Drinking inside the box

Would you pay $89 for a 3L box of wine? Customers are doing it with style in Chicago–even if that kind of a markup is more like Manhattan!
Avec, the chic and sleek Mediterranean restaurant on West Randolph (so chic they don’t even take reservations), is pouring the wine from a bag-in-a-box. It’s $10 for a quarter-liter carafe, $31 for the bottle sized 750ml, and $89 for the 3L box (see the wine list). The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Eduard Seitan, Avec’s co-owner and wine buyer, likes the wine so much he keeps three boxes on display at the bar.
“I’m very proud of it,” he said.
This actually is a great idea, particularly because the wine in question is the yummy Cuvee de Pena 2003, which I have previously recommended as excellent value vino. A $10 carafe of good wine is an idea whose time has come in America. Maybe more restaurants will start to drink inside the box?
tags: wine | food & drink | boxed wine | Chicago dining




On February 9th, 2006 at 10:52 am ,Lenn wrote:
It’s an idea whose time has come for sure…in fact it’s long overdue.
With that were possible around here. If I pay that little, I’m getting Franzia.
On February 10th, 2006 at 3:11 pm ,Merely Human wrote:
In my opinion, packaging diversification will be the logical next step for competition in the wine arena. More thoughts on value innovation in the wine industry here.