1. GMG, INC. JULY 12, 2006 33
Mahdavian says, consider wine a critical element
is: “What if I buy a $75 bottle of wine and I donʼt
ingredients, but also on etiquette and customer
TOAST WITH DANIEL
N
othing ruins an amazing meal faster than
a bad wine, or a poorly matched one,
says Daniel Mahdavian, a food, wine
and beverage consultant and a certified som-
melier. “Thereʼs something very magical about
pairing food, food ingredients, and individual
sauces...with the right wine, at the right tempera-
ture, in the right glass,” he says. “Itʼs almost like
a marriage.”
Choosing wine that truly enhances a meal,
Mahdavian says, depends not on whether the
meal is meat or fish, but on how it is prepared,
what types of sauces accompany it, how gamey
the meat, how strong the fish, or whether it is
oily or dry. For every meal, a range of tastes
and possibilities, at various price points, could
be effective. The ultimate choice depends on the
customerʼs individual tastes and preferences and
his wallet.
Therein, Mahdavian believes, lies a prime op-
portunity for restaurants, bars and hotels to im-
prove their profit margins – an opportunity that
often goes unrealized.
Just as a great wine can make the meal, Mahda-
vian knows, a disappointing one can prove a real
mood-killer. A voluminous wine menu can over-
whelm customers hoping to please their dates or
guests – and lead to a stressful game of guess-
to-impress. Hapless customers also sometimes
have their problems compounded when a server,
sommelier, or chef is none-the-wiser -- and sug-
gests a poor match, a pricier one, or, both.
Poor choices and poor advice lead to poor din-
ing experiences, which Mahdavian believes, ul-
timately lead to poor profits for a restaurant, bar
or club.
A certified sommelier, Mahdavian has worked
in the local restaurant industry since the 1980s.
He has served as wine and spirits director for
Restaurant Asia Nora, Mendocino Grille, and
the Saint-Regis and Ritz-Carlton hotels and de-
veloped promotional opportunities for national
marketing campaigns.
Last May, Mahdavian and his wife, Melanie
Corcoran, an MBA graduate from the University
of Southern California with previous experience
in the wine industry, joined a growing niche
within the hospitality industry, and started Refuel
Consultants, LLC, a Washington D.C.-based res-
taurant and hospitality consulting company, that
focuses on opening restaurants, bars and clubs,
and leading them to operational excellence, in
large part by paying special attention to manage-
ment of their wine and beverage programs.
In other words, the pair says, Refuel helps
businesses focus on enlarging their profit margins
by helping them better manage their inventory of
“liquid assets,” meaning: wine, spirits, beer, cof-
fee, tea, water and olive oil.
Refuel also helps manage restaurant openings
from start to finish, collaborating with clients in
activities ranging from finding an ideal location
for a bar, restaurant or club, to creating leases,
to planning and managing budgets, to creating
a food and beverage program, to developing
menus in coordination with staffs, to building a
brand strategy, to managing media relations, to
recruiting staff.
Recent projects have included the opening of
Lima Restaurant and Lounge in downtown D.C.,
restructuring of the wine and beverage program
and staff training at Belga Café on Capitol Hill.
Currently, Refuel is leading two “chic” new
projects in the Dupont and Downtown areas and
the creation, design and buildout of VinU wine-
bar and shop slated to open in Annapolis, MD
in 2007.
Part of the package is providing clients out-
sourced services typically performed by an in-
house sommelier.
A sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable
wine professional, usually seen as specialized
staff in fine restaurants, who specializes in wine.
Typically, a sommelierʼs principal work concerns
wine procurement, storage, and wine cellar rota-
tion.
Sommeliers are also responsible for the de-
velopment of wine lists and the delivery of wine
service and training for restaurant staff. Somme-
liers work together with chefs and their culinary
teams to pair and suggest wines that will best
complement each food menu item.
An in-house professional sommelier also
works on the restaurant floor, advising restaurant
patrons directly on wine choices for their meal.
