How to...?

How one can go about constructing a saké menu .

We recommend that the Menu contain at least six key points:

1. S.M.V. - Dry or Sweet
2. Tasting note - Rich or light
3. Recommended serving temperature - Warmed / Room Temperature / Chilled
4. Food pairing suggestions - Before Dinner / Appetizer / Main Dish / After Dinner
5. Category - Honjozo / Junmai / Junmai Ginjo / Junmai Daiginjo
6. Geographic region - Niigata, Hyogo, Akita, etc.

Obviously the customer will order more if the recommended saké tastes good. Restaurants need to educate their customers on how to use the six points while ordering. For example, "I would like to have a clean and dry type of chilled Junmai Ginjo for my appetizer please!"

An important factor in a restaurant's success with saké sales is keeping a wide variety on hand.

How one can begin educating wait staff about saké .

Although customers will get saké information from the saké menu, the wait staff needs to know how to recommend saké to customers. The restaurant does not always need to have a saké sommelier, but the customer expects to be able to get answers from the wait staff. Inquiries may include things such as how to select the best matching saké for a particular dinner.
The following points would be useful for the wait staff to know.

1. Regions
   Sometimes the customer wants to try saké just because of the region. Perhaps the customer comes from a particular locale or may have visited there once. Knowledge of the region can stimulate conversation between the customers and the wait staff.
2. The customer's favorite tastes
   The wait staff can ask two questions to help the customers decide what they want in a saké. First, they should ask what kind of taste they seek, whether 'light' or 'rich?' Secondly, they should inquire about serving temperature, whether a customer prefers 'chilled,' 'room temperature,' or 'warm.' At this point, the wait staff can ask customers about their favorite tastes, but also should be able to recommend the serving temperature for a specific type (See How and why saké should be enjoyed at different temperatures)
3. Food matching
   This is a crucial area in terms of information. Of course the wait staff knows the restaurant's menu for each course, especially their daily specials or recommendations. The matching saké 's change according to the course, so it is better to know which dish would be fitting for which saké before talking to the customer. If the wait staffs already know their favorite dishes and the matching sakþs, that knowledge would make it easier to recommend specific brands to their customers.

A knowledgeable wait staff is vital to a restaurant's success. Having an incentive system in place for sales of saké made by wait staff may also prove beneficial to overall success.

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