Major restaurants slash wine prices

Somms weep, "Take my wine.  Please!"

This is an exception to my take-no-press-releases policy because it is so newsworthy.  Read it and weep?  Laugh?  Wonder what levels of indigence lie in our common future? 

By 2011, the US will become the world's biggest consumer of still wine according to a recent VINEXPO study.

However, this momentum could change if the economy worsens and the interest in luxury items begins to wane. To accommodate Americans growing interest in wine and their quest to save money in a down economy, Patina Restaurant Group is offering a 25% savings promotion called Wines for the Wise, on all bottles of wine purchased at several of their New York City restaurants through March 31.

The following restaurants will be participating in the Wines for the Wise program: Sea Grill, Brasserie 8½, Brasserie, Café Centro, Rock Center Cafe, and Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse

Feel free to contact me anytime for hi-res images, wine menus or other information.

Thanks,

Sevan

 Sevan Kalayjian

5W Public Relations

1120 Avenue of the Americas, 7th Fl

New York, NY 10036

M: 212.999.5585

D: 212.584.4301

E: skalayjian@5wpr.com

P

 Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

I like the last eco-friendly touch. 

And I love the patriotic angle:  Help the USA become #1 in wine consumption.  It's up to you!

Anyway, I did contact Sevan for a few of the wine lists in question, knowing full well that the eateries in the

release depend heavily on business expense accounts for their patronage. What sort of bargains would we find now that expense accounts are going the way of the great American middle class?  See for yourself via the links below.  

My take on it is this: these must indeed be hard times for restaurants.  A 25% discount on wine cuts into a huge part of their margins.  When you can buy a passable Alsatian Pinot Gris, for example, at $30 a bottle instead of $40, the place is sacrificing perhaps one-third to one-half its markup -- a markup that helps keep the staff paid, the lights on, the rent paid.  The pain's a bit less acute if it's 25% off a $140 bottle of white Burgundy, let's say.  And in normal times more people would be tempted to splurge a little because a $115 bottle in a restaurant seems rather more justifiable than $140. 

But these are not normal times.  Expense accounts are doubtless being carefully scrutinized by fearful, angry lower-level bean-counters.  And with the weakening pound and euro, how many free-spending tourists are there around these days?

Below are the links Sevan sent me.

Sea Grill: http://www.patinagroup.com/cgi-bin/menu.cgi?url=http://www.patinagroup.com/east/menu/seaGrill/wine.swf&LinkName=Sea%20Grill

From a post a few years ago:

Sea Grill vs. Eleven Madison Park

I observed last night, as we lingered over the last of the wine, that the Sea Grill strikes me as more old-style New York than Eleven Madison Park.  I mean by that the New York of old movies, because it fits one's idea of New York sophistication and bustle.  High gloss, convincing plastic surgery and expensive duds, people of a certain age enjoying their money.  The service was smoother, more professional and less intrusive at the Sea Grill. 

 Brasserie: http://www.patinagroup.com/cgi-bin/menu.cgi?url=http://www.patinagroup.com/east/menu/brasserie/wineList.swf&LinkName=Brasserie

 Centro: http://www.patinagroup.com/cgi-bin/menu.cgi?url=http://www.patinagroup.com/east/menu/cafeCentro/wineList.swf&LinkName=Caf%e9%20Centro

Comments

[AJ]

Over here on the west coast we're seeing mark downs on wine list of up to 50% and a noticeable decline in the number of back waiters and bussers on hand. These are desperate times indeed. At our company dinners it is no longer considered appropriate to expense bottles of wine. Although it's not expressly forbidden I consider it more prudent to bring wines from my own cellar. It's not just restauranteurs that are walking the tightrope of solvency. This time around nobody is immune or above scrutiny of the bean counters.

[Strappo]

Several immediate thoughts inspired by your comment, AJ:

1. there will be more returnees to Mexico
2. there will be more social unrest in Mexico
3. there will be more social unrest in this country if the GOP continues to live in the past
4. high-profile restos will close in increasing numbers, even past the bottom of this depression - the bottom we haven't yet reached
5. prudent pricing strategies on the restaurant and wholesale wine sides will enable mid-priced places of good if not madly creative food to thrive

Thanks for your comment.