does anyone here have a beer and wine lic? when we get the new shop I wanted to do beer and wine but was wondering is the wine necessary? what percent of wine do you get verses beer? mark up? thanks
Ron
Hey Rockstar,
From an outside point of view, the places in town here that serve a higher quality pizza and other items do offer both. Beer is the easy one, but we always see plenty of wine on the tables. If Indiana is the same, the lic covers both beer and wine. I would do a small mix of beers and start off offering a couple of wine options. I would also ask your wine customers for suggestions on what they would like too see you offer. You might find that instead of having an ok middle of the road wine in bulk, your customers might prefer a small selection of bottled items. Are there any local wineries that might front their product in return for the ability to spread their name. You could also offer bottle sales of the local items. With the vast options you offer, the Thai looks great by the way, maybe line up a selection of specific options to offer based on the pizza itself. I think as a money maker, alcohol can be a great one, and although you need the insurance and new rules for the employees, restaurant alcohol sales is not as demanding as bar alcohol sales.
Wow beer and wine license here in NJ Is just liquor and in my town bids start at $750,000.00 needless to say not many pizza shops with liquor licenses…
I used to manage a wine bar years ago if I where in your position I would get a few inexpensive “new world” wines (Australia and NZ have great drinkeable wines which will appeal to most palates)
And a couple of classic Italian wines (Pinot grigio, chianti and Barolo).
In the wine bar our cheaper wines where obscure labels but we learned the stories of the vineyards and sold a new wine with a story attached to it… Sell the experience as a package with wine it goes much further then the overpriced sta margherita and ruffino
The local winery route is a great opportunity especially because you could organize wine tastings and pair wines with the pizza.
As for the beer it is my belief that beer and pizza are the perfect match I always have a six pack of Moretti “blond” or peroni blue ribbon in my fridge, (those are the beers I drank when eating pizza in Italy)
Sorry for the long post
We do well with our craft-beer focus with the addition of just a few wines. We use a local Illinois winery as our “house” wines and have helped it develop a new following from our customer base. We also are offering a couple of wines from California that are a tad more “upscale” in appearance, but still are priced correctly for our audience.
My own opinion is that folks coming to a pizza place would enjoy a nice, easy to approach wine. Offer a simple semi-sweet, a dry and a couple of nice whites. They won’t cost much to stock, and the mark-up is good. Of course that all depends on your licensing situation and your insurance quote…you’ll need those numbers first.