My Wine Guide
At Mugen Waikiki at ESPACIO — a Forbes Five Star, AAA Five Diamond property — we maintained an award-winning wine list printed on elegant paper stock in a custom binder. It was never fully accurate. Availability changed. Vintages shifted. New acquisitions arrived. Depletions happened daily. Each update meant reprinting pages at significant cost and time, and even then the list was already moving past us. Presenting a guest with a selection that was unavailable, or a vintage that had changed, is simply not something a five star restaurant can afford to do. Our guests deserved better.
My Wine Guide was the solution. A wine list on a tablet — I chose the iPad mini for its compact footprint — always current, always accurate, and customizable to whatever depth the concept requires. Wine descriptions, categories, cocktail offerings, menu pairings, producer notes — as much or as little as the program calls for. Maintenance that once consumed hours and budget can now be completed in minutes. The monthly fee is a fraction of what we spent on graphic setup and frequent reprints on custom paper stock. Onboarding and support from the My Wine Guide team were exceptional throughout.
What I had not fully anticipated was the experience of the tablet in our dimly lit dining room. Guests could adjust brightness to their comfort and enlarge the text with a fingertip — something a printed list can never offer. The ten seconds of navigation guidance we provided at tableside was all it took. Guests took to it immediately and responded warmly to the change. Servers worked with confidence knowing the list they presented was accurate. And beyond the wine program itself, the platform allowed us to program special events, hotel services, and contextual information that added texture to the guest experience in ways a printed list cannot.
My Wine Guide integrates with Toast for inventory management, which closes the loop between what is sold at the table and what is reflected in the cellar. For any operation managing a serious wine program, that integration alone changes the conversation about what a wine list can do.
Visit mywineguide.com to explore the platform. When reaching out, please mention that you were referred by Wes — Foodie in Paradise.
