but sees that changing in the coming years as the local movement continues to gather steam.

She currently offers an ice wine from Clayton-based Persimmion Creek, noting that it pairs well with dishes as diverse as foie gras and a Fuji baked apple with caramel sauce.

“I’d like to pour some more and represent a little bit more,” she says of Georgia-based wineries, “but it’s not that big a demand yet.”

Although interest in “green” beverages is growing, restaurant diners may still be confused about some of the terminology. Part of the issue is that these sustainable labels don’t always have teeth. While food and beverages can be certified organic, there is still some confusion regarding other green terms slapped onto labels. More regulations within the wine industry are on the horizon to help customers navigate these increasingly popular terms, and with it an increase in diners’ requests for these more earth-friendly options.

Tech-Savvy Equals Wine Savvy

The wine world has not been immune to the influence of the Internet, and Millennials are leading the charge.

From the social networking site Wine 2.0 to more than 700 wine blogs and iPhone apps, technology and the Millennials who use it will continue to influence how restaurant patrons learn about and purchase their wines while dining out. It’s a trend that shows no sign of stopping, and could influence how restaurants market their wine lists in the future.

Getting Crafty
Just as the local and organic movement is touching the wine world, so too are there an increasing number of organic and locally brewed beers being requested by diners.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the top trend for beer and wine is locally produced wine and beer, with organic wine and beer coming in fourth and craft beer ranked at No. 6.

A few decades ago, says Nick Kaye, managing editor of Atlanta-based Beer Connoisseur, a newly launched magazine that aims to be the brew crew’s version of Food & Wine, there were just a handful of big breweries producing beer in America.

Now, however, the craft brew movement is in full force. Much like family-owned wineries, craft breweries – defined by the Brewers Association, a trade group for craft brewers, as producing no more than 2 million barrels of beer a year – are cropping up all over the country producing innovative reinterpretations of historic beer styles made from a mix of traditional and nontraditional ingredients.

You’d be hard pressed to find a drinking establishment in the state these days that doesn’t have at least one local Georgia brewery represented in some form.

That wasn’t always the case. Alan LeBlanc, co-owner of Atlanta’s Max Lager’s, the state’s oldest independent brewery restaurant, encountered a sort of bias against craft beers and microbrews when he started up 12 years ago. “They’d say, ‘No, I don’t like microbrews’ because they had one they didn’t like. I think a few years back we reached the tipping point where people realized they might not like all the microbrewed beers, but that doesn’t mean its bad beer. It’s no different than preferring Merlots over Cabernets.”

The craft beer movement, Kaye says, “is a mission to spread the word of good beer and get it into more people’s mouths and restaurants. Beer is being treated these days, and appreciated these days, the way wine always has. It’s a whole new level.”

And like wine, several restaurants in Georgia are starting to offer beer-cheese pairings and beer dinners. In fact, Kaye says when it comes to one time-honored pairing – wine and cheese – beer may be ready to give the grapes a run for their money. “At its base level, the effervescence of beer, the carbonation really cuts through some of your more heavy, fatty buttery cheeses like a goat cheese.”

Knowledgeable Staff
Many in the state’s rapidly expanding restaurant market rely heavily on well-prepared servers who function as de facto cicerones, the beer world’s version of the sommelier, to help educate diners on the increasing array of beer choices.

Kaye singles out Taco Mac’s extremely knowledgeable Beverage Director Fred Crudder, who has a sort of club room named after him at the Sandy Springs location. It’s open to members of Taco Mac’s Brewniversity, a combination beer education and customer rewards program that helps patrons navigate the chain’s formidable beer offerings.

Based on Taco Mac’s former Passport Club program, the Brewniversity encourages patrons to try new beers. Diners get credit for each different brew they select, and an “ID card” keeps track of progress. Those in the program start to receive rewards starting with the 13th unique beer consumed.

Trend Setters
Down in Savannah, the Nichols brothers, John and Phillip, who recently reopened one of the city’s oldest dining establishments, the c. 1933 Crystal Beer Parlor, offer a page-plus menu advising the perfect beer to go with dishes such as chili cheese dogs, gumbo, steaks, shrimp, and even a Greek salad.

Crystal Beer Parlor has close to 100 beers in bottles and 15 on tap. The Nichols also keep a book out in which patrons are encouraged to make suggestions. Most of what’s currently in stock, Nichols says, is craft brews, including beer from Savannah’s own Moon River Brewing Co.

Max Lager’s, which, like Moon River, is one of the nation’s 990 brewpubs, now offers beer parings, beer dinners and beer flights with six glasses.

“It’s very social,” says Alan of the beer flights. “It’s very interactive, and you’re developing a nice knowledge.”

The restaurant has also launched an entirely new event, Beer Judging 101. LeBlanc says patrons are presented with an official beer-judging sheet and compare one of Max Lager’s house brewed beers with similar bottled varieties. The idea is to learn to assess the characteristics of each.

“We conduct a beer judging seminar to teach people about the different varieties,” he says. “I’ll bring our beer and several bottles of a similar style together and lay out the official beer judging guide sheets and have some appetizers beforehand. Then we’ll come in and sit down and do a beer judging seminar so people can see varieties, … what the differences are in character. That’s something I find to be a lot of fun.

“It’s about different, unique flavors and experiences,” he adds. “Not seeking the same old same old but trying to discover something interesting, something that you like, something that’s different.”

