Honestly, I am not even sure what week this is of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down the Bay Area. And with the shelter-in-place order, wineries and restaurants all over California are having to rethink their traditional model of people coming to them. Creativity tends to flourish during times of crisis, so I wanted to give a few shoutouts to brands that I think are doing a great job of embracing the horrible reality that we're dealing with right now.
Restaurants embracing delivery and curbside pickup:
Gran Electrica in Napa is providing to-go Survival Tacos, complete with hilarious instructions on how to assemble your tacos at home along with pre-batched margaritas (Image from GranElectrica via my wine friend, Jay Brewner in Napa).
Berkeley tea & coffee shop Nest of Comforts just opened in January and promptly had to close up their shop for the shelter in place. Thankfully, they are still celebrating Formal Fridays with a boxed tea service delivered right to your door (if you live near them). Each order includes a few tea sandwiches, a scone with cream and jam, dessert pastries, and a tea sachet all tied up with a bow. Orders are $30 a person (including delivery).
Catelli’s in Geyserville (northern Sonoma County) was one of the first restaurants (that I noticed) that embraced family-style meals to go. Every day they add a new menu to their website, which is a really easy-to-use popup on the homepage, and they do curbside pickup and deliveries over $75 from Cloverdale to Windsor. They serve both cooked meals and food you can heat later at home. And, for the record, they have THE BEST lasagna I have ever eaten.
Speaking of embracing delivery—Ausiello’s 5th Street Bar & Grill in downtown Santa Rosa has one of the best forms of delivery. Check out the video to understand what I’m talking about.
Yep, every delivery comes with this guy dressed up like a redneck, doing jumping jacks or dancing for you—all while being very safe and enforcing social distancing. Watch the video on their Facebook page here. It isn’t strippers in Portland delivering food because they are out of work, but it is entertaining!
Sushi Mambo in Calistoga shared this touching post on their Facebook Page: “Hello, while we are offering 10 percent off all TAKE-OUT orders, if you are in financial distress, message me here on this page and I will provide you with a FREE hot meal. No questions asked and all privacy guaranteed. I do not want anyone to go hungry! Renee.”
This is exactly what I love to see in times of need. People helping other people. <3 Kudos to them!
I mentioned the two restaurants below in my article on Creative Ways Wineries Can Market Their Business During This Pandemic, but I wanted to follow up now that we are a few weeks into the shelter-in-place order.
Big Bottom Market owner (in Guerneville) and cookbook author Michael Volpatt is still inviting his Facebook community to join him for cooking classes on how to make his famous biscuits. He also just went live on Lambert Bridge’s Instagram account and made a burger, and he will be going live on Iron Horse Vineyard’s Facebook page to show off a brunch quiche recipe to pair with an Iron Horse mimosa (i.e., the smallest splash of OJ if you have it… If not, oh well.. Just bubbles then!). I love the idea of wineries and restaurants collaborating to bring value to their community.
Seattle’s fine dining restaurant Canlis was one of the first restaurants that pivoted their business from fine dining (as their website states, fine dining isn’t what Seattle needs right now) to take out. In addition to their smart business decision to change up their format to take out, and to now offer “family meal”-style dinners, they have their own CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) where customers can get a box of the best ingredients directly from their favorite farmers. Restaurants supporting their own! Love it.
Third Street Aleworks in downtown Santa Rosa has partnered with Sonoma County farms, bakeries, and butchery shops in Sonoma County to provide a CSA. Read all about what they are doing here.
Heritage Eats in Napa is also delivering essential items like eggs, etc. (and if you order delivery with Heritage Eats on certain dates, 10% of your proceeds will go to designated charities).
If you are reading this and you’re in upstate New York, my friend Lee has a custom CSA (at which you can pick your own veggies, eggs, cheese, etc.). It’s pretty special because many CSAs just provide whatever they have in abundance, which is great...but I do love being able to customize.
Martinez restaurant Homage (here in the East Bay) also has its own CSA box (three types of them, actually!) and they will deliver fresh fruits, veggies, eggs, and even rice to Martinez and surrounding areas (they are right next to Concord!). In addition, they also created a make-your-own-pizza kit; customers can order naturally leavened dough (enough for 4 10-12” pizzas), san marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and four cookies to be baked. They sold out on their first day super quickly, and I am sure they will again. I have written about them before, and I still believe they have some of the best Buffalo Cauliflower in the East Bay. Oh! And you can now order Del Cielo Beer (a cute Martinez brewery) along with your pizza.
