ENO Wine Room: Not your father's wine bar
22.05.12
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The first ENO wine bar, Geller told me recently during an hour-long conversation in his Chicago office, opened inside the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, on the outskirts of San Francisco. His goal? To bring a younger crowd into the hotel.
"It came out of research," he told me. "I wanted to bring in Gen X'ers."
Strategic's research indicated that Gen X'ers want to learn more about wine and "are curious experimenters. They want light food that's out of the norm," he says.
Strategic revamped space in the Ritz-Carlton and, for about $400,000, installed a wine tasting room with exotic cheeses and high-end chocolates. "We made $600,000 the first year," he says.
Strategic's team studied Napa wine tasting rooms to brainstorm ideas for additional locations.
"We created a wine tasting environment where all the waiters are real sommeliers - young, casual, enthusiastic about their profession and very knowledgeable," he told me. "We did not want a bar in the classic sense, thus the tables are long and sharing tables and can have multiple people, couples, groups at each."
Source: USA TODAY