Stephanie Udeji

Wine Analysis

New York City is known to be home to many renowned restaurants that have set the standard for food preparation and service all over the world. Being a melting pot of many cultures, most chefs plan their menus to incorporate all of the present cultures and flavors in New York City. Fine Dining restaurants offer diners the opportunity to have their meals paired with wines. Their extensive wine lists show their attention to detail and the thought put into each meal presented. Casual dining restaurants often offer more cocktails than wines. The wines offered typically are the most popular amongst diners.

Opened in 2005 by Joe and Linda Bastianich, Del Posto is a fine dining Italian restaurant that has been serving New Yorkers quality food. Located on 85 10th Ave, New York, New York the restaurant was awarded one Michelin star and is the only standing four star Italian restaurant in New York. The menu offers diners a prix fixe menu for lunch and dinner, that have many pasta dishes prepared in numerous ways. Blue Ribbon is a fast-casual restaurant by Bruce and Eric Bromberg, which was established in 1992. There are multiple locations in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. With different variations of their restaurant, Blue Ribbon offers diners classic American dishes and international cuisines like sushi.

Del Posto’s wine list is very extensive, with the type of wine and where it was produced. Their entire beverage menu is 241 pages long. It has a directory for white wine, red wine and champagne. Some of the bottles of wine are priced as high as $1000. Blue Ribbon’s wine list is 4 pages long and is organized by wines of all types, beer and at the bottom spirits. Their selection of red and white wine of extensive but is lacking in rose and sparkling wine. Being that I have dined at Blue Ribbon, their wine selection is in accordance with their menu which offers a decent selection of food.

Some of the differences between the two restaurants are that Del Posto’s wine list is far more developed and offers a wide range of wines and beverages and they are paired with the meals offered. In contrast, Blue Ribbon has a shorter wine list and they are not paired with menu items. Del Posto’s wine list is significantly longer than their menu which gives diners the opportunity to have their meals paired or they can opt to choose a wine of their choice. The format of the menu differs as well. Del Posto has formatted its beverage menu by listing all the type of one wine on one page. Blue Ribbon has all of its beverages listed in a small font with its prices listed on the side by glass and pint. The two wine lists are similar by listing the year and location of production. Both beverage lists are well organized with the prices for beverages based on glass, pint, liter, and half-liter.

After doing this research what I found was that the price a restaurant charges is dependent on the services given to their diners. Blue Ribbon being a fast-casual restaurant not much attention to detail was put into pairing meals with wines. Del Posto being a fine dining restaurant, they want to offer their diners an experience that not only includes delicious food but tasty wine to go along with their food. After this research, I an interested to going to Del Posto to have the entire experience that is being offered.