It's 3 AM, Are Restaurant Wine Lists Answering the Call?

Happy New Year! As a follow up to our look back at 2008, and a look forward to 2009, one of my long time colleagues and kick-tush sommeliers, Randy Caparoso, had more insights to add to wine list trends that I wanted to include as a further discussion point for our Charles Communications Associates Trend Watch 2009. "It's 3:00 AM in the restaurant world. The economy is rattling our windows, costs are obliterating margins, and last year's projections seem as hopeful as a bride without a first date. The first thing every savvy restaurateur does under these circumstances is...Read the full article.

Visit Culinary Wine & Food Adventures for more insights.

Cheers!  Go Randy.

Pause: it's a powerful word

Do you ever notice how we forget to pause and reflect or breathe for that matter in these hectic times we live in? I have a friend who is a story teller professionally who tells me that the pause taken in the course of telling a good story, is just as important as the words themselves. All this to say that I’m taking a pause in the middle of the holiday season, when we’re blessed with being busy making 2009 plans for our clients that encompass the worlds of tea, chocolate, fine wine and environmental causes, to share Charles Communications' insights into beverage trends be they green, vinuous, spirituous or non-alcoholic. These were presented at the 2009 San Francisco Trends  Think Tank organized and presented by my long term friend and colleague Andrew Freeman, who has a knack for what’s next. I’d like to think that our curiosity and desire to quench our thirst for knowledge, informs what we envision to be the trends for next year.  I plan on making this forecast annually, and I hope the research helps you in whatever way possible.  So get a glass of your favorite beverage, and sit back for a look see into the crystal glass of 2009

Top Beverage Trends for 2009General Overarching Trends:

Going Green Organic, Biodynamic, Fair Trade and Sustainable offerings are continuing their upswing in many arenas be it fine wines, mass market wines, craft brew beer, spirits, coffee, teas, juices. It’s becoming more of a standard than a specialty item, but still has a ways to go. Also because there are so many shades of green, consumers have yet to have complete confidence in or understanding of the degrees of greenness in products.

Mr. McGuire to Benjamin in the Graduate, I’ve Got One Word for you: Plastics As the beverage industry responds to two incentives 1) consumer call for more green packaging and 2) the economic realities of rising fuel costs and shipping rates, packages are getting lighter and carbon footprints are getting smaller. More beverages from Coca Cola to Appellation Controlled Rhone wine are being packaged in PET plastic bottles, meant for early, quick consumption, not aging.

Small is Beautiful Sample sizes are not just for beauty products any more. Many wines are being offered more often in ½ bottles now for those who are watching their intake or who are being savvy shoppers. There are even juice size boxes for wine in 250 ml sizes. Ready to drink is not just for non-alcoholic beverages.

It’s a Small World After All As the internet has brought us closer, and as people who enjoy beverages travel and seek value, we are seeing more exotic wines show up on wine lists from places such as Croatia, Uruguay, Turkey, India, China. Beverage managers for top restaurants are now visiting distilleries around the world, in addition to wineries as well as other locales where unique beverages are crafted.

Alternative Packaging: Recycling Many products are either making their packages more environmentally sensitive (note the new water bottle shape using less plastic), or are made of post consumer recycled product or are 100% recyclable. Tasty affordable wines are showing up in trendy modern designed boxes and tetra paks, aluminum bottles and lighter weight glass. Some bottles are being designed by spirits companies for re-purposing, re-use.

Drinking outside of the Box: High end designed boxed wines are no longer the stigma socially that they used to be. Quality across the boards from import to domestic is on the rise, and with premium wine prices rising, boxed wines are the chic alternative for big gatherings and at home consumption.

Education: No Glass Left Behind From servers to clientele in hotels, restaurants, wine shops the thirst for education has never been stronger. Certification programs are abounding for wine knowledge at the consumer and trade level. Staff are being trained to know everything from sakes to teas to artisan tequilas so they can up sell their clientele. Staff trainings and tastings are more prevalent than ever. Many restaurants are offering their clients an opportunity to be educated on specific subjects of interest i.e. Single Malt Sundays at the Viceroy in L.A., Sommelier Unplugged Nights with Chris Sawyer at the Carneros Bistro in Sonoma, Eno-Versity at Eno in Chicago where clients learn about wine, chocolate, cheese once a month.

What a Pair Going beyond the traditional, restaurants are pairing all sorts of beverages with their menus these days from beer to sake to coffee, and are also giving clients suggestions right on the menu of wines by the glass or bottle to enjoy with their dish, helping clients get over the hurdle of what to pair with their meal.

