For the last seven years, Mercy has strived to be the best at what we do and it’s finally paying off. Our team is consistently working very hard, to take the extra step, to be the best and because of that, Mercy Wine Bar is having its greatest year ever !
We have been very blessed this year by being showered with awards and recognition by our peers and industry professionals and they keep pouring in. Our most recent recognition ~ Voted Best Wine bar in Dallas by “D Magazine”. The first sentence says it all “Mercy is a true wine experience” which has been our goal since day one. We don’t want to provide just food or wine; we want to be known for providing an experience for everyone. Nothing makes us feel better then to see a guest exiting Mercy with smile of satisfaction on their face.
We have also recently received, for the seventh year in a row, a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, which every year has been an honor to receive this from an industry publication that is read around the entire world.
We want to thank every one of our staff members, from our management team, servers and bartenders, bus staff and our kitchen staff for working very hard in making Mercy Wine Bar a well oiled machine. More importantly we want to thank our guests. Without you, none of these awards would be possible. We will continue to work vigorously to provide the best experience for everyone who comes to our establishment.
Thank you and see you at Mercy!
Craig Brazeal
Bar Manager
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thank you to all that voted
Over the last 7 years we have been very fortunate to have received some great recognition throughout the US. Our industry has voted us one of the top 4 wine bars in the country for a couple of years and several lifestyle websites have recognized Mercy as a unique wine bar concept.
While we love being recognized by our peers and critics, the most satisfying recognition comes from you, our guests. This week Mercy received Best Place to Sip Wine and Best Lounge from Addison Corridor Magazine. Over a period of several months, this prestigious magazine solicited feedback from the public for their “Favorites” in multiple categories. You honored us with two awards this year. Of all of the awards we have received over the years, these are the ones that mean the most to us, those coming from our guests.
Guest feedback is a critical part of our business. Some of you may not be aware, when your server asks if you wouldn’t mind filling out a comment card, what happens to those. As a management team, we all review the feedback and discuss everything on every single one of them. We then take appropriate action to strengthen and reinforce those things we do well and improve in those areas that need bolstering.
As a management team we are constantly challenging our staff to improve their wine knowledge and service skills. Training is a regular part of our business model and we believe that the bar of excellence needs to be continually raised to provide the best guest experience possible.
We very much appreciate your vote of confidence and will continue to work hard to earn your praise. It is our goal to make your time at Mercy the very best part of your day.
Glen
Owner
While we love being recognized by our peers and critics, the most satisfying recognition comes from you, our guests. This week Mercy received Best Place to Sip Wine and Best Lounge from Addison Corridor Magazine. Over a period of several months, this prestigious magazine solicited feedback from the public for their “Favorites” in multiple categories. You honored us with two awards this year. Of all of the awards we have received over the years, these are the ones that mean the most to us, those coming from our guests.
Guest feedback is a critical part of our business. Some of you may not be aware, when your server asks if you wouldn’t mind filling out a comment card, what happens to those. As a management team, we all review the feedback and discuss everything on every single one of them. We then take appropriate action to strengthen and reinforce those things we do well and improve in those areas that need bolstering.
As a management team we are constantly challenging our staff to improve their wine knowledge and service skills. Training is a regular part of our business model and we believe that the bar of excellence needs to be continually raised to provide the best guest experience possible.
We very much appreciate your vote of confidence and will continue to work hard to earn your praise. It is our goal to make your time at Mercy the very best part of your day.
Glen
Owner
Monday, July 5, 2010
Planning for an Event
Entertaining in your home and planning for a large gathering can be a real daunting task for the novice event planner. Now, while I don't consider myself an expert by any means,I will share some thoughts on the events that I put together for groups at Mercy.
Are you working with a theme ? We have hosted several customer events with a theme in mind: Argentine or Chilean wines, Reds of Napa, or the beer tasting event that we did several years ago, come to mind.
