By RON  RUGGLESS

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(March  09, 2009) While the tumultuous economy buffets other foodservice segments, wine bars with sizable food components are proving to have some strong legs in tough times.

Wine bar restaurants have been a fixture in wine-rich California for decades, but new wine bar concepts are opening in all corners of the nation. Some of these new wine bar business models benefit from recently introduced wine equipment that allows customers to serve themselves, helping to lower labor costs, as well as limited menus that require smaller preparation and cooking spaces and less kitchen hardware.

And patrons seem to drink more heartily in hard times, the wine bar creators theorize.

At SoNapa Wine Co., which opened in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., last fall, featuring wines from Sonoma County and Napa Valley in California, sales are on the rise despite the slumping economy, officials said.

“Sales have increased 25 percent since September,” said spokesman Adam Barringer.

Mike Farrell will be opening a new wine bar in Kennebunk, Maine, on April 8. He said his Old Vines wine bar would cover 1,250 square feet and have 36 seats.

“I wanted to open my own restaurant,” he said. “This made it a little easier. We can work in tight quarters. We don’t use gas, so we can bypass some of the rules on grease traps and exhaust systems.”

The menu will include charcuterie, cheeses, panini sandwiches, quiches and composition salads.

“It’s European-style food with local products from New England,” Farrell said.

Old Vines will offer 12 wines by the glass and 40 by the bottle. He said his business plan targets a 60-40 split of wine to food sales with a check average of about $25.

Despite the tough economy, Farrell said, “I don’t think people will stop spending their money on going out to eat. With this price point and product, I think we can do really, really well. When you combine food with wine, you can give a larger overall experience to people.”

Farrell joins a number of multiunit wine bar restaurants that have opened in recent years.

The Grape, a 14-unit chain based in Atlanta, has units in the Southeast and Nevada, and Cru - A Wine Bar, an eight-unit division of Restaurant Works Inc. of Dallas, has units in major Texas cities and Denver.

Part of the appeal of wine bars is that it takes some of the risk out of wine buying for the consumer, said Patrick Colombo, president and chief executive of Restaurant Works.

“It allows customers to get interesting, premium wines by the flight or by the glass, and they are not locked into making a choice by the bottle,” he said. “People right now aren’t looking to make the big purchase, even if that purchase is only $50 or $60.”

In addition, Colombo said, some of the excess of the early part of the decade has been muted.

“Even people who aren’t affected badly by the economy don’t want to be seen as splurging,” he said. “People want to be conservative, but the wine bar gives them the nice experience without going over the top.”

Colombo said repeat customers are a big part of the wine bar crowd.

“We’ll see the same person in Cru maybe two or three times a week,” he said. “They have the opportunity to use us according to their needs.”

Offering customers variety is part of the consumer appeal, the wine bar creators say.

“We offer 25 wines by the glass and over 100 by the bottle,” SoNapa’s Barringer said. “We also have a variety of domestic, imported and hand-crafted beers. Our food menu complements the wine and comprises 50 percent of our sales. The food is light, gourmet fare featuring flatbreads as well as an array of appetizers, soups, salads, entrées and desserts.”

By RON  RUGGLESS

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Penny Maso, president of five-unit Tasting - A Wine Experience, started the concept after finding unique wine machinery in Italy.

Penny Maso, president of Tasting-A Wine Experience, a five-unit chain based in St. Petersburg, Fla., was prompted to create her concept by her love of food and wine pairings.

“Originally, my husband and I and our friends enjoyed pairing wine with food,” she said. “We didn’t have any place to go to enjoy wine and food. We discovered some unique machinery during a visit to Italy. It allowed us to have all sorts of wines available for tasting, and we developed the concept around that.”

Five Tasting locations are open in Orlando, Fla., Decatur, Ga., Grapevine, Texas, Fort Myers, Fla., and Mystic, Conn., and a sixth is scheduled to open later this year in Indianapolis. The first franchised location opened in 2006.

Chef Bobby Weddle, left, and owner Cindy Summers display some of the wine and food made at Tastings - A Wine Experience in Grapevine, Texas.

Tasting units have a small bar area and other seating, covering about 2,200 square feet and accommodating 60 to 100 people. Customers put a set amount of money on a debit card and fill their own glasses from the dozens of wines available.

“Our stores are set up so customers can help themselves at their own pace,” Maso said. “Service people are available, but the idea behind it is to be a low-labor-cost operation.”

She added: “We recommend starting with $50 on a card. They can use it again.”

Maso said about 40 percent of the revenue stream is food, with the rest coming from beverages and retail.

“Maybe people want to drink more so now than before [the economic turmoil started],” she said.

More consumers are into sampling, she noted.

“People like to go out and share and get a good variety, rather than go out for a big steak dinner with a salad and dessert,” she said.

That pared-down entertainment option emphasizes value, wine bar creators said.

“It really is a good value,” Maso said. “It’s not a traditional restaurant, as you can share the tapas-style plate and make an event of the evening.”

In addition, the menu offerings at wine bars can be highly creative, heading into the sophisticated and upscale.

BottleRock in Culver City, Calif., not only will open any bottle in its stock, but also offers the wine with such menu items as Foie Gras Fig Newtons, or foie gras, brioche and fig jam, smoked salmon with crème fraîche, and baby mozzarella salad.

At Vertical Wine Bistro in Pasadena, Calif., chef Sara Levine offers shoestring fries with chipotle mayo or grilled merguez with harissa.

One of the hottest restaurants in Los Angeles right now is Palate Food & Wine, owned by Octavio Beccerra, who for years worked with Joachim Splichal, founder of the Patina Restaurant Group.

In San Francisco, near the epicenter of the U.S. wine industry, some big names in both wine and food have announced the April opening of the wine bar RN74. The project teams Rajat Parr, wine director for the Mina Group, with Jason Berthold, formerly of the French Laundry, and chef Michael Mina.

The 40-seat wine bar and 80-seat restaurant is named for Route National 74, the major thoroughfare in France’s Burgundy region.

“We want the cuisine and wines to shine,” Berthold said.

In Foxboro, Mass., Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro opened in February, offering more than 65 wines by the glass as well as wine flights. Owners Bill and Patti Martin hired chef Richard Garcia to create a menu of dishes “sized as hearty appetizers” and “designed to facilitate sharing so you can try new food, drink and flavor combinations,” the couple said in a press release.

Maso of Tasting summed up the wine bar rage.

“Wine bars, because they do allow a shared experience, are really welcome in these challenging times,” she said.