Delicias Restaurant owner in Rancho Santa Fe removes paper wine lists for wine list App i-Somm

Owen Perry, owner of Delicias restaurant in Rancho Santa Fe (www.deliciasrestaurant.com), has dumped the last of his restaurant’s paper wine lists and 100 percent replaced them with the i-Somm interactive wine application.

Released in 2010, the app was written for iPads to display the restaurant’s wine list, along with information on each wine, including ratings, pricing and pairing suggestions. Delicias is known in the region for its award-winning wine list.

“I came in one night, collected all the printed wine lists, stuck them in the trunk of my car and drove off,” Perry recalled. “Printed wine lists are expensive and constantly have to be updated. We had a long transition period going from the printed lists to the i-Somm, and I thought it was time to make Delicias fully electronic.”

The i-Somm wine app is for restaurants, hotels, private clubs and retail wine stores. Designed for use by establishments with a large selection of wines, 10 restaurants nationwide have already adopted the app, including Delicias, the Hilton BayFront in San Diego, Oneida Indian Nation in Verona, New York, Café Largo in Key Largo, Florida and The Wine Mapp in Greenwich, Connecticut. Waiters present diners an iPad with the app, on which they can find search options for name, price, region, color, flavor profile or critics’ ratings. Another option displays the food menu and suggests wine pairings along with detailed tasting notes for each wine as well.

It’s a giant leap ahead of printed lists in speed and convenience. The customer taste profile gives the reader confidence to try new bottles, vintages and wine regions at higher price points, leading to an enhanced dining experience and an upselling of wines. Many operators credit the technological advance with sparking double-digit wine sales increases. Brandon Rinker, manager of Delicias, commented, “The i-Somm has been a great asset to our business. We’ve seen wine revenues jump by 10% since we implemented it. It hasn’t replaced our sommelier, but has been an important and fun tool in helping him steer our customers to the right wine choices.”

Additionally, Delicias is the first client to make use of iSomm’s POS integration to update wine inventory on the fly so listings are always current.

Designed for the hospitality and restaurant industry, the i-Somm app helps provide the patron with new knowledge so he can make better wine choices believes Mark Sessions, Vice President of Operations for i-Somm. He remarked, “The i-Somm interactive and user friendly interface assists the customer to make the best wine choices. It is also tailored to the specific restaurant, so it can offer recommendations, inform about promotions and include graphics and images specific to each establishment.”

While there are other wine apps in the marketplace, Sessions added, i-Somm is offered at a lower price point and can therefore work with all size businesses. Another advantage is that it is pre-cached and can be operated offline at locations which do not have an Internet connection.

i-Somm was the brainchild of Perry, a renowned hotel and restaurant developer, working in conjunction with technology expert Alex Marxer. Its purpose was twofold: to improve the dining experience of the customer and increase the profitability of the restaurant owner. They are currently marketing the product to restaurants and hotels worldwide. For additional information about i-Somm, visit www.i-somm.com or call (800) 790-4186.