How much wine to buy ? Two factors to help you choose. How long do you anticipate the event lasting, two or three hours ? How many guests will be drinking wine or beer ? Here is a formula to help you decide how many bottles to purchase. Take the number of guests drinking wine multiplied by the length in hours of your event and divide it by 6. The number 6 represents an approximate number of glasses you will get per bottle of wine. So if you expect 24 guests for a 3 hour event .... 24 x 3 (hours) / 6 = 12 bottles of wine. Beer planning is a little more difficult since beer drinkers can be so varied in their pace. Assume that your guests will drink at a comfortable pace of 1 beer every 30 minutes so that means 2 beers per beer drinker per hour. If you have 12 beer drinkers for this 3 hour event 12 x 2 x 3 / 24 = 3 cases of beer (24 per case).
What to serve for food ? I always recommend an assortment of cheeses and seasonal fruit for a couple of reasons, primarily among them is that they will stay fresh and inviting throughout your event and will be available to keep your guests munching on something. A variety of hot and cold appetizers or small sandwiches cut into bite sized portions are best. Select items that can be served hot for immediately passing amongst your guests and other selections which can served at room temperature that you can set out and allow you to get out of the kitchen to be a host to your guests.
Of course, the best option of all is to contact me at Mercy and let us take care of all the assorted details for you. We love what we do and we would enjoy introducing Mercy to your guests as well.
Mike Castagne
Operations Manager
Are you working with a theme ? We have hosted several customer events with a theme in mind: Argentine or Chilean wines, Reds of Napa, or the beer tasting event that we did several years ago, come to mind.
How much wine to buy ? Two factors to help you choose. How long do you anticipate the event lasting, two or three hours ? How many guests will be drinking wine or beer ? Here is a formula to help you decide how many bottles to purchase. Take the number of guests drinking wine multiplied by the length in hours of your event and divide it by 6. The number 6 represents an approximate number of glasses you will get per bottle of wine. So if you expect 24 guests for a 3 hour event .... 24 x 3 (hours) / 6 = 12 bottles of wine. Beer planning is a little more difficult since beer drinkers can be so varied in their pace. Assume that your guests will drink at a comfortable pace of 1 beer every 30 minutes so that means 2 beers per beer drinker per hour. If you have 12 beer drinkers for this 3 hour event 12 x 2 x 3 / 24 = 3 cases of beer (24 per case).
What to serve for food ? I always recommend an assortment of cheeses and seasonal fruit for a couple of reasons, primarily among them is that they will stay fresh and inviting throughout your event and will be available to keep your guests munching on something. A variety of hot and cold appetizers or small sandwiches cut into bite sized portions are best. Select items that can be served hot for immediately passing amongst your guests and other selections which can served at room temperature that you can set out and allow you to get out of the kitchen to be a host to your guests.
Of course, the best option of all is to contact me at Mercy and let us take care of all the assorted details for you. We love what we do and we would enjoy introducing Mercy to your guests as well.
Mike Castagne
Operations Manager
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Relax and Enjoy !
Restaurant and bar employees spend a fair amount of time at their jobs during the evening hours. Inviting friends and family to our homes for dinner (at least for me) is a rare occurrence since those typical dinner hours, I am at work.
Whenever Mercy is host to a Wine Dinner, it is very much like inviting our family and friends to dinner. Our extended family for this dinner include Mitch Bakich and Mark Donati of the Donati Family Vineyard.
Some of the anxieties when you set out to entertain guests in your home are the meal planning, shopping, cooking, serving and then wine selections to be served with dinner. Then you have to worry about how to keep the conversation lively while you are navigating from one guest to the next as you serve your wine selections.
Relax ! Let us take the worry out of your event planning and enjoy what we have to offer for the Donati Family Wine Dinner: a Four Course meal with wine pairing, priced at $65 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Seating at our table is limited and reservations are requested. Our guests of honor are Mitch Bakich and Mark Donati.
Mike Castagne
Operations Manager
Whenever Mercy is host to a Wine Dinner, it is very much like inviting our family and friends to dinner. Our extended family for this dinner include Mitch Bakich and Mark Donati of the Donati Family Vineyard.
Some of the anxieties when you set out to entertain guests in your home are the meal planning, shopping, cooking, serving and then wine selections to be served with dinner. Then you have to worry about how to keep the conversation lively while you are navigating from one guest to the next as you serve your wine selections.
Relax ! Let us take the worry out of your event planning and enjoy what we have to offer for the Donati Family Wine Dinner: a Four Course meal with wine pairing, priced at $65 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Seating at our table is limited and reservations are requested. Our guests of honor are Mitch Bakich and Mark Donati.
