Can You Get a Decent Glass of Wine at a Chain: Not at Outback Steakhouse
It was my dad’s birthday this last Saturday and it’s a tradition in my family that the birthday person gets to pick the restaurant for their birthday dinner. That has translated over the years to me dragging my sushi hating parents to sushi; my brothers dragging me to a pizza place while I was on a Weight Watchers diet and other family members sucking it up because the birthday boy or girl should always go where they want.
Let’s just say that I love to eat. I love finding the new hot restaurant or hole-in-the-wall before any of my friends have tried them. My husband loves to cook and we both love food/wine.
So on to his selection. My dad, who is on a gluten free diet after going to the Jerusalem over the holidays on a dream trip with my mom, choose Outback Steakhouse. Outback has one of the largest gluten free menus that would give him a wider net of choices for his dinner.
I choose to use this as an opportunity. It has been a while since I did my column on “can you get a decent glass of wine at a chain.” My stipulation is that it has to be a wine by the glass that is interesting and unique. Overall I’ve been pleasantly surprised. On Saturday it was Outback’s turn. I went to the website and found lots of information about the “Bloomin’ Onion” and the “Bloomin’ Sirloin,” but it took me three trips back to Google to find a drink list. And what I found was clearly a list purchased from a distributor full of uninspired, middle shelf grocery selection grog – with no vintages. That trend continued when I picked up the restaurant wine list.
If you HAD to choose a wine because you found yourself in the restaurant, I found two that were acceptable – Alamos Malbec or Clos du Bois Sauvignon Blanc. I actually ordered a cocktail. There is no reason with the buying power of Outback that they wouldn’t put something off the beaten path on the list. Olive Garden does. It prides itself on its wide selection of by the glass wines to give consumers a choice.
After looking down at the menu, I chuckled a bit to myself. The Outback company tagline, “No Rules. Just Right.” Except for the chain’s approach to wine selection.
Chain restaurants have been this way for a while. The wine list is prepared by a person at the corporate office. Wineries and wines are picked for several reasons. Here are at least, 2 of them. They can use a guide as to which wines are popular in specific categories and they do follow trends in grocery chains. They may also have established a relationship/s with a winery or several of them. Perhaps the corporate decision makers get a trip to the winery or some such.
Managers in Chain restaurants are usually not wine-trained or wine knowedgable. (not a law but most often true) They are not allowed to go out of a corporatedly specified list for most of their suppliers to make purchases. As much as possible, they want to provide an experience that is repeatable in any one of the restaurants in the chain. This is probabably going to apply for the brand names you see on the Back-bar or the Call and Premium brands of liquor.
I know that does not seem like a good idea to a dedicated wine explorer but they do call them ‘Chain Restaurants’.
Very good points. I guess I can always dream corporations will do the right thing…? It just seems with the number of consumers drinking wine on the rise and wanting to try new things, they may want to get with the program.
What does that mean, ‘do the right thing’? If they are making most of their customers happy with food at a value price and are making a profit, they are doing fine. The people working in the corporate offices of these chain operations are probably not wine explorers anyway. The main purpose of going to a chain restaurant is usually the signature food and operation theme. Are they going to hire a Somm in each operation? Who is going to train the service staff?
The other thing is that they price wines unusually high. $9.99 wholesale might be a 12.99 on a retail shelf and 35.00 to 40.00 in a restaurant.
That is a good point and why folks like me don’t go to places with that mentality. I am not advocating for a Somm, but just some thinking in the wines they offer. You can get much better wine for the price point that they have and that is my issue. Doing the right thing in my opinion is not letting a distributor buy their list and offering plonk. Again, just my opinion.