It’s hard to differentiate your restaurant’s wine program among many competitors in your area and really make it stand out.  Nearly every restaurant considers it table stakes to have a well trained staff and diverse wine list so there is something for everyone on the list.  But did you know that expanding your by-the-glass offerings can be one of the best ways to appeal to customers and increase your sales?

Having a big, diverse list is great, but not if there are very few by-the-glass options.  Many diners want to try new and different things, but aren’t comfortable spending a lot of money on a bottle they’ve never had before.  Enter your glass program, where diners could taste multiple different wines without committing to a bottle.

Fleming’s, the national steakhouse chain, has done just that.  By providing 100 by-the-glass options to diners, the steakhouse has seen sales increase 4.2% this past year while all their competitors were declining.  Providing a diverse glass list can allow you to provide multiple pour sizes as well, by going smaller with a 3oz taste portion or providing a larger 9oz pour like Fleming’s does.

One of the challenges of expanding the glass list is having wine go bad if it isn’t ordered frequently.  There are several things you can do to address this and make glass pours more profitable with less waste: Read more