Winery turns to ‘coronastyle’ party
Business is anything but usual these days for Donkey & Goat, the urban winery in Berkeley. The tasting room, typically crowded on weekends, is closed. Restaurants aren’t ordering wines. With the economy tanking, some wine club members have canceled their memberships.
But one of the biggest disappointments of the coronavirus shutdown, says coowner Tracey Brandt, is that the winery had to cancel one of its favorite events of the year: the summer release party. Originally scheduled for May 16, the event is designed for people to come pick up a set of justreleased Donkey & Goat wines. It typically draws about 300 people.
“It’s live music, tons of food, wine everywhere,” Brandt says. “It’s just a big old party.”
So, this time around, Brandt and her husband, Jared, decided to reinvent the pickup party.
“We are thinking of it like an InNOut drivethrough,” she says. “I bought a dozen walkietalkies with headsets.
We’ll have staff directing traffic, have the cars form a big semicircle in our parking lot, with barrels outlining it.” Customers will drive up and give their name to an attendant decked out in protective gear, who will then radio up to another staff member to bring down the customized order. It will go in the trunk, saving the customer the hassle of getting out of the car.
The new “party” will be held for two days over Mother’s Day weekend. Chefs Finn Stern and Stella Dennig will be offering food to go, including a flaky flatbread foldover with smoky eggplant and charred cauliflower ($12.50) and citrus and beet carpaccio with dill labneh ($9). The pair had been preparing to open an Oakland restaurant this year, but the coronavirus has put those plans on hold.
The Donkey & Goat summer release includes wines like the 2019 Lily’s PetNat ($35), 2019 Still Kraisey Merlot ($38), 2019 Barsotti Vineyard Gamay ($34) and 2019 partial skincontact Sauvignon Blanc ($34).
The Brandts are making it cute, but is this “coronastyle” release party (as they’re calling it) an early indication of what winery events will be like for the foreseeable future?
“Not being able to gather — it’s just so hard,” Brandt says.
They’re keeping employees busy with local wine deliveries and online wine sales. But like many small wineries — like many small businesses, period — “we’re fighting for our survival,” she says.
They’re trying to plan for eventual reopening, anticipating some significant changes. Reservations? Timed entry? Fewer tables? Most of it seems doable, but Brandt still has questions.
“We can envision tableside tastings, sure,” she says. “We’re lucky in that we have a huge space. If we can make the numbers work, which is a question, we’ll have to see if our overhead can support fewer guests without having to charge them too much money.”
In the meantime, though, they’ll pretend they’re working at an InNOut drivethrough, and saying “hi” to familiar wine club faces through car windows.
“We’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall,” Brandt says of navigating the business right now. “Doing everything we can to see what sticks.”
Donkey & Goat summer release popup. 11:30 a.m.2 p.m. May 9 & 10. 1340 Fifth St., Berkeley. 5108689174. Order Donkey & Goat wines ($32$40) and Finn & Stella food ($8$14) at www.donkeyandgoat.com. Deadline to order is midnight May 5.