Wining and Dining on Top of the World

NEW YORK —  In the most dramatic restaurant setting in the world, 107 stories above the street and looking down on the Statue of Liberty, a diner can order a 10-year-old red wine for $20 and have it served, with utter perfection, in one of the most attractive wine goblets imagineable.

New Yorkers know that Windows on the World offers food, hospitality and an incomparable view to members of a private club (at lunch) and to the general public (at dinner) and most consider this to be the ultimate in above-it-all dining.

But there’s another element to the restaurant’s success: the wine program, which is probably the most ambitious in the world.

Wine sales alone here total $3 million. And that figure, believed to be the greatest wine volume in the world for a single restaurant, doesn’t count sales of wines sold by the glass. “We are not just a restaurant sitting back with a big wine list,” said Kevin Zraly, director of the wine program at Windows on the World. “We have a wine school (which Zraly teaches), wine dinners, a wine buying program for club members. We pay attention to all the details.”

That means constantly updating a list of 600 wines with new releases. “I spend a lot of time in California--I go at least 6 to 10 times a year--looking for the new names,” said Zraly. “A couple of years ago at the Monterey Wine Festival, I came into contact with Bonny Doon and Morgan.”

Zraly and Brough taste about 1,200 wines per year. Zraly says doing such evaluations “is a big pain in the neck, but we share our tasting results with the purveyors, so they know what we felt about a wine.”

Zraly says that they do their tastings often with the captains and waiters. “They come in and taste the wines with us, so they are involved in the decision making of what wines go on the list.”

Windows on the World offers no sales incentive to waiters, but Zraly noted that the restaurant sells so much wine that the average check is high and that makes for high tips.

One reason is because of prices: They are reasonable enough to tempt patrons to indulge in wine. Zraly and cellar master Alec Brough say that the credit for the price structure goes to Inhilco, the owner of the restaurant, which wants to keep things reasonable.

You can buy 1979 Rutherford Hill Merlot for $20, 1981 Hanzell Pinot Noir for $30, 1971 Chateau Gruaud Larose for $40, and 1981 Keenan Chardonnay for $25.

“The wine program was developed as a public relations concept, and we want people to be happy. We’d rather sell two bottles at $10 than one bottle at $20,” he said. “Since opening day (May 1976) this has been a volume operation.”

How much volume from each winery is dependant solely on how well the wines sell. “Everything works off sales,” said Zraly. “I’ll put a lot of wine on the list once, and at a very fair price. If it doesn’t sell, off it goes.”

For lunch, club members can, if they wish, maintain their own wine lockers here without charge and buy wine at 25% above the restaurant’s cost (about 25% below retail). The average locker is three cases, and members are charged a $3 corkage fee for consuming their own wine.

After 3 p.m., the 300-seat restaurant is open to the public. (Corkage for non-club members who arrange to bring wine in, in advance, is $10 a bottle. Occasionally the corkage is waived if “you give us a taste. If it’s a good wine, we’d rather taste.”)

In addition to the famed view from the top, Windows on the World has a small circular room within the confines of the restaurant called Cellar in the Sky. Here, ringed with wine racks, 36 diners can enjoy special dinners. A typical dinner--seven courses and five wines--runs $77 per person. Zraly says they are sold out weeks in advance.