Mike Castagne
Operations Manager
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Water to Wine
Growing up as a kid, I often noticed that my grandmother would add water to her glass of red wine before drinking it. She came from the south of France in the Rhone region where I grew up. My stepfather would offer my grandmother some vacqueyras or gigondas and he would get irritated with her as he observed her adding water to those fine wines. Times change and while I do not mimic what grandmother did, I can understand her reasoning.
There is an evolution in red wine; Marzemo vine that produces Marsecco. Asia is where the Marzemo vine first grew and its route to Trentino is lost in the passage of time. But by the 16th century, connoisseurs in Venetia and Lombardy were already enjoying its luscious yield. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart even paid tribute to this fabled wine, referring to the ‘Exellente Marzemino’ in his opera ‘Don Giovanni’.
Marsecco is “Reminiscent of cherries and even Black Forest gateau on the nose. It gives dense dark berry fruits on the palate and is full-bodied and well-balanced. This sparkling red wine when poured over ice and served in a tumbler is quite refreshing.
This is another experience we would love to share with you. Chris Brown and Randall Recknagel introduced us to this delicious, ruby red elixir and we would love to introduce you to it as well.
Vincent Havard
General Manager and Operating Partner
There is an evolution in red wine; Marzemo vine that produces Marsecco. Asia is where the Marzemo vine first grew and its route to Trentino is lost in the passage of time. But by the 16th century, connoisseurs in Venetia and Lombardy were already enjoying its luscious yield. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart even paid tribute to this fabled wine, referring to the ‘Exellente Marzemino’ in his opera ‘Don Giovanni’.
Marsecco is “Reminiscent of cherries and even Black Forest gateau on the nose. It gives dense dark berry fruits on the palate and is full-bodied and well-balanced. This sparkling red wine when poured over ice and served in a tumbler is quite refreshing.
This is another experience we would love to share with you. Chris Brown and Randall Recknagel introduced us to this delicious, ruby red elixir and we would love to introduce you to it as well.
Vincent Havard
General Manager and Operating Partner
Monday, June 14, 2010
She’s Got a Ticket to Wine!!!!!
We have had a great turn out and response to our Thursday night entertainment from the music to the magician. We originally were going to have entertainment on a couple of Thursdays a month throughout the summer but since it’s been so successful; we are going to have some sort of entertainment ever Thursday now!
This week we have something very special in store for our guests. We were given a great opportunity through one of our servers to develop a relationship with the very popular Dallas based Beatles cover band A Hard Nights Day! A Hard Nights Day has been spreading the gospel of John, Paul, George and Ringo around the world for 15 years. Drawing from a catalogue of over 200 classics, you will never see the same show twice! The band has been personally endorsed by The Beatles first manager Alan Williams. We are very proud to announce that we will have two of the members of A Hard Nights Day performing a special acoustic set of Beatles songs this Thursday from 8pm – 11pm. We encourage all of our guests to come in, kick back, grab a bottle of wine and take a trip down memory lane! Come in early to grab a seat as we are expecting a large turn out for this special event.
We are so excited about this opportunity that we will have this acoustic duo once a month for as long as we can book them. Please check our website at mercywinebar.com for details regarding our Thursday night entertainment! See you at Mercy!
Craig Brazeal
Bar Manager
This week we have something very special in store for our guests. We were given a great opportunity through one of our servers to develop a relationship with the very popular Dallas based Beatles cover band A Hard Nights Day! A Hard Nights Day has been spreading the gospel of John, Paul, George and Ringo around the world for 15 years. Drawing from a catalogue of over 200 classics, you will never see the same show twice! The band has been personally endorsed by The Beatles first manager Alan Williams. We are very proud to announce that we will have two of the members of A Hard Nights Day performing a special acoustic set of Beatles songs this Thursday from 8pm – 11pm. We encourage all of our guests to come in, kick back, grab a bottle of wine and take a trip down memory lane! Come in early to grab a seat as we are expecting a large turn out for this special event.
We are so excited about this opportunity that we will have this acoustic duo once a month for as long as we can book them. Please check our website at mercywinebar.com for details regarding our Thursday night entertainment! See you at Mercy!
