Fleming's Unveils User-Friendly Wine App for the iPad

Written by Claudia Cruz

Ever stare at a restaurant's wine list and feel dizzy without even taking a sip? Or do you fancy yourself a sommelier-in-training and want to improve your tasting and pairing skills?

Now there's an app for that.

Fleming's Steakhouse launched its "®WiNEPAD," a trademark and proprietary exclusive application for the Apple iPad, that allows patrons at the Fleming's 60 restaurants nationwide to choose from their stock of 100 wines and pair them with food.

And the restaurant decided that its Palo Alto location at the Stanford Shopping Center was the place to throw its launch party.

"It's the tech capital of the world," said Craig Sheppard, the chain's national IT coordination director.

Several dozen guests had the opportunity to use the WiNEPad at Fleming’s private event held Tuesday, June 5. There, staff at one of the four tables filled with some of Fleming’s finest wine selection explained how the app worked.

According to server Karla Silva, when they bring customers the menu they now also bring one of the 30 iPads preloaded with the app. The diners can then browse the WiNEPad to find recommended wines, perfect pairings or choose wine based on their moods, like bubbly and festive, light and refreshing or velvety and full body.

“Guests can even play ‘spin-the-bottle’ and the app will find a wine for them to try,” Silva explained. “You can pick the wine first and then find the food pairing.”

Diners can even choose by country or by points. They can then email themselves notes.

The development of the app took several years, according to Sheppard, partly because “we were in uncharted territories for a restaurant.”

Along with his colleague Maeve Pesquera, director of wine, they wanted to create a digital wine list but didn’t have the platform.

“We had the idea before the iPad, but didn’t have a good tablet computer,” Pesquera said. “Once it came out, we said this is it.”

Over the past two-and-a-half years Pesquera, Sheppard and their team worked on the user-interface and when they had questions, they contacted the employees at Cupertino-based Apple.

“The Apple folks have been good to us,” Sheppard said, noting that at first he felt Apple wouldn’t spend this much time with them since Fleming’s—and not Apple—own the product.

But assist Apple did, and once Fleming’s felt happy with their app they tested it in 10 locations including West Hartford, CT; San Antonio, TX; and Newport Beach, CA. By December 2012, the WiNEPAD was in 15 of their restaurants and in 50 by the end of the first quarter 2013. Now, the WiNEPAD can be used at every Fleming’s location.

“The WiNEPAD is an extension of our founder's vision,” Pesquera said because it "engages the user and enhances their experience."

While Pesquera wouldn’t detail if sales of wine have increased, she shared that “people are branching out of comfort zone and choosing wines more off the beaten track.”

“Our restaurant managers tell us they’ve had to dust off bottles because people want to try them after they found them on the WiNEPAD.”

According to Pesquera and Sheppard, Fleming’s is the first national restaurant to have a wine app and they have proprietary rights over its design. The team boasts how diners and even staff have embraced it and they can tell based on Google Analytics, guest surveys, social media and server comments.

According to Sheppard “Something like licensing might be in the works,” but he emphasized that “that's not our business.”

“We are in the hospitality business.”

And in the hospitality business they are. Abby Schwarz, the South Bay and Peninsula Community Manager for Yelp, attended the event. She goes to many restaurant openings and tasting. But Fleming's WiNEPAD launch was a cut above the rest.

"This is a fancier rendition," Schwarz said. "If you walk in and they give you a glass of Schramsberg. You are in a good place. This is such a Silicon Valley event."