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Written by Joe Briand Friday, 25 September 2009 15:35
The Back Label
I apologize for the tardiness of this blog...normally I try to get these hammered out on Monday or Tuesday. It’s been one of those weeks, but the topic has been bouncing around in my brain all week. I run restaurants. The restaurants that I run were designed to do things in an efficient and orderly manner (mostly.) You’d be surprised how many charity events that most restaurants do every year. The restaurant community is always giving back and many times it is by providing food for a charity’s off site event.
This pertains to wine only in that wine is usually served at these events and like the food and the service we are providing has been donated by one of the local distributors. I’ve been doing off sites with restaurants for over 12 years now and I have learned a lot about how to make them successful on our end. First, your approach must be similar to that of a small military force being dropped behind enemy lines (without the threat of death).
Pack light. We bring only what we need, everything extra and unnecessary has to get lugged back to the restaurant after the event anyway. Proper recon is also a must…many times we can secure a table in an area of the event space that will make for much less chaos. Off site events are not the time to show off…make something simple and delicious and easy to pull off, the guests will thank you for it. Troops are no good without a general so we always have one of our top chefs and managers at any event we choose to be a part of.
Now to the important things...always bring your own stuff to drink. While some of these events have top notch brands supporting them the lion’s share offer wine that is donated for a reason. Either it is cheap or it isn’t selling in the market, either way it’s usually not what we drink back at the restaurants. For smaller events it is ok to bring your own glassware but for larger events they might just get in the way.
Last but not least, when the mission is over it’s time to pull the troops out. More often than not there is a busy restaurant waiting for us to come back to. Pack up, and move out and remember our creed: No bottle left behind. Back Label Out!
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| Joe Briand |
 Joe is the Director of Operations and wine buyer for Link Restaurant Group (Herbsaint, Cochon, Calcasieu and Cochon Butcher.) As a part of his job he routinely tastes hundreds of wines a week from all over the world. If he could have only wines from one region it would be the wines of Burgundy. He constantly reinforces the notion both with his staff and the guests at the restaurants that wine is not something to be intimidated by and asking questions is the only way to learn. Joe is an admitted cork dork but is more committed to drinking wine and the pleasure that it gives then memorizing obscure facts about wines that most people have never heard of nor have access to. He is happy to answer your questions as best he can. Please feel free to email him: thebacklabel@gmail.com |