Flight Instructors It’s taking off, sample sizes or tastes of different wines, beers, spirits, sakes are being offered in wine bars, restaurants, hotel bars/lounges. Two ounce pours of different offerings are offered in flights for people to learn about nuances i.e. difference between blanco and reposado tequilas, to experimenting with new wine producing regions around the world in a glass. Bars are encouraging trial and sampling, Try Before You Buy. Small tastes of top luxury wines/spirits are also popular where one can have a taste of something that may be out of normal affordability range: a bit of luxurious indulgence.

It’s the Economy Stupid As goes the general world economy of haves and have nots, while value sensitivity is increasing in restaurants and wine shops where consumers are quietly downshifting their price points for wines by the glass or wine purchases by the bottle, at the same time, people are splurging for $2,000 shots of rare single malt whiskeys or spending $75 for a vintage dated top growth Bordeaux by the glass.

Here Come the Millennials One of the most influential groups to affect the world of beverage especially wine, but it extrapolates to the cocktail and beer culture too. Many are price resistant, well-traveled, internet savvy and total networkers: encouraging and sharing wine, beer, cocktail faves like never before. They are being credited with helping the wine industry have one of its strongest year’s ever. Unorthodox in their approach, they are leading the way with trial and experimentation across the boards.

For everything there is a Season Seasonality in ingredients is not just for the menu any more, there are seasonal farmer’s market based cocktails exploding on the scene in the world of mixology. Craft brews made for a limited seasonal time are at an all time high in terms of popularity fueling the locavore movement and the sense of being sensitive to the season we’re in resonate with consumers.

Trends in Specific Beverage Arenas:

Raise the Wine Bar It has been said that Wine Bars are the Coffee Bars of the 2000s. Wine Bar concepts are exploding around the country with mutiple bottle lists, themes (i.e. only South African or California based wine lists), large numbers of wines by the glass i.e. 50-100 offerings are quite common in many new wine bars. Themes that get people’s attention from ‘Oak vs. Stainless’ chardonnays, to ‘Funky Reds’ are popping up on lists to get consumers to have fun while they’re getting educated.

Will we see Wine at McDonald’s? As we see institutions such as McDonald’s serving the needs of coffee drinkers seeking lower priced alternatives to Starbucks, perhaps wine isn’t far off. Some early adopter upscale fast food locales such as Q-Shack in North Carolina or Taylor’s Refresher in California are offering wines by the glass or ½ bottle with your pulled pork and hamburger. Noodles & Co. and Pei Wei are chains that are offering wines now. Why not? It might slow the artery hardening... :)

Are you Local? All 50 states produce wine today in the U.S. and as the quality levels continue to improve, we’re seeing more local wines on lists in urban markets as well as more demand to have wines consumed locally that have a lower carbon footprint. Sommeliers are encouraging trial with tastes and local farmer ingredient driven menus for pairing.

SpiritsFrom Sea to Shining Sea From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Bay Area, mom and pop distilleries are all the rage with over 100 independent spirits producers in Northern America (up from 5 in 1990), small spirits producers are being championed by the urbane mixologists across the country, creating a market and demand completely unexpected. Called the “gourmet-fication” of spirits by experts, expect to see more on the scene.

Corpse Revival Playing off the term used for a classic cocktail including Absinthe, obscure, once forgotten spirits are coming back due to high demand from the creative cocktailians mixing it up across the country. Spirits and liqueurs such as Crème de Violette, Absinthe, Swedish Punch are being brought back by purists who want to see classics revived.

Ying and Yang in Cocktail Culture Borrowing from the savory and sweet side of many menus, and crossing over between bartender and chef, never before have the kitchen and the bar collaborated so closely in the making of cocktails. Gone are many of the super sweet cocktails (dessert cocktails excepted), and mixologists are opting for the palate cleansing balance of a good cocktail.

Drink Your Dessert Many mixologists are finding innovative ways to forego dessert in favor of a dessert like cocktail or even a cocktail that is half eaten and half drunk such as the French Toast cocktail at Benoit Bar in NYC or the White Russian Rice Krispie flavored treat at Tailor in Soho, NYC.

That’s the Spirit Certain spirits seem to have a buzz going, meaning that they’ve become the darlings of the mixology set…2008 saw a rise in popularity of 100% agave Tequila, Absinthe with its legal status granted for the first time in 75 years, genever style Gin gaining favor over traditional gin, Small Batch Whiskey from different states in the U.S., artisanal Bourbon still rising in popularity as an American original.

