Bouchee restaurant and wine bar, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif

Nation's Restaurant News, March 10, 2003 by Alan J. Liddle

Contemporary cuisine and beverage bargains are the drawing cards for Bouchee Restaurant and Wine Bar Cannel-by-the-Sea, Calif., a 49-seat dinner house operating in tandem with a retail fruit-of-the-vine store.

Bouchee's proprietors are David and Kathleen Fink. He is a former Coastal Hotel Group regional vice president and past general manager of the Carmel area's well-known Lodge at Pebble Beach and Highlands Inn luxury resorts. She is also a hospitality industry veteran and the designer of the new restaurant's decor.

Walter Manzke, who most recently was executive chef of highly regarded Patina in Los Angeles, oversees the Bouchee kitchen. He met Fink while he was cooking with his former Patina boss, chef-restaurateur Joachim Splichal, at the annual Masters of Food & Wine event at the Highlands Inn.

Pointing to a bottle of imported wine sitting on a rack in Bouchee Wine Merchants, David Fink says, "That's $150 on our wine list, but it goes for $300 at some other restaurants." Bouchee Wine Merchants is the retail side of the 7-month-old dual concept.

Fink explains that the retail shop and its inventory serve as the restaurant's wine cellar, or "cave," and that the wines served in the dining room receive relatively small markups from their Bouchee Wine Merchant prices. The markup scheme goes like this, Bouchee representatives say: Wines that retail for less than $20 get a $5 markup in the restaurant, wines that retail for between $20 and $49 get a $10 markup, and bottles that retail for $50 and up receive a $15 markup.

Bouchee's wine-pricing strategy compares with markups of 200 percent to 300 percent of retail prices at many restaurants, where owners say they depend on hefty wine margins to cover overhead and the significant costs of managing a quality wine list. Beyond Bouchee's unusual wine-pricing practices, it offers a large assortment of half bottles, 17 wines by the glass from $4 to $14, three-glass theme "flights" and wine pairings for the nightly three-course tasting menu.

Chris Bradford manages the wine program.

"There is no doubt we're taking a business risk with our low markups," Fink acknowledges. "But we decided to pass on more value to the customer in hopes of building loyalty."

The approach appears to be working. Fink reports that, at the restaurant's recent average number of nightly covers, 70, and average check, $63, it is ahead of business-plan projections. Overall, he says, wine is generating about a third of all sales, and on some nights, depending on the crowd, it produces half of the total take.

Manzke says he was attracted to Cannel by the beauty and lifestyle of the region as well as by its bounty of produce and the opportunities to help develop a startup and possibly shape the culinary reputation of the area. "A lot of people come through here," he says of the diverse clientele resulting from Cannel's status as a domestic and international tourist destination and home to a number of wealthy or famous people, including actor-director Clint Eastwood, the former mayor.

Manzke, in addition to his time with Splichal's organization, has worked at a number of renowned restaurants. They included Alain Ducasse's Louis XV in the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo and El Bulli in Rosas, Spain, where Ferran Adria is chef.

"I like to experiment, change and evolve and keep things interesting for myself and the rest of the kitchen," he says of his approach to cooking, "but I have a very strong respect for tradition and classic combinations," and "I try not to be 'creative' in a stupid way."

Bouchee Restaurant and Wine Bar occupies a space on Mission Street that previously housed Raffaello, which closed last year. But the new business has a different personality and an infrastructure following a $500,000 makeover resulting in new kitchen capabilities and equipment and Kathleen Fink-designated decor touches. Among them are Inca travertine flooring, a wood-burning fireplace, hammered copper trim and ornamental wrought iron.

In keeping with the desires of the Finks and their partners to create a synergistic hospitality organization in Cannel, a company managed by David Fink recently bought the 20-room Sundial Lodge, with its small restaurant, on Monte Verde Street near Bouchee.

David Fink says Bouchee Restaurant and Wine Bar and its new sister hotel are the answer to a question he posed to himself after working for others: "How can I make a mark on my industry, take care of my family and create a good nest egg while living in one of the best places in the world?"

RELATED ARTICLE: What's in a name?: Bouchee is French for "a mouthful"

Concept: Wine shop by day, restaurant and wine bar by night

The hooks: big-city chef in a coastal village, restaurant wines at near-retail prices

Seats: 49

Opened: July 2002

Average ticket: $63

Average nightly covers: 70

Proprietors: David and Kathleen Fink

Menu maker: executive chef Walter Manzke

Cuisine: California style with Mediterranean influences

Slow movers: raw fish

Surprise hit: stuffed braised pig foot with lentils, baby frisee and bacon-sherry vinaigrette