Fishing for complements: seafood restaurants across the nation are implementing the newest thinking behind food-and-wine pairings

Cheers, March, 2004 by Cheryl Ursin

Sometimes, what you don't know CAN hurt you. Or at least, surprise you.

Phillips Food, a Baltimore, Maryland-based company operating seven high-volume seafood restaurants, recently tested some sales-analysis software at one of its restaurants. This software can analyze a restaurant's checks and produce reports on what wines are ordered with what entrees.

The reports on the restaurant's wine business "really shocked me," says John Knorr, director of operations. "We used to be a big seller of chardonnays and merlots, but, at this restaurant, our top two wines were pinot grigios--and they were the only two pinot grigios we had on the list. The number-three wine was a sauvignon blanc. Meanwhile, the list had 17 chardonnays on it."

"We're in the process of finalizing our wine list for next year, but we really need to change our way of thinking."

It's true that the only constant is change. Consumer preferences change. The ways a restaurant can analyze and fine-tune its business change. Even theories about how to pair wine with food--and how to sell wine to the public--change.

BIG BUSINESS

In fewer places is the changing American relationship to food and wine more evident than in the growing seafood restaurant sector. From the mass market to fine dining, seafood restaurants are improving their focus by creating wine lists and programs with broad selections, and not just bulking up with the most popular retail whites.

Many restaurant operators note that their customers feel freer to order the wines they like, regardless of food/wine "rules," than they had in the past. "There are no holds barred," says Terry Ryan, president of the Oceanaire Seafood Room, an operation of five high-end restaurants in five cities. "Customers in our restaurants, if they want, a big cabernet with their fish, they'll order it."

Phillips' Knorr agrees. "The old theory 'red with meat, white with fish' has broken down. People drink what they want and the rules are out the window."

And if red is what customers want, there are many lighter-style reds that can go well with seafood. Indeed, Madeline Triffon, wine director of Michigan's Unique Restaurant Corporation, says, "Red wines with fish have taken off. Pinot noirs are particularly popular at all price points and there are plenty of others, such as Spanish Riojas and grenache blends from the south of France."

Many seafood restaurant beverage managers note that people are more willing to try something new. "California chardonnay seems not to be the default choice anymore," says Greg Harrington, a master sommelier and corporate wine director of B.R. Guest, a New York company with several restaurants including Atlantic Grill, Ocean Grill, Blue Water Grill and Blue Fin. "Rieslings are coming on strong, perhaps because the 2001 vintage was so publicized. Our top three wines by the glass are rieslings."

"People are much more adventurous than they were, even five years ago," agrees Michelle De Hayes, gm at Detroit's Northern Lakes Seafood owned by Unique Restaurant Corporation.

AGAINST THE TIDE

Not everyone agrees that this is entirely a good thing. "While I can understand where it comes from, telling people there are no rules when it comes to ordering wine causes tremendous confusion and fear, frankly," says Marnie Old, a Philadelphia wine consultant. "Before, when people were told there was a correct wine for the dish, that made them scared, too."

Old was, for five years, the wine director for Striped Bass, a seafood restaurant in Philadelphia. "I learned the hard way that if people ordered a big enough red wine with their fish, they could leave the restaurant with a negative impression of the chef and the food. That wine stepped all over that food--and then what we had were unhappy guests," she says.

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At Striped Bass, Old arranged the list so that the red wine section no longer started with cabernets. First came pinot noir, with 30 entries, followed by merlot and then cabernets, with the smallest selection. "I flipped it around," she explains. "If you have 60 pinot noirs and only 10 or 12 cabernets--and they come last, you're sending a message to your guests. Now, someone who doesn't want to ask for help in front of their date or boss or client can orient themselves."

Harrington jokes that he'd like to arrange the wines on his lists in random order. "If you put them in order of price, no one is going to order the cheapest," he says. "If you arrange them lightest to fullest, no one is ever going to order the lightest wines because they think fuller is better." Almost all B.R. Guest restaurants arrange their wines lists by varietal.

Northern Lakes Seafood Company lists "interesting" white wines first, followed by sauvignon blancs and reislings, and then breaks down the chardonnays into "old world" and "new world." The reds start with a highlighted section of pinot noirs, broken down into "old" and "new world," followed by "fish friendly and interesting reds," merlots, red Bordeaux and finally, "new world" cabernets and blends. A flavor and style code--dry, sweet and medium and very light, light, full--provides more flavor information about every wine listed.