This is a Restaurant Wine excerpt
from Issue 103, Sept/Oct 2004.
Subscriptions start at $99 per year
in the U.S. Visit our subscription
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The “Staff Picks” Page At Ray’s
Is A Winning
Concept
The very first page of the 20 page wine list at Ray’s
is devoted to a riveting promotion: "Staff Picks",
which was unveiled in late May, 2004.
It is a simple but brilliant concept, which combines
the personal wine recommendations of several employees
(and one owner) with the sales incentive of a 25% discount
on each listed wine. The promotion was in instant success,
Carreon says.
The promotion changes every 4 to 5 weeks, when new servers
are asked to contribute their top picks. Carreon asks
these servers for a list of 7 or 8 potential picks, which
he narrows down to 5 wines. “Some wines we have
only a few bottles of and can’t purchase any more.
So availability is an issue [in what goes on the page].”
Carreon is quick to point out that servers at Ray’s
are quite wine knowledgeable. “They enjoy wine
and we taste lots of wines here. It is easy for them
to make their picks, and they get very excited about
it.”
Not surprisingly, servers opt for wines they are proud
to be associated with, “wine discoveries” and “wine
gems” that many customers would not normally think
to order. Carreon says, “The picks aren’t
mainstream wines. The personal recommendation plus the
25% discount give customers an incentive to try something
different.”
This is a Restaurant Wine excerpt
from Issue 103, Sept/Oct 2004.
Subscriptions start
at $99 per year in the U.S. Visit our subscription
page to place your order today. Also, browse our
complete back issue collection by
topic to buy individual back issues ($24 each / $27 outside USA) for
particular inspiration.