Unlike many of the state’s dining establishments with hundreds of beers available, Max Lager’s carefully culls its offering to some 30 bottled beers in addition to the handful of house brews. While some offerings—usually a dark lager, a pilsner and Vienna-style red beer—stay on tap year-round, LeBlanc says brewer John Roberts reserves one or two of the restaurant’s taps for a seasonal brew such as a barleywine beer that will be ready to pour this spring and an Imperial Oatmeal Stout, which is earmarked for St. Patrick’s Day.

Before the new Crystal Beer Parlor owners relaunched the restaurant, they sat down with a local beer expert and planned out the offerings. Among them is a selection of retro beers called “Beers of Our Fathers,” which includes such familiar names as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz, Stroh’s, Dixie and Genesee Cream Ale.

Nichols also keeps an eye out for vintage beers – he happened upon some vintage 2006 and 2007 Stone Double Bastard, a California ale. “I got the only two cases in Savannah and sold them in 24 hours,” Nichols says. The higher the alcohol content, the longer the beer keeps, he adds. But don’t expect any 100-year-old vintages; beers last about five to six years.

He also plans to start carrying gluten-free beer in the near future. He’s had a few requests for this type of beer, which is made from sorghum, and also has a family member with celiac disease—such people can’t tolerate gluten, which normally comes from grain, especially wheat.

The industry is also seeing an upswing is canned beers, but not like the ones your father used to drink. Canned beers have had a bad rap for so long, but with new lining technology, more breweries are finding that the cans keep the beer fresh longer and give a truer taste with some types of beer. Dale’s Pale Ale, a craft beer out of Lyons, Colo., is just one example of a high-end beer that’s sold in a can and has started to have a wider distribution in Georgia.

It’s this mix of quality and perceived value that will continue to drive the beverage industry into 2010.

“Conspicuous consumption is not cool anymore,” LeBlanc says. “For somebody like us who’s always offered a high-quality product, we’re not the cheapest but we’re not the most expensive—we’re being successful in this environment.”

May 13, 2010 in Wills Park in Alpharetta, GA.  For more information, visit www.alpharetta.ga.us

Concentrics Restaurants, based in Atlanta, is now offering customers a dining card loyalty program. “Circle Concentrics,” provides a customer and guest a 10% off with each Concentrics Restaurant.

There are eight participating Concentrics Restaurants, including: ONE. midtown kitchen, Two Urban Licks, Tap, Parish, The Bakeshop, Murphy’s, Lobby and Room.

The customer must bring their card from their first Concentrics meal to receive 10% off at the second meal, 20% at their third, 30% at their  fourth, and so on.  By visiting all eight participating Concentrics restaurants, the customer will receive a FREE meal! The offer does not include alcohol, tax or gratuity, and cannot be combined with any other offer. Valid to dine-in customers with purchase of meal only, minimum $20 spent at lunch and $40 at dinner.  Must give email address at each restaurant to receive discount. Applies to a maximum of 2 guests.  One visit per restaurant.

YEAH! BURGER, owned by Erik Maier of Better Brands and Shaun Doty of Shaun’s, is opening the first week of June in the White Provision complex at 14th Street and Howell Mill Road.

YEAH! BURGER is an interpretation of the classic American burger joint as a fast-casual eatery with a commitment to organic ingredients and sustainability.  The restaurant will feature customizable burgers made with White Oak Pastures grass-fed beef from South Georgia, nitrate-free hot dogs, hand-cut French fries, organic salads and Straus Family Creamery organic ice cream, served in a comfortable “California casual” setting.  YEAH! BURGER will offer lunch and dinner seven days a week.

The restaurant includes a carry-out counter. Online and mobile to-go ordering will be available this summer.

Chef Doty, known for his  ingredient-driven cuisine and simple preparations at his Shaun’s restaurant, created a menu with gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options for diners with special nutritional needs.  YEAH! BURGER’s built-to-order menu provides guests with the ultimate in customization and allows them to create food to fit their desired flavor profile or dietary needs.
“It’s very important for us that guests can customize their food to fit their diet or taste preferences,” says Doty.

Burgers will start at $5.99 and increase slightly in price depending on guests’ patty and topping selections. The bar seats up to 17 guests and serves a full selection of beer, wine and cocktails.  The restaurant, Designed by Stacey Kirby and Matt Redden of Seiber Design Inc., has a 2,500-square-foot space that seats 55 guests in the dining room and more than 40 guests on the concrete-tiled patio.

Chef Nick Oltarsh has returned to the restaurant, Lobby Bar and Bistro, that he launched 5 years ago.

The former chef at Murphy’s in Virginia Highland, Chef Oltarsh opened Lobby Bar and Bistro in Atlantic Station’s TWELVE Hotel in 2005. The menu included Oltarsh’s contemporary classic American dishes with innovative twists. While at Lobby, Chef Oltarsh also launched the steak and sushi concept ROOM located in Centennial Park’s TWELVE Hotel. After 5 years, Oltarsh returns to Lobby Bar and Bistro with a completely revamped the menu.

A recipient of the StarChefs Atlanta “Rising Star Hotel Chef” award, Oltarsh launched his career in 1992 and trained with some of the finest chefs in America.  He worked in New York’s Eleven Madison Park where he served as sous chef from 1998 to 2001 and Gramercy Tavern where he held the title of Tavern Chef.

May 12, 2010 at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. For more information, visit www.atlantataste.org