Chef Daniel Boulud plans to offer 36-bottle private wine storage bins for patrons at his Upper West Side eatery Bar Boulud that's slated to open this fall. Private wine storage has its price, however: $15,000 a year, per Tuesday's Page Six item.
Today, comes economics major Felix Salmon to run the math for us on whether the deal makes sense from the "wealthy consumer" point of view. Professor Salmon?
Let's say that a wine which retails for $150 sells at a restaurant for $400. Then a diner drinking such a wine would save $250 a pop by going into his own private cellar rather than ordering off the wine list. How many such bottles would he have to order to justify a $15,000 per year wine rental? 60 – or five per month. Which is doable. I certainly know people who order five $400 bottles of wine per month in restaurants, although I'm not sure I know that many people who do so in just one restaurant. But if you're not the kind of person who orders $400 bottles of wine on a regular basis, you're probably not the sort of person who Daniel wants to rent his wine cellars to in any case.· Listing to Port [Felix Salmon]
· Lavish Locker [Page Six]
