If you are a business entrepreneur who wines and dines a lot, you might consider getting a wine locker at a participating restaurant.

Actually anyone who loves to have wine during dinner out can have their selected wines on display in their wine locker, replete with an appealing display case and a fancy plaque that can be designed to advertise your business in an unobtrusive way.

One restaurant that offers wine lockers is Strega Prime in Woburn, Massachusetts. General Manager Romeo Carrafa says a patron can buy their favorite wines in advance and store them in their own wine locker so that the wines will be made available whenever the patron comes to the restaurant to dine. Since the wines already will be available and visible in one’s wine locker one will not need to buy wine each time one returns to the restaurant. In Orlando, Fla. one can lease a wine locker at Christner’s Prime Steak & Lobster for five hundred dollars at the annual rate.

The wine locker lease arrangement works well for the restaurants too. A restaurant that offers the service can keep its wine inventory smaller and less costly. It also can increase the number of people who return to the restaurant for wining and dining.

Key Takeaways:

• You may not come across wine lockers very often, but their numbers are growing.
• In-house sommeliers, bartenders and managers personally help wine locker owners select, purchase and store their selections.
• At Christner’s Prime Steak & Lobster in Orlando, Fla., wine lockers can be leased for a flat annual fee of $500.

“Any guest who orders wine regularly at your restaurant can benefit from a wine locker.”

Read more: http://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/drink-trends/make-guests-feel-vips-wine-lockers

Recent changes in the restaurant consumer market have prompted a spur in growth of revenues for independent restaurants. The millennial market, for example, favors local and small-scale businesses. Other influences like lifestyle entertainment such as television shows highlighting unique eating experiences are also prompting the shift away from chain restaurants. Social media is also a major factor in these recent shifts. With such trends many independent restaurants are striving to maintain and improve quality to continually delivery products and services above that of their chain restaurant competitors.

Key Takeaways:

• Traffic at restaurant chains has been increasingly problematic in recent years, and has fallen at least 4.2 percent on a two-year basis in four of the past five months, according to MillerPulse.
• One reason for the decline is that consumers are broadening their spending, especially at dine-in concepts where prices are higher.
• To be sure, it’s difficult to truly get a handle on shifts in the independent market, and there’s some disagreement among experts as to whether independents are really gaining market share.

“This cannot be emphasized enough. Large chains can tout their local ingredients all they want, but they will have only so much credibility with consumers. Independents have no such problem.”

Read more: http://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/consumer-trends/5-reasons-independent-restaurants-are-winning