Beer: Roll out the Barrel Cask ales from craft brewers are now offering limited releases and are being aged in cellars in restaurants like wine. Restaurants are beginning to pair specialty cask beers with menus and it is one of the least known but rapidly growing areas of interest in beverage right now.

Big Bottles The 22 ounce beer bottle is no longer the domain of the frat boys, it is now an offering in restaurants for food pairing similar to wines for specialty beers. Especially popular are the Belgian beers and lambics both at retail and on premise.

Other cool trends in beverage:

Tea: Lose the Doilies Tea is no longer associated with only the formal hotel service of British heritage or the yoga set, it has gone mainstream and modern. Tea sommeliers are working the floors of tea salons in urban areas, teas are showing up in cocktail infusions and in hot toddies, Ready to Drink teas are more popular than ever with all sorts of healthful flavorings from green tea to ginger, to pomegranate to white and red teas. Chefs are cooking with tea for savory and sweet items on the menu.

Water Pressure With water becoming a more precious resource and with sensitivity to packaging and waste becoming more top of mind, restaurants are now switching to inhouse filtration and carbonation systems to produce water options from the tap and offering it complimentary to guests.

Focus Your Energy The proliferation of energy drinks and vitamin/energy infused waters doesn’t seem to be losing any ground. For people on the go, getting nutrients and energy boosts is a global phenomenon.

For more "trends to watch for 2009", check out the following live interviews. Popular Spirits for 2009

Watch more video clips on: Organic Spirits, The Impact of the Internet on Wine, Economic Effects on the Wine Industry, The Rise of Sake, Wine Bar Popularity, Overarching Trends for '09.

Visit our video library on YouTube.

Paying it forward with the help of San Francisco Food Bank

I love everything about the holidays. Christmas music, holiday decorations, buying people presents, eating, drinking, and being merry- I love it all! And the city with its decorations and lights is just so charming. But I have to admit that amidst all of the shopping and holiday parties I have a tendency to indulge a little bit too much and get wrapped up in the fabulousness of it all. But over the past few days, efforts on the part of some very hardworking and generous people have given me some perspective and inspiration to pay it forward. Dine Out Against Hunger

Owners Mike Pierce & Scott Youkilis of Maverick in the Mission have spearheaded a great initiative called ‘Dine Out Against Hunger.’ On Thursday, December 18th, along with 12 other Mission restaurants, Maverick is donating 10% of total dinner sales to the San Francisco Food Bank. Maverick is also offering guests that make a donation to the San Francisco Food Bank a 10% discount off of their bill.

The San Francisco Food Bank deserves a special shout out for the incredibly effective work that they do every day, but especially during the holidays. SFFB supplies food to over 600 food programs operated by partnering community service agencies and food pantries throughout the City. Like many other non-profit orgs, their individual and corporate donations are lower than usual, as are food supplies, due to strained economic times and high food costs. Children are especially affected by the work of the Food Bank. A tidbit I found compelling is that less than 20% of the people receiving food assistance are homeless.

I hope you'll consider Dining Out on the 18th to support the SFFB. Maybe I'll see you at one of the participating restaurants: Maverick* A16 Americano Andalu Caffe Sociale Delfina Destino Foreign Cinema Incanto Kuleto's Magnolia Range Serpentine Slow Club SPQR

From Farm to Table?

There is a food phrase used in the media that always catches my attention: ‘From Farm to Table’. Sounds simple enough right? You collect the eggs to make your omelet, you pick the lettuce to the make your salad and you milk the goat to make your cheese? If only it were that pastoral... With the all too prevalent foodborne illness scares, the term has come to mean the governmental process of tracing a contaminated tomato back to its agricultural source; Or in Michael Pollan’s case, tracing a McDonald’s hamburger back to a commodity cornfield in Iowa; Or a rustic, familiar allusion to family-run, local ranching in The Niman Ranch Cookbook: From Farm to Table. While I feel it is admirable that the term is helping people really consider where their food comes from, for me personally, it alludes to the very literal sense of the phrase: From a farm to my table, with no extensive journey in between. In true investigative form, I set out immerse myself in my romantic perception of this phrase.

Camp Joy Camp Joy is a small non-profit organic farm operated for educational purposes and supported by Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes. The farm is 4.5 charming acres of organic fruit, vegetables, flowers, goats and chickens in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I just happen to visit at peak fruit time.

