Start your own “University”

Monday, February 10, 2025

One of my restaurants is a well known Wine bar. Nationally recognized in fact. Probably 15 years ago, one of the managers suggested that we start a “University”. We had classes every Monday night. Up to thirty “Students” at a class. One of the managers presented the class for the evening. Always a tasting where they talked about the wines. The “Professor” would post the subject for the semester. So, a six week study of wines from South America for example. Then for $35 guests came and worked through 5 wines and learned about a particular region. We had “Financial Aid “ packages where if they paid for five, they got the sixth one free. We actually created t-shirts and polo shirts that said “ The University”, home of “The Fighting Corkscrews”. We took orders for wine to go and many guests would buy a couple of bottles of the featured wines that they just tasted. Plus, it didn’t include food, so they came and purchased dinner in addition to the tasting. That idea is now 15 years old and we have guests who come every week to hear the presenter talk about all kinds of wines and wine regions. Several years back we issued “University Graduate” polo’s to our long time attendees. Occasionally, when we have a winemaker in town, we hold a Field Trip event where we do a dinner instead of the normal tasting. The University and the classes helped to put us on the map and created a revenue stream for a slower night of the week. And, when the restaurant fielded a softball team, we were the Fighting Corkscrews. League champions in our third season!

OK, so you’re not a wine bar. When we had our Pirate bar, we started with Pirate University. We’d tell great pirate stories and paired the stories with a particular Rum from the area of the world the matched the story. Sometimes the distributors would give us free “Swag” to give away making the class even more fun. The stories were about rum, about pirates, and even about life during pirate days. And again, we held it on a slower night and that helped build the traffic. Guest actually signed up for the voyage and so each week, it was a “Port of Call” that they visited.

So, how about a cocktail class given by one of your chatty bartenders? I might sign up for Tequila U. : “Home of the Salty Limes”! Bourbon University. Whisky Tech. Look at what are your strengths and then find someone who can turn it into a 30 minute class. If you decide there is not enough for every week, than do it every other week. No big deal. But the premise is that people are coming to your bar or restaurant because they like your signature spirit. Now, turn it into something that they can attend and learn from.

The key is to make a plan and have it in place. It’s no good to have three classes and not know what you are going to do for the fourth one. Post the schedule. Hand out a “Course Synopsis”. Create fun things for the “students”. Maybe even give them a bounce back if they come in on a non-class night. Extra Credit drinking? Works for me. We had a gentleman who taught the Wine Classes for years who moved on to own his own Restaurant. We gave him a Doctorates Degree from the University as a going away present. Just like a real diploma. He loved it. Get the University together and enroll some students. And don’t let them tell you that the dog ate their homework!

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