The downtown St. Petersburg location of the Tastings franchised wine bar chain closed this past weekend after long problems maintaining its franchise agreement with corporate HQ. According to Tastings — which is based in the Bay area — co-owner and corporate director Mike Newfield, "we pulled the franchise last week and they decided against going on their own."
The St. Pete location was the company's original store, which was then sold to a franchisee a few years ago. It featured Tastings' upscale wine dispensing machines that allow customers to peruse the selection of 80-100 wines, insert a card and pick a size of pour without staff help.
"It was a nice store, with wonderful staff," explained Newfield, "but they were in long-term violations of the franchise agreement. That was like cutting off our arm — we live here and go there. To close it is a very sad day for us"
Last week, Tastings also pulled the franchise for the Sarasota location (which I reviewed a few months ago). "After any number of warnings to get the store up to our standards, they didn't comply," said Newfield. "It's very difficult to pull these out of our system, but we had to. We keep tight standards." That location will be staying open under the name Sarasota Vineyard.
That leaves Tastings with five open locations in multiple states, and another three in the pipeline. According to Newfield, the chain has had a lot of interest in opening another local outlet, but none have yet made it past the concept stage.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2008.