They also have been great at keeping everyone updated on Instagram…including in their bio! I may have mentioned before that this space is often overlooked when it comes to Instagram marketing.
Tra Vigne Pizzeria and Restaurant in St. Helena (northern Napa Valley) has been featuring “make-your-own pizzas” for the past week as well. They have shared pictures on Facebook sent in from happy families who made pizzas at home. They even went live on Facebook to share how to “Make Pizza Like a Pro LIVE Cooking Class!”
Mike Hess Brewery in Walnut Creek has partnered with their parking lot neighbor, Jack Urban Eats, to deliver both beer and food to customers surrounding their East Bay location. Just call the taproom to get your orders in. Learn more and get the latest menus on their Instagram page. This is one of my favorites out of the box collaborations, mostly because it is my local brewery. We stockpiled six cases of Steel Beach lager before we realized that they could stay open for curbside pickup. I also love the collaboration and would like to see this happen with more businesses.
They may not have their Healdsburg restaurant anymore, but Susan and Jeff Mall of Volo Chocolates have a fun way to sell their chocolates for Easter: chocolate bunnies complete with a face mask, reminding us that it is okay to laugh during all of this pain. Get your hands on one before Easter!
Wineries need to change their mindset to think like eCommerce brands.
Now that most wineries are starting to embrace selling wine online, the typical $1.00 shipping and curbside pickup has become the norm.
There are a few standouts. Jordan Winery in Alexander Valley is hosting a #MyJordanTable Takeout Date Night at Home Photo Contest, for which customers are encouraged to share their best SIP (shelter in place) date night at-home photos with the world. Four winners of four different photo categories will receive their very own Wine Enthusiast Wine Refrigerator. Read more on their wine-industry-famous blog. (Also, happy 10th anniversary to the Jordan blog!)
Flora Springs Estate Winery & Vineyards in St. Helena in Napa Valley has a wine scavenger hunt also encouraging fans to share pictures of their wines at home. Learn more on their Instagram page.
I would love to see my winery marketing friends do something like providing an extra gift (e.g., toilet paper with every case shipment—I’ve seen a few restaurants and breweries embrace this), or include a handwritten note, or give something like a brochure on how to drink wine at home. Something that adopts the current situation we are in.
Harvest Card is a membership that gives access to Sonoma County wineries, hotels, and restaurants (you know…experiences). So, since their whole “thing” isn’t feasible right now, they did such a great job pivoting their business to working with their winery clients by creating a curated pack of exclusive winery-direct wines that generally are not found at your local grocery or liquor stores. Landon, the founder of Harvest Card is also delivering the cases as a wine fairy (within Sonoma County) to bring a bit more happiness to customers. Learn more on his Instagram page—where I also went on Instagram Live with him to talk marketing for wineries looking to get through this crisis.
Tank Garage Winery in Calistoga (upper Napa Valley) has been sharing screenshots of how their customers can support local businesses in their area. The Instagram Stories they shared are gone, but they still have a post asking their customers to provide shoutouts. Just seeing the community support each other simultaneously warms and breaks my heart for everyone in hospitality.
Since everyone is being forced to embrace working from home, Zoom video conferencing has become the go-to for many small businesses. I'll leave my commentary on the crappy service, hacking, and data collection for later, but it is pretty cool to see that a lot of businesses, like my friend Megan at Untapped Media, have created free Zoom backgrounds. Her wine photography is gorgeous, so it naturally lends itself to this. Try it out and have fun on your next video chat!
I hope reading about some ways that restaurants and wineries are getting creative when it comes to delivery and curbside pickup can help inspire your own marketing (food-related, or not) to brainstorm some fun and unique ways to market your business during this crisis - and hopefully after as well.
Remember to try things out, and make sure they align with your core values (aka don’t try the redneck delivery guy if you are a fine wine brand… that won’t make sense).
And if you are looking for more ways to engage with your audience on social media, check out my list of 15 wine prompts for wineries during a crisis (like a pandemic or a fire).