In addition to eating fresh peaches and plums right off the trees, I was treated to fresh eggs for breakfast and homemade herbed goat cheese made from Camp Joy's happy and productive goats. Camp Joy strives to educate others on how to live more sustainable lives, and after my amazing visit, I felt compelled to start immediately.

Country Flat Farm Country Flat Farm is one of the most endearing places I have ever been. And let me explain "endearing": The single family run farm sits atop a mountain overlooking the Big Sur coast. The views are absolutely spectacular. It is no wonder the energetic lemon trees and fruitful (ha) apples trees happily bask in the sun there. The home on the property is completely solar powered and built from materials that came from the land on which it stands. The farm is run by a remarkable family that doesn't take an inch of beautiful land for granted and through sustainable life practices, hope to make a difference. I spent the day digging out carrots, snipping off fresh bunches of lettuce and filling my shirt full of fresh meyer lemons (making sure I only took as many as I could consume.)

What did I learn? First of all, there is something kind of sexy about dirt under your fingernails at the end of the day on a farm. Also, food just tastes better when it comes directly from the farm to your table. There are many ways our population can easily be more conscientious eaters. Buy local. Look into starting a CSA box for your own home. For a great listing of Bay Area CSA box options check out this comprehensive list on Om Organics website.

Happy Eating!

My Month As a Vegan (Sort of...)

Oh the power of literature. We often take for granted the influence the written word has upon our daily lives. Little did I know when I received a simple cookbook as a Christmas gift that it would launch me into 2008 with an entirely new diet. The book: Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!) True, it’s one long title, but conveys the point of the book pretty well, except for the fact that all of the recipes are vegan. Scanning through it on my flight back to San Francisco, I discovered how simple the recipes were. So, in my attempts to reverse a year’s worth of decadent eating and over-imbibing on San Francisco’s finest wine, cuisine, and artisanal cocktails (as well as a year of culinary school in the mix), I decided to give this vegan diet thing a go. I had always been a healthy and conscious eater, and I was already somewhat well-versed on vegan-ism from my own curiosity as well as learning from friends and peers who were vegan, so I didn’t feel I was going about this blindly. On January 2, 2008, my first day back in San Francisco, I embarked upon a vegan diet.

Skinny Bitch in the Kitch is the sequel to Skinny Bitch by Los Angeles vegans Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman. The prequel takes a look at our disproportionate portions, the government’s lack of concern for our nation’s health, the chemicals, preservatives, and other unnatural additives that go into the food on our grocery store shelves, and Their foul-mouthed, sassy writing style and frank opinions about the meat, dairy, and egg industry (all vegan no-no’s) are enough to make even a staunch omnivore laugh out loud and maybe even think twice about what they’re putting in their mouths. Their message is simple: to provide a new way of life that is healthy, clean, and simple and to debunk the myths that a vegan diet has to be expensive, inaccessible, or only for tree-hugging hippies. Of course, skeptics abound. One critic even called the book ‘militant indoctrination’. Both women come from the Ford Modeling Agency (Barnouin a former model, Freedman a former agent), and while they’ve both studied health, diet, fitness, and nutrition for over a decade, only one holds a degree in Holistic Nutrition, and they don’t offer up where that degree came from.

Still, I was up for giving the vegan life a chance. I wasn’t so much rooted politically or ethically into the idea of vegan-ism, but enough so in both directions to believe I could still be healthy, strong, and decide whether or not I would return to the life of an omnivore again. I didn’t think this would be too hard. Once culinary school ended last fall, I had returned to my old diet, which skimped on meat and poultry. And after a year of living in the most socially conscious region in America, thoughts of hormones and antibiotics being pumped into the meat I ate was starting to turn me off from meat-eating already unless I knew the exact farm where my grass-fed beef was raised and the farmer’s name who owned the land. I headed to the grocery store the night I got home and piled as many veggies, fruits, tofu, beans, soy milk, and veggie cheese I could into my shopping cart.

What did I miss the most you might wonder? No, not my good friend Kathryn’s rosemary crusted rack of lamb. And not my probiotic yogurt I had grown so attached to over the past two years. It was the little things. Like honey. I drink tea religiously and pour honey into it the same, so when I realized my Green Jasmine and Cream Earl Grey had to go without, I felt the rules and boundaries creeping in. And what was I to put in my salads to bulk them up? Surely not tuna! Beans and legumes became my best friends at lunchtime. The tofu stir-fry dishes became a bit monotonous after the first two weeks, but the book helps you be creative with dishes you would have otherwise cooked with meat. The book served as a reminder that you can eat the same things you used to eat (minus the lamb and real egg omelets), but be a little more inventive. But watching my roommates slice aged cheddar, smoked gouda, and spicy pepper Jack had me salivating for a hunk of creamy, tangy goodness placed atop my favorite cracker. I went to my room and pouted over the loss of one of my favorite food groups. Soy-based Veggie shreds were just no comparison.

