Changing the wine game at the Rittenhouse Hotel

“T

here’s a saying in Italian that if someone has had too much to drink they just haven’t had enough food,” paraphrases Justin Timsit, sommelier at Lacroix restaurant at The Rittenhouse Hotel. This is a very levelheaded way to look at wine, one that comes from a person brought up with a bottle ever present on the family dining table. A native of Southern California, Timsit says his father was an avid wine collector who specialized in classic, big-name bottles like first growth Bordeaux. 

When Timsit went to college, he began collecting, too. 

“I started reading and learning about wine. I was known as the wine geek or the person to turn to with wine questions,” he says.

After he graduated, he began working as a men’s fashion sales rep, and his interest in wine remained only a hobby. But then he began an amateur blog with his girlfriend, a sign that his hobby was becoming something more. 

And when Timsit found out about the Court of Master Sommel-iers, his hobby spiraled into — his words — a full-blown obsession. 

The Court of Master Sommeliers is no joke. The organization provides four levels of examinations and certification for those who are truly dedicated to wine and wine education. 

Talking to Timsit about his level-one course and exam, he says that he probably over prepared and that if you can name the five grapes of Bordeaux you are probably going to ace the test. But looking over the course topics (there’s about 40, ranging from French wine law to deductive tasting and saké), it’s clear that even the entry-level exam is very serious business. 

“I passed with flying colors and that excited me,” Timsit explains. He found a job running the wine program at a small Moroccan restaurant in Los Angeles.

It was a challenging first restaurant gig. Even with his burgeoning knowledge of wine, finding pairings that worked with the aromatic, spice-market menu of this particular place would have been a task for even the most seasoned somm, let alone one who was just breaking into the business.  

While mastering the art of pairing tagine and traminer, Timsit was studying for his level-two certification. This next test required more on-the-floor experience, restaurant skills and mock services where master sommeliers pretend to be customers and the students are required to talk and serve wine tableside. 

“The whole thing was extremely nerve-racking,” Timsit said, thinking back to shakily carrying a tray of glassware to present to the table. And while he did have a near mishap, it would not have necessarily resulted in failing the exam. 

“They test you on your ability to recover. You can blow up a bottle of Champagne in their faces and still pass. It’s all about the recovery, your professionalism and calm-and-collected behavior on the floor,” he says.

Timsit seems very much at home in the very calm dining room of Lacroix. Looking out on the gorgeous Rittenhouse Square, he tells the serendipitous story of his cross-country move. Just after he passed his level-two exam, he noticed a job listing on the Guild of Sommeliers site advertising the position at The Rittenhouse. His girlfriend, whom he’d been in a long-distance relationship with since his fashion days, was based in Pennsylvania, so applying for the job was hardly a question. “I was as persistent as Charlie Sheen in Wall Street.” Timsit interviewed in December and was on the floor by February. 

Walking into a place with a wine program as comprehensive as Lacroix’s — with a list of over 1,000 bottle selections — was a challenge. “It’s a very intense program because it’s a hotel. We never close. We have room service, morning events that require Champagne. There’s always something happening here. It keeps me involved and it’s a challenging role. It’s fun to grow,” he says.

And unlike smaller-scale operations, the size of the hotel allows Timsit lots of freedom to buy. In the nearly a year that he’s been with the company, he’s overhauled the wine list, reorganizing the 80-page list and bringing in smaller producers, more natural wines and lesser-known varietals. 

“We have a really classic clientele here, old school, a lot of it is Philadelphians who have been here for generations,” Timsit says of his regulars at Lacroix. “They’re not looking for us to really push the bar. I mean, we do it a little bit.”

Perhaps the most genius way that Timsit has pushed the bar is one that is very out of character for a such a fine restaurant. In the past few months he’s strategically lowered all of his bottle prices.

“For me, part of a successful wine program is one that is approachable and allows guests to order wine without feeling like they really have to dig deep into their pockets. That’s been something that’s really important in this program. I made a push to have our wine program be a little more friendly — one where people are encouraged to take risks on a wine that they’ve never tried before because it’s not so expensive. That makes a world of difference,” he says.