Wine & Spirits - April 2021 - 56

D I S PA T C H E S F R O M T H E F R O N T L I N E S

" We sent out an email-all the wines
on the list at half price. And we
were inundated with requests. "

ROM MID-MARCH UNTIL AT LEAST the beginning of June, all of our sales were
in wine. It's so much energy to sell one bottle of wine, I'd rather sell six bottles at once. So, we started doing curated packs. Then we started doing bird
boxes-a whole meal in a box. And we were able to do limited indoor dining
from late June until that got shut down mid-November.
At first, the idea was, let's pull down inventory. Then, when we started
doing more of the packs, we had to have 24 or 38 bottles of something to
make it work. If our goal is to survive this thing, we thought, let's not completely ravage our back storage. We would use our cellar for smaller, higher-end offerings, like
La Grande Diner, when we included a Champagne from Chartogne-Taillet, a white
López de Heredia, a Paul Pernot Puligny, a Clos de la Roche and an old Marsala.
We did six of those sets, priced at $650. That same week, we sold 48 six-packs that
were $125. We call them our sipper packs-that's a series we've had that's grown.
We have these repeat customers, we're providing their house wine now. We've been
able to utilize our cellar and to keep buying from our distributors.
In December, we turned Canard [Le Pigeon's sister restaurant] into a more traditional bottle shop-the whole front area has bottles presented on the counters along
with gifts from local crafts people.
A wine shop is focused on wine for the people; a good restaurant wine list is wine
for the people for the menu. Unless we are ready to say, we never get to open as a restaurant again, we are going to keep offering the same wines we would when we open
the doors. If you come in and say, " I just stopped in, do you have Cakebread Chardonnay? " I'd do the same song and dance I'd do at the table: " We don't have that, but let
me tell you about this one. "

FA S T FA C T S

Who
Andrew Fortgang

What
Partner

Where
Le Pigeon
Portland, OR

Andrew Fortgang, a
partner in Portland's
Le Pigeon and Canard,
reported that wine
increased its share of his
restaurant's total sales
in 2020. Did they still
sell less wine in 2020
than in 2019? Yes, but
wine sales helped them
navigate the pandemic.
-JOSHUA GREENE

WINE & SPIRITS

JUNE 2018

WHAT IS GOING TO ALLOW ANY PARTICULAR restaurant to survive this is what sort of
financial position they were in going into it; what relationship they have with their
landlord; what sort of customer loyalty they had built up going into it. Some of that
is luck. We were in relatively good shape going into it financially, and we'd been
around for a long time. The real question is, how long does it go on? For a while, we
knew there had to be an end to the tunnel but we couldn't see it. Now we can see it.
We can't touch it; it's still pretty far off but, theoretically, it's out there.
For my own mental health, I try not to look more than one or two months ahead,
because it's an exercise in frustration. I spent so many days and weeks with my gut
tied up, worried about this and that, coming up with so many different scenarios
related to wine and related to our staff. It's not really healthy.
When Portland reopens, if we continue with retail, it will be because we've spun
it off. I look forward to being a full-on restaurant again-not putting food in boxes,
putting wine in glasses.
Twelve months from now, it's likely that everyone who wants a vaccine will have
one. We'll be closer to normalcy. Both of our restaurants are little cozy rooms where
people sit close. Maybe we will have to have fewer seats, not because the city is telling us to, but that's what our guests demand. ●

Photographs (right) by VICTOR LLORENTE

Wine & Spirits - April 2021

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