Operations: Raise a Glass

More operators find that better glassware improves diners’ perception of quality.

By Kate Leahy, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/1/2007

In Boulder, Colo., Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey knew that his restaurant, Frasca, needed to have the right glassware to support his ambitious wine program.

"I opened the restaurant with my wife and [Chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson] on a home-equity loan," Stuckey says. "If anyone could have cut out premium glassware, we had the excuse. We chose not to. It was an enormous financial commitment, but we really believed in it."

More than being a luxury in which a few restaurants indulge, glassware makes an important statement about an operation.

"The glassware that you’re putting out on the table says a lot about who you think you are and how serious you are about your beverage program," affirms Greg LaMothe, vice president of concepts and hospitality for San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group. "If the glassware pattern, the shapes or the colors don’t connect or integrate well, it causes a cognitive dissidence."

Choosing the Cut

With beverage programs getting more attention than they did in years past, casual and fine-dining operators alike are carefully considering what package they use to present their beverages.

For Fernando Guzman, director of operations at recently opened SolToro Tequila Grill at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., this means pouring tequilas of different ages in different glasses. Guzman had a glassmaker in Mexico custom make glasses for his blanco, reposado and anejo tequilas as well as his margaritas, which are poured into traditional Mexican handblown glasses.

"If the margarita is going to be the best seller, it has to come in a vehicle that screams Mexican because we are a Mexican restaurant," Guzman reasons.

What makes a particular glass premium lies in the details. For LaMothe, this means a glass that is well balanced and has a good feel in the hand, and that doesn’t have rolled rims or obvious seams. "Rolled rims come with a glass that’s much thicker, clunkier and built to stand up to punishment—and therein lies the problem," he says, explaining that this style of glassware can give the customer the feeling that attention to detail is missing.

John Rothstein, beverage manager for Buddakan in New York City, admits that delicate glassware doesn’t work for a restaurant that does 1,300 covers a night.

"We look for durability," he says. "But not to the point that durability means a glass that’s 1 to 2 inches thick. The New York market is savvy. If you charge $12 for a martini and serve it in a 50-cent glass, they’ll call you out on it."

Upscale glasses, including a highball tumbler and a double old-fashioned glass, are helping Carrollton, Texas-based T.G.I. Friday’s launch top-line beverages such as a new mojito this year. Says Matt Durbin, Friday’s director of beverages, marketing, and research and development: "It’s part of the broader trend that we’re leveraging right now as T.G.I. Friday’s revitalizes its brand. It’s part of the overall premiumization trend in casual dining."