Professional sommeliers are ethically and
duty-bound to work within the taste preference
and budget of the patron. Mahdavian himself re-
calls convincing Michael Jordan to buy an $85
bottle of Iron Horse over a $387 bottle of Opus
one evening. The basketball star was surprised.
“He looked at me like I was crazy – like:
ʻWhat are you doing?ʼ....But that night, he ended
up having eight of those bottles of wine because
of the experience.”
Itʼs all about the experience, says Mahdavian.
There is no “right” answer, only wrong ones.
“Drinking wine is a very personal experience,”
Mahdavian says. “The most important thing that
I have trained staff at restaurants to do is to ask:
ʻWhat do you like to drink?ʼ understanding a.)
what does the guest like to drink, whether itʼs
a grape, whether itʼs a Bordeaux, or a Cabernet
or Sirah, and b.) then understanding what they
want to spend, looking at a wine list.”
The “right” answer effectively understand and
translates the taste a patron seeks, matches the
individualʼs taste and the ingredients of the meal,
has matured, and is drawn at temperature at the
right time – which sometimes proves to be a sci-
ence in itself.
Sometimes, Mahdavian says, he has served
pinot noirs chilled at a 65 degrees temperature,
“because it feels nicer, it goes down fresher.”
Wine and beverage consultants like Refuel ed-
ucate owners and staff in purchasing procedures
and cost-cutting measures, teaching them how to
manage resources and relationships with vendors
-- and, of course, how to select wines.
“People are spending more money on better
wines today than they were 10 or 15 years, ago,”
says Mahdavian. Information is readily available
on the internet for self-education, and especially
in the D.C. area, wine-related events, such as
wine tastings and wine dinners, abound.
As a result, “People are so much better edu-
cated, expectations are higher, people want qual-
ity,” Mahdavian says. “...They are more able to
differentiate between styles and classes of wine.
Even though they might spend an average of $75
to $80 on wine in a restaurant, they want it to be
great bang for their buck.”
Itʼs not just high-end restaurants that are in-
vesting in wine programs, buying the proper
glassware, educating staff, and buying great
quality wines from different parts of the world,
says Corcoran.
Pasta Mia, a budget-friendly Adams-Morgan
neighborhood restaurant, has an “unbelievable
selection of moderately-priced chiantis and re-
serves,” says Corcoran.
“They do a great job with what theyʼve got.
They keep it small and focused.”
D.C.ʼs international flavor is helping restau-
rants see the difference brought by an excellent
wine program. South Americans and Europeans,
who enjoyed wine as part of their upbringing,
Mahdavian says, consider wine a critical element
of the meal.
Dual income families with higher income
levels than yesteryear, are dining out frequently
too.
“Women,” Corcoran points out, “are the larg-
est purchasers of wine in general.”
And as a result, she says, they are now having
an effect on which wines restaurants are carrying
and how they are serving them.
“We always try to push a large wine-by-the
glass program,” says Corcoran. Lima Restaurant,
for instance, offers 35 wines by the glass.
The thinking for many women, Corcoran says,
is: “What if I buy a $75 bottle of wine and I donʼt
like it?...But I can have one glass at $12 a glass
or the Sauv Blanc for $7.”
Itʼs a phenomenon Mahdavian refers to as
“competitive shopping.”
Educating staff to help patrons with wine se-
lection requires not only instruction on the in-
tricacies of effectively pairing wines with food
ingredients, but also on etiquette and customer
relations.
“It is important to make it a fun experience,
an enjoyable experience, not to make anyone
feel insecure about what they donʼt know,” says
Mahdavian.
Even outsiders to the restaurant industry have
noticed the consulting trend. Refuelʼs “Sommeli-
er a Go-Go” program has not only produced wine
tastings for restaurants such as the Oval Room
and la Taberna Del Alabardero. Companies such
as Price Waterhouse Coopers have hired Mahda-
vian to teach new associates potentially courting
heavy-hitter clients how to select and order wine
with finesse.
By Patricia Murret