Craig Brazeal
Bar Manager
Monday, June 7, 2010
“what is your favorite wine?”
I am asked all of the time, “what is your favorite wine?” And I quip, “The one I am drinking right now”! I really do enjoy the experience of trying different wines from around the world. I really believe that tasting wine is a skill, and like most skills it must be practiced in order to make the skill better. To fine tune your palate it is important to try wines from around the world as well as different vintages of your “favorites”. Over the years I have found myself gravitating back to the Italians. Can you blame me? I have grown to really love the Malbecs of Argentina as well as the Tempranillos of Spain. Certainly there is great variety in each of these categories and over time I have gained a respect for the variety in each. The Tempranillos of Rioja tend to be a bit more fruit forward while the same grape from the Del Duero region of Spain reflects more of an earthy, older world character. I recognize these are broader generalities but for someone wanting to learn about wines from the world it serves as a good guideline. The same certainly holds true for wines from any given region. Another layer of complexity is the variability from one year to the next. What may have been an outstanding wine from the Mendoza region of Argentina last year may not turn out as great as this year. The message here is to keep your mind and palate open. Just when you think you have found your “most favorite” wine, it may not be next year. Keep tasting and trying and remember that “your favorite wine” needs to be relative.
I also find myself being very seasonal about my “favorite wines”. There is no question that summer is here. We officially broke 100 this past weekend and during these early dog days of summer I find it less enjoyable to be drinking a big cab or a super Tuscan. Eating a bit lighter really dictates a wine a bit on the lighter side. You certainly wouldn’t want a big, juicy red with a light salad when it is 100 outside. My personal tastes move more toward a Pinot Noir and yes there I have some areas that I am quite fond of. In the US, the Willamette Valley Pinots are outstanding. The latitude of the valley is nearly identical to that of Burgundy which means similar climates. Many of these Oregon wines drink very much like some of the great Burgundys of France at a fraction of the cost. I am very partial to these and they are great wines for this climate! They pair so nicely with a simple cheese plate or simply sitting by the pool or on your patio enjoying the early evening with a glass. I also have a special place in my heart for the Pinots of Chile. Chile’s wine industry has been hit extremely hard with the recent hurricane that devastated that country. So much great wine was lost there and Chile has a very strong track record of producing some really great Pinots that hold up to any from around the world. There are some great values for these wines from Chile and Willamette. Many of these drink like much more expensive wines. I would highly encourage you to come in and try some of these and experiment on your own. If you find yourself continuing to go back to the same wine time and time again, and believe me I still do, ask one of our servers, Craig or Vincent to recommend something you haven’t had before. You don’t have venture very far from your flavor profile to find some great new experiences in wine! Keep an open mind and palate!
Mercy………………
Glen
Owner
I also find myself being very seasonal about my “favorite wines”. There is no question that summer is here. We officially broke 100 this past weekend and during these early dog days of summer I find it less enjoyable to be drinking a big cab or a super Tuscan. Eating a bit lighter really dictates a wine a bit on the lighter side. You certainly wouldn’t want a big, juicy red with a light salad when it is 100 outside. My personal tastes move more toward a Pinot Noir and yes there I have some areas that I am quite fond of. In the US, the Willamette Valley Pinots are outstanding. The latitude of the valley is nearly identical to that of Burgundy which means similar climates. Many of these Oregon wines drink very much like some of the great Burgundys of France at a fraction of the cost. I am very partial to these and they are great wines for this climate! They pair so nicely with a simple cheese plate or simply sitting by the pool or on your patio enjoying the early evening with a glass. I also have a special place in my heart for the Pinots of Chile. Chile’s wine industry has been hit extremely hard with the recent hurricane that devastated that country. So much great wine was lost there and Chile has a very strong track record of producing some really great Pinots that hold up to any from around the world. There are some great values for these wines from Chile and Willamette. Many of these drink like much more expensive wines. I would highly encourage you to come in and try some of these and experiment on your own. If you find yourself continuing to go back to the same wine time and time again, and believe me I still do, ask one of our servers, Craig or Vincent to recommend something you haven’t had before. You don’t have venture very far from your flavor profile to find some great new experiences in wine! Keep an open mind and palate!
Mercy………………
Glen
Owner
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