Sometimes the food blogosphere goes crazy for something we just scratch our heads over. This week we had the curious case of OYO (as Urban Daddy puts it) - New York Vintners, a wine store on Warrren Street that no one had ever heard of suddenly getting covered all over the place. Why? Because they launched a program where customers can order wine and get it delivered to restaurants. Pieces quickly ensued on Grub Street, Serious Eats, Eater and the aforementioned UD.
Of course, five seconds of digging reveals a few problems with this scenario, something that should have led to more skepticism on the part of bloggers. For starters, it's only available at one restaurant right now - Kuma Inn. The fact that a New York Vintners partner is an investor in Kuma Inn Brooklyn is also worth mentioning - kudos for Grub Street for picking that up. After all, until they get another couple of restaurants onboard, this is merely an extended form of nepotism and hardly some breakthrough public service worthy of press coverage.
Of course, this may turn out to be a cool idea - though don't doubt the party pooper service known as the SLA getting involved with places trying to offer BYOB while skirting the law (you can only be BYO if you have a liquor license). But New York Vintners do send us an email when you have a good number of restaurants in the program. In the meantime, we'll file this under "non-story" and hope our blogging friends are a little more suspect of these types of "services" in the future.
Of course, five seconds of digging reveals a few problems with this scenario, something that should have led to more skepticism on the part of bloggers. For starters, it's only available at one restaurant right now - Kuma Inn. The fact that a New York Vintners partner is an investor in Kuma Inn Brooklyn is also worth mentioning - kudos for Grub Street for picking that up. After all, until they get another couple of restaurants onboard, this is merely an extended form of nepotism and hardly some breakthrough public service worthy of press coverage.
Of course, this may turn out to be a cool idea - though don't doubt the party pooper service known as the SLA getting involved with places trying to offer BYOB while skirting the law (you can only be BYO if you have a liquor license). But New York Vintners do send us an email when you have a good number of restaurants in the program. In the meantime, we'll file this under "non-story" and hope our blogging friends are a little more suspect of these types of "services" in the future.
i heard that they signed up ivo & lulu and la sirene?
i heard that they just signed up ivo & lulu and la sirene as well?
I see they have. However, three restaurants is what I'd call a first step. The media should cover things when they have a more substantial story. My beef wasn't with the service or the idea, but the fawning media coverage.
I'm very curious how the SLA will react to this since technically you cannot be BYO without a liquor license, but then again you don't fall under the SLA's purview if you never intend to apply for one either.