With the significant success of the first Cowboys & Cooks at Sunset Beach, The Cowboys and Cooks team have proudly opened another gastronomic restaurant at their new location on De Waterkant. The De Waterkant Cowboys and Cooks space is versatile and features wonderful light and open areas during good weather days, and warm, fire-side, library-style decor in the evenings or winter. As with their Sunset Beach restaurant, there are large dining areas, as well as various nooks for private dining functions.
Cowboys and Cooks (don’t you just love that name..?) have steak at the heart of everything that they do and their one of a kind Chimney Grill is really what makes all the difference in the cooking of the perfect steak. And with the perfect steak….. you need the perfect glass of wine…. and if you are going to offer the perfect wine by the glass…. you need a really good wine preservation system….and this is where Le Verre de Vin comes in to play.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Manfred Scholz who does the procurement (amongst other things) for Cowboys and Cooks. Manfred was instrumental in the acquiring of a Le Verre de Vin wine preservation system for the new Cowboys and Cooks at De Waterkant.
We asked Manfred why he considered a wine preservation system an essential requirement for their prestigious restaurant. His reasoning about this is sound – Cowboys and Cooks find that their customers like to have different wines with their meal, so ordering a glass as opposed to a bottle is becoming more popular all the time. This is why Cowboys and Cooks like to offer a comprehensive wine by the glass menu. They also offer a wide selection of Champagne, Prosecco and local MCC’S by the glass and in cocktails. Once the bottle is open, they need to preserve them perfectly until the next glass is poured. And this is where they find that Le Verre de Vin wine preservation systems are the ideal solution.
There are several wine preservation solutions available in South Africa. When they were in the process of deciding to implement a wine preservation system at their De Waterkant restaurant, Manfred told us that they tested a few solutions out and came to the conclusion that Le Verre de Vin was the best solution for their needs – it’s easy to use and does the job that they require perfectly. And then coupling this with their previous experience of the Bermar level of service, which has always been spot on, made the decision very easy.
Manfred has a long history with Le Verre de Vin. Some years back, when he was working in procurement for The Harbour House group, it was recommended to him by the representative from Graham Beck Wines (Graham Beck have been using their Le Verre de Vin system for the last 5 years) and as a result they installed a system in Harbour House in Kalk Bay. This is where Manfred first saw the value of having a Le Verre de Vin wine preservation system in place, and why he made sure that it was a part of the planning for their De Waterkant Cowboys and Cooks.
At Cowboys and Cooks they have found that there are a number of factors that contribute to their need for a wine preservation system:
- Customers like to have different wines with their meal, so ordering a glass as opposed to a bottle is becoming more popular all the time. They strive to meet this demand and therefor offer a comprehensive wine by the glass menu.
- The demand for bubbly by the glass is growing. Without their Le Verre de Vin preservation system they would not be able to do this – bubbly by the glass would not be sustainable.
- The biggest advantage is that the Le Verre de Vin system allows them to offer more wines by the glass without compromising the quality of the wine on offer, as it is well preserved. It makes the offering of a wine and bubbly by the glass list cost effective and therefore sustainable.
Manfred ended off by bringing to our attention an interesting fact to note – in having two restaurants, one with a Le Verre de Vin preservation system and one without, since they have implemented the system in their De Waterkant restaurant, wine by the glass sales have substantially increased, where it has not at their Sunset Beach location. That certainly gives one pause for thought!
Thanks, Manfred, for your valuable time. We wish you everything of the best with your new Cowboys and Cooks at De Waterkant!
If you would like to know more about Le Verre de Vin and how you can really reap the benefit of offering a range of wine by the glass too, then please contact us on 021 788 9788 or email us at and we will be happy to discuss this with you in more detail.
