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This study explores what consumers across the USA perceive as "green" restaurants, how they search for them, and if they are willing to pay more for the "green" restaurant experience. A review of the data revealed that almost 90% of the participants have eaten in a "green" restaurant, but many had a difficult time defining the term. Word of mouth was prevalent as to how consumers searched for "green" restaurants. As in previous studies, our findings showed that more than half of consumers were willing to pay more for the "green" restaurant experience. The participants graded their decision to dine at a "green" restaurant in the following order of importance: fresh ingredients, healthy aspects, good value, easy access, and good for the environment.

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:263496 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine how sommeliers influence wine sales in US restaurants and to understand how US restaurant sommeliers sell wine to customers, select for the wine list, and keep current on wines. Design/methodology/approach -Data from 250 telephone interviews among people at fine restaurants who were in charge of the selection and recommendation of wines for customers was reviewed. Fine restaurants were selected from wine spectator's ''Gold Medal Winners'' list and supplemented by Zagat's top 2,000 restaurants. The interviews averaged 29 minutes in length. Findings -On an average, customers ask a sommelier to provide wine recommendations 38 per cent of the time and sommeliers volunteer wine recommendations 42 per cent of the time. While wine is becoming increasingly popular and consumers are more knowledgeable, sommeliers play an important role in identifying best products available to meet restaurant customers' expectations. Practical implications -Sommeliers play an important role in influencing the sale of wine in restaurants, in particular, in smaller restaurants and in fine dining restaurants. Focusing on value for money, winery reputation, type of variety and tracking customer preference are all critical factors that respondents considered when selecting wines and when recommending wines to customers. Originality/value -This paper addresses the advantage of employing a sommelier in fine dining restaurants, given that when there is a designated sommelier more parties order wine (an average 76 per cent vs an average 70 per cent), the average check is higher ($62 vs $55) and the wine list is updated more frequently. Fine dining restaurant managers, owners and sommeliers will find value in this paper.

Wine consumption has increased worldwide by 5.6% since 1994. All the major wine consuming regions have reported increases in consumption: Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan), Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) and North America (USA and Canada) have experienced the largest increases of 68%, 29.9% and 23.6% respectively. This study investigates the wine drinking patterns of people in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that nearly half of all local adults have drunk wine over the past year. There was an almost equal distribution between male and female wine‐drinking respondents. Wine‐drinkers in general were found to have higher education levels, better jobs and to earn more money. Half of the wine consumption was found to occur in both Western and Chinese restaurants and surprisingly 40% of the wine was consumed at home. Half of the wine was purchased in local supermarkets. Red wine was much more popular than both white and sparkling wine and the preferred country of origin was France. Hong Kong wine drinkers were, however, found to be infrequent consumers of the product.