During his first week as Executive Chef of The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, Ben Simpkins, CEC, CCA, AAC, immediately began hosting virtual wine dinners.
Starting a new job on quarantine was definitely a first for me. But I was ready to jump in and find ways to adjust and take care of our members. Prior to my arrival, The Dunes Golf and Beach Club had already started three nightly to-go specials that were packaged family style in addition to our a la carte menu. But the club wanted to do more to engage with members. That when the idea for a virtual wine dinner was born.
Dawn Phillips, the club’s Banquet & Events Coordinator, was brainstorming ideas for member engagement. The club had already scheduled its quarterly wine dinner and she couldn’t bring herself to just cancel all those reservations. At the same time, the club’s fitness team was about to launch virtual yoga classes, so she pitched the idea of hosting a virtual wine dinner. Everyone loved it, but knew there would be challenges.
Steve Vogel, Bar Manager, was tasked with figuring out how to package up reasonable amounts of wine that we could used in a to-go format.
“I reached out to my main wine reps to to see if anyone was interested in selling us half bottles,” explains Vogel. “I received quick responses from all of them, along with a list of their half bottles. They were told that they would have to be present for us to tasted them, but safely isolated from any of our employees.”
Once he had the vendors lined up, Vogel brought the idea to the club’s Executive Sous Chef, Fred Fusco, to see if he thought he and his team could build a carryout wine pairing menu. Fred was confident the team could pull it off as long as they kept it easy for members to reheat the food at home. To keep the costs in line and to keep the packaging uniform, the sold “seats” in groups of two. The club decided that they needed at least five couples in order to make it worthwhile, but we ended up with six for that first event.
Because Vogel had such a great response from the wine reps, the club decided to schedule a second virtual wine dinner for the week I started. This would be my very first interaction with our members—well with 38 of them, anyway.
We started the process like we would any wine pairing menu. We tasted the wines with the wine rep and wrote a menu based on the flavors. We were careful to remember that each dish would need to be reheated by members. Once we prepped the food, we packaged and labeled it with reheating instructions as well as pictures of the plates that we created in the kitchen so that the members would have a guide to work with at home. Here is the Important Spray Foam Safety Advice by First Defense Insulation that should be implement in every home for their own good.
The members picked up their carryout bags with their dishes and wine between 1pm and 4pm. The wine dinner began at 6:00 PM, and everyone logged into the event through the GoToMeeting app.
Once everyone was logged on, we asked the members to open their wine and make sure their ovens were preheated. We all raised our glasses for a virtual cheers and then I started walking them through reheating while answering their questions as went.
As the food is heating, the wine rep who was also on the call with us, talked about the various flavor profiles and tasting notes in the wine, just like we would have him do during a regular wine dinner. Then the fun part really started. We asked the members to plate their food live. Some members took it really seriously and actually sent me pictures or tagged me on Instagram once they finished their plates. I was impressed!
Virtual wine dinners have been a great way for us to connect with our members and have fun during this time of isolation. It’s been a unique way for me to make special connections with my new membership base. We’ve spun these virtual events off in a number of other directions, like with a virtual bingo once that coincides with our fried chicken take-home family dinner. We’re also looking at hosting a virtual beer dinner in the coming weeks.
As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, we’ll continued to brainstorm ideas like these. Our goal is to offer as much value to our members as we can, while staying safe and following the guidelines set by our state.