Asked to critique — and help fix — the Wine Room Kitchen & Bar in Delray Beach last summer, Mike Goodwin sensed problems from the first pour.
Hired on as a consultant and new part-time operator, the owner of live-music lounge Crazy Uncle Mike’s in Boca Raton saw that customers milled around the Enomatic wine-dispenser machines in the rustic-chic dining room, the venue’s centerpiece attraction, yet ignored the 1,800 expensive Bordeauxs and Napa Cabernets lining the walls.
He noticed the restaurant had a retail liquor license but didn’t sell spirits by the bottle, and that most guests ordered charcuterie instead of entrees from chef Blake Malatesta (50 Ocean, MIA Kitchen & Bar), whose food helped vault the Wine Room to No. 31 on Yelp’s Top Restaurants of 2022 .
In short, the restaurant “didn’t cater to the customers who could appreciate the true luxury of that room — the excellent food and rare vintages,” Goodwin tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It catered to new wine drinkers who just wanted to try the wine machines.”