Ways to Select Sake; Ways to Suggest Sake

The amount of sake available increases yearly, and aside from whether or not the number of brands being handled across America are many or few, it has come to be something around 350 brands. There are about 1,800 breweries in Japan, and the brands in distribution here in America still only represent about 1.5% of the estimated 20,000 brands in Japan; nevertheless, the size of the American market for sake is about 1% of Japan’s, so roughly speaking, the estimation of 350 brands seems to be about right. However, the consumption environment in America differs from Japan in the sense that the point of consumption is primarily at Japanese restaurants. The American market, moreover, is concentrated in California and New York.

With this in mind, how to select sake and how to suggest sake to guests are important future topics for restaurant owners. In this two-part series, I would like to write about how to select sake and how to suggest Japanese sake to customers.

Part One: Selecting brands to match prices and types of guests
Part Two: Sales promotion methods and methods of suggesting sake

Part One: Selecting brands to match prices and types of guests
Randomly carrying sake brands merely because they are trendy is not very effective. Even if the sake is just being stored, problems may occur with regard to quality control; therefore, the sake may need to be discarded or deterioration may occur, in which case caution must be used to avoid complaints from guests.

Looking at Per-customer Spending
I would first like to look at setting prices and at methods of choosing sake to match your own restaurants average customer spending.
Looking at an average full-service restaurant where the average customer spending is about $25, the percentage of food will be about 75% of the bill, and beverages (including non-alcoholic ones) will constitute the other 25% (there is a tendency for the percentage for beverages to go up as the per-customer spending rises. Conversely, the percentage for beverages tends to go down as per-customer spending falls). If it is a restaurant where the per-customer spending is high, it is still possible to sell high-priced bottles of sake using these percentages, but in a restaurant where per-customer spending is low, it is necessary to lower prices, so consider selling high-quality sake by the glass. Also, if you have too many brands in stock, the stock rotation will become bad, and quality-related problems will occur, so it is necessary to limit the number of brands sold by the glass and to thoroughly educate the restaurant’s staff. In order for guests to comfortably try different beverages, it’s good to create a sampler set consisting of sake and snack foods. Depending on the restaurant, the fair mark-up on sake prices will differ, but in general, many places establish prices at 2.5X to 3X the cost (of purchase). However, in the case of high-quality sake, which is more than $50 for a 720 ml. bottle, the upper limit is 2.5X the cost, but it would be reasonable to fix a price at 1.5X-2X the cost.

In the case of selling sake by the glass, using a 720ml bottle or a 1.8L bottle makes the cost quite different, but no matter how good the sake is, if the price is more than $25 for a 5 oz. glass, few will be able to afford it. At restaurants where per-customer spending is about $25, if the prices for the main brands sold by the glass are set at $5 - $7, it will be easier for guests to try sake.

Looking at types of guests
The selection of brands will also differ depending on the type of guests. At those restaurants where there are many young people not very accustomed to sake, the popularity of Nigori-type sweet sake is overwhelmingly high, so it would be good to consider things such as “Sake Cocktail Nite” featuring Nigori-based cocktails, or a happy hour with samples of sake served with snacks. Also, at those restaurants where the average age of guests is higher, even if the price of the sake is relatively high, people well acquainted with sushi and other Japanese foods, they will prefer delicious and unusual sake. It would therefore be effective to add extra accents such as combining “Today’s Recommended Dishes” together with the “Sake of the Day.”

Well, next I would like to look at a line-up of sake at those restaurants where the actual per-customer spending (for food and drink) is about $25. I will introduce a total of six brands. It would be good to place about this many brands on the base menu; for the seasonal menu, introduce about another four brands.

Base Menu
House sake (heated sake) room temperature sake, sake for use in “sake bombs”
1 brand of sake sold by the glass - 1.8L bottle
1 brand of high-quality sake sold by the bottle (300ml. size); 2 brands of medium-quality sake (300ml. size and 720ml. size for each brand); 1 brand of Nigori-type sake (300ml. and 720ml.)
With regard to the two brands of medium-quality sake, carrying a 300ml. size and a 720ml. size for each brand allows restaurants to better handle those times when guests arrive in large numbers.

Limited Seasonal Menu
3 brands of“summer” (for example) fragrant chilled sake (included in a sampler):
1 brand of junmai daiginjo sake
2 brands of junmai ginjo sake


For seminars on Japanese sake or shochu, contact Yuji Matsumoto at 310-936-4649 or ymatsumoto001@gmail.com.



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