Try to upsell them on dessert, wine or other high margin items so that you can eke a little bit of profit out of the deal.
A scurrilous rumour has been aired on many occasions that some restaurants knowingly apply a higher margin to the wine sitting above the house wine, reaping the reward from wine-list ingenues – I've never known this to be the case in any restaurant I've worked for as a sommelier.
This taboo is so reliable, in fact, that many restaurants price their wine such that they make the highest margin on the second-least expensive wine on the list.
However, markups decline at the very top end: thus, cheaper wines carry the highest profit margin, and the most expensive offer the best relative value.
So, if you've paid a corkage fee of $20, you've effectively made the restaurant its profit margin on any wine it prices at $40 to $60.
There's a sweet spot between £8 and £15 where the proportion of the bottle price that you're actually spending on wine – as opposed to tax, retailer margin and, over £15, reputation – is at its optimum.
The color of the gills was sepia with a brownish vinaceous (red wine-colored) cast, and a white margin.
Sparkling wines, which command high margins, are a good bet.
"Greg talked about his view of business, about cash flow, margins, the wine and real estate business, and you could see he was interested in the whole process of business development.
At a place like Bar Veloce, which essentially offers only sandwiches and wine, that adds up to good business, a 32percentt profit margin, Mr. Cannon said.
