Even casual places such as Cafe Express and Breadwinners list wines by the glass with details on vineyard, varietal and year. But as the variety and awareness level increases, so does the price. A common rule is that whatever a restaurant charges for a glass of wine is what it paid for the bottle. The first glass recoups the cost, and the rest is profit. Unfortunately, restaurants feel their wine list is supposed to be some major profit center,'' he says.
Most restaurants mark their stuff up two to three times.
People end up spending more on wine than they do dinner. If restaurateurs priced their lists intelligently, they'd sell more wine. The Grape's co-owners, Kathy McDaniel and Charlotte Parker, were voted into Who's Who in Food and Wine and Texas during the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival this year, in recognition of their extensive list of Texas wines. Though well known for its wine program, The Grape does not aspire to great heights in terms of selection or direction. We don't have an upscale or a lower-scale or a young or an old customer,'' says manager Mark Gilsdorf.