Cheaper wines fail to attract diners at Hide restaurant

Could cheaper restaurant wine encourage customers to drink more fine wine? An experiment at London’s Michelin-starred Hide suggests the answer may be no.

Speaking at The Drinks Business Conference in London, Hide owner Evgeny Chichvarkin described an experiment designed to tackle one of fine wine’s biggest criticisms: restaurant mark-ups.

Hide allowed customers to order bottles sourced from nearby Hedonism Wines, with only a relatively modest additional charge. The idea was to combine Hedonism’s extensive range and retail pricing with the restaurant experience at Hide.

But the results were disappointing. “Unfortunately, it didn’t bring more people to us,” Chichvarkin said. “We just lost some of the margin.”

Hide initially operated with corkage of around £30–£35 before moving towards more conventional Mayfair restaurant wine pricing. Chichvarkin said the restaurant still accepts lower margins on its finest and rarest wines.

The experiment suggests price alone may not explain why diners are drinking less fine wine. At Hide, wine now accounts for under 30% of sales, with customers increasingly ordering fewer glasses despite an average price of around £24 per glass.