And just like a spouse who starts to stray, I too became unfaithful to my vegan oath. Like a couple that realizes they have nothing in common, I just wasn’t rooted enough in the foundations of vegan-ism to make it last forever. I never tried to get anyone to join my vegan bandwagon, nor did I scorn what they ate in front of me or ask them if their buffalo wings were from a free-range chicken. But when the soy became too plenty, and the cheese became too tempting, I fell off the wagon. I wasn’t disciplined enough to commit myself to a lifestyle that didn’t allow me to eat cheese, and I wasn’t ready to say no to the things I loved because I didn’t believe in it. Still, it won’t stop me from making the book’s dried fruit muffins sweetened with Sucanat (Su = Sugar, Ca = Cane, Nat = Natural), Big Ass Veggie Burrito, or the Bitchtastic Brownies and Cheezecake.

So, I’ve succumb to and fully accepted that I’m a cheater. Until the day I can fully eliminate eggs, dairy, and any animal product or bi-product, I won’t, and can’t, call myself a full-fledged vegan. But I can't say I didn't try.

Eat at Floyd's: The Pelican Bar in Jamaica

Recently I was lucky to chance upon a watering hole that’s truly right in the water. You don’t belly up to this bar, you sail to it (you could also swim, though it would take longer). And while there’s no menu, an incredible meal can be had as well. On a trip to Jamaica’s tranquil and less traveled south west coast is the town of Treasure Beach. During the two and a half hour drive that winds south from Montego Bay’s airport, our driver, O’Neil, advised us to check out the Pelican Bar, merely saying it was in the middle of the water. Taking his advice a few mornings later, we arranged the visit through Jakes, our low key-high charm resort. We were merely told to walk down to the beach and meet our ride.

As promised, at the tiny beach we met our gregarious captain, Bernard (sporting a Boston Red Sox cap, but insisting, in case we were from NY, that the B stood for Bernard) and first mate, Zeb, sporting a “Mr. Nice Guy” T-shirt that I soon figured out was the uniform of the eponymously named boat that would take us to our destination. Bernard and Zeb helped us scramble over some rocks and wade through the shallow water to board the brightly painted Mr. Nice Guy.

We set out in a south-westerly direction and were lucky to have some dolphins for company for part of our route. After about 30 minutes of motoring, the Pelican Bar came into view. Situated about a half mile from shore, it is a wonder of carpentry and creativity. Balancing on a set of thin, almost insectile stilts was this round hut surrounded by nothing but water.

We docked the boat, swam up to the Bar and climbed its wobbly stairs. Inside was an empty bar and no furniture other than a table and wooden bench. The bar’s sole decoration was a plaque from of all people, the band Little Feat, acknowledging Floyd, the bar’s owner, for creating one of the coolest places to have a beer in the whole Caribbean. There were of course no windows, no doors, and no facilities But there was plenty of charm in hanging out in what’s best described as an aqua tree house. Outside in all directions was nothing but sparkling turquoise water, below, if you peeked through the floorboards, you’d catch glimpses of fish and stingrays. Above, the pelicans who perch on a nearby reef and give the bar its name, were circling overhead, angling for lunch. What’s true in Manhattan was true here: location, location, location!

As we were soaking in this Robinson Crusoe bar adventure, Floyd and his sous chef/first mate arrived in yet another colorful boat, toting a cooler full of beer and another full of provisions. As the cooking commenced, we jumped into the waters for a quick swim around the bar. Once back inside and within minutes of opening our first Red Stripes of the day, we could smell the zesty aroma of Caribbean spiny lobster tails cooking over charcoal. Soon enough we and our fearless crew were feasting on lobster in jerk sauce with steamed vegetables over coconut rice. Using little more than a bit of backyard barbecue equipment and, as we say in the restaurant industry, fresh and local ingredients, Floyd had cooked us the most memorable meal of our trip. Tipsy, stuffed and thrilled, we swam from bar to boat for the return trip, and with a smoky puff from the motor, the Mr. Nice Guy was off.