First and foremost, to all our loyal (and even the occasionally loyal) patrons of Social, THANK YOU!!! We appreciate all your support and will do everything in our power to strive to make the Social experience better everyday.
The impetus for all this love is that Social won 3 categories in the Charleston City Paper “Best of”, right on the heels of our 3rd anniversary. It has been a roller coaster of a ride (think one of those new, super intense, Superman-style ones at Six Flags) and being able to earn such accolades makes all the effort 100% worth it. I could not be more grateful to our wonderful staff and of course, all our fantastic customers. None of this could have been possible without the contribution of all involved, both directly and indirectly.
We won “Best Wine Selection” for the 3rd year running, “Best Happy Hour” (we really do have the best happy hour if you have yet check it out- let’s just say $3 for most anything), and “Best Upscale Bar”. Our goals for this upcoming year are loftier and we will strive to be the best at all capacities in which we operate. Your feedback is necessary in making this happen and we will be adding a section to our website to allow for anonymous criticisms and (hopefully) praises about your experience (keep you posted when this becomes live). Until, Thank You and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Ballstein
Hola amigos,
So I had the most awesome of opportunities to attend the Wine Entrepreneur Conference in DC last week and I figured that the least I could do is share with you the insights I learned from it. Sit back, relax, and enjoy two days worth of seminars condensed down into this bite-size blog post. I realize that this post would have to be of an extraordinary length to actually fully cover all the material covered, so here are the big picture lessons.
1. Buying a vineyard = Worst Business Model Ever!!! Don’t buy a vineyard and produce wine with the intentions of making millions. I must reiterate the most classic wine business joke, “How do you make a million dollars in the wine industry…Start with 10 million!”. I will take my chances in the airline industry.
2.If you want to make wine, source the grapes, rent part of an already existing warehouse and start producing juice immediately. Not overly capital-intensive and if you can make some good enough wine and market it properly, you can grow organically and one day you can have a winery of your own. Baby Steppin’!
3. Importing is a beast horse! Lots of laws, lots of time trying to sell your product in your market, very little time traveling around the world sourcing products aka writing off awesome vacations. It’s one of those ‘if it was easy, everybody would be doing it’ kinda things.
4. Wine Journalism=Super Fun…but hard to monetize (though becoming easier).
5. Can’t underestimate the power of social media in the wine industry. Just ask Hardy Wallace.
6. How do you combine the aesthetic and rigidity of a glass bottle with the sustainability of an aluminum can? That’s right- The Aluminum Bottle…aka the way of the near future.
Can’t wait until next year!
So we just wanted to say thanks to all those peeps who attended KK5 this past Saturday and an extra special thanks to all who drank the sweet juice we provided. We (both patrons and sponsors) need to support local events such as this in order for Charleston to keep progressing culturally. Plus, having something fresh and fun is always welcomed. See you in six months for KK6.
With the launch of our new action-packed website, we have also added a blog- so innovative! We will keep you posted on all the happenings of Social and there will muchos random musings on wine. Stay tuned.
