Detroit, MI | Contemporary Italian Restaurant | Wine Club Subscription

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Key Results

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• Two-tiered Vino Curato club, Classico and Superiore, plus a Riserva add-on for allocated and back-vintage bottles
• Recurring revenue, steady enough to retain staff and fund bonuses during lean stretches
• Stronger purchasing power with distributors, landing prized allocations like a six-bottle offer of Ornellaia

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A modern Roman kitchen

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SheWolf Pastificio & Bar has been Detroit's home for contemporary Italian cooking since chef Anthony Lombardo opened the doors in Midtown in 2018. The pasta is milled and made in-house, inspired by a summer Lombardo spent researching food in Rome. In the years since, the restaurant has picked up two James Beard semifinalist nods for Lombardo and a Restaurant of the Year title from Hour Detroit. This summer marks eight years in the neighborhood.

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Michael Van Gemert has been there since day one, and the wine list he's built reflects the philosophy that runs the kitchen. It's entirely Italian (save for Champagne), and it's built around producers with heart, whether they're big names or tiny estates from regions that most guests have never heard of.

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"There's enough pretension in the wine world, and in the fine dining world, that I just try to strip it away," Michael says. "The more approachable we can be, the more engaged we can be, and the more education our team has, the better." That same instinct, welcoming curiosity over intimidation, would end up shaping how SheWolf built its club.

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The making of Mercato

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The club didn't start as a strategy. It started around COVID, on a day the restaurant was closed. Chef brought a handful of the team in, and they launched Mercato by SheWolf, packaging up their own prepared products for guests to take home and delivering the boxes themselves.

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It took off faster than anyone expected, and within a short stretch Michael and the team were managing marketing, logistics, and fulfillment on top of running a restaurant. "We were like, wave the white flag. We need some assistance," Michael says. That's when Table22 stepped in, taking on the organizational piece, the strategy, the reporting, and the marketing that SheWolf didn't have the bandwidth to build on its own.

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With that infrastructure in place, the offerings expanded for a while to include food, a Negroni kit, and other seasonal drops designed to keep guests connected to SheWolf even when they weren't in the dining room. Today the club has narrowed to wine, though Michael doesn't rule out bringing other formats back. The conversation, he says, comes back around.

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"Our growth was made more possible by the logistics [Table22] provided: the marketing, the organizational piece, the strategy piece, the reporting piece. Some of the things that we just by nature couldn't do in-house."

— Michael Van Gemert, Head Sommelier & Manager, SheWolf

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Vino Curato

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What continues to thrive is Vino Curato, Michael's monthly Wine Club, serving as a direct extension of his approach behind the bar. Members choose Classico, three classic Italian wines for everyday drinking, or Superiore, three elevated bottles to sip now or lay down in their cellar, paired with a recipe card from the kitchen. A Riserva add-on brings in a single allocated, back-vintage, or special-release bottle for members who want to go deeper.

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Every shipment comes with Michaels notes and stories behind the wine, a touch that members have specifically told him they love. He builds the program around rotating monthly themes so it never feels stale to anyone who's been along since the beginning. The team is now heading into year two of these, ranging from female producers to mountain wines, to a Nebbiolo-focused release or a slate that Chef Anthony picks himself.

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Table22 handles the logistics behind the release schedule, the storefront, and the reporting, which frees Michael to focus on what he calls the fun part: hunting allocations, writing tasting notes, and building each month's theme.

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What allocation access buys

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For Michael, the club's value shows up in two places. The first is staying top of mind with members who are engaging with SheWolf from somewhere other than the dining room, whether that's a dinner party, a holiday table, or a beach cooler with a screw-cap bottle. The second is purchasing power with his distributor reps.

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"When you have purchasing power, you get the opportunity to have other wines," Michael says. Spring allocations of Barolo and a recent six-bottle offer of Ornellaia, one of Italy's most heavily allocated labels, are the kind of access that follows consistent volume, though he's careful to note the wine still has to earn its place on the list first. The relationship flows both directions: money spent with reps comes back to SheWolf, and members who pick up their club boxes tend to come in and dine, too.

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The recurring income has a ripple effect beyond the wine list, too. It's helped SheWolf retain staff and put bonuses in their hands during stretches when margins are otherwise razor thin, and it occasionally means bringing in extra hands just to help assemble boxes on release day. "Anything to increase that in this business is needed," Michael says. "If you can have something where your revenue tips your labor and your product, it's a good thing."

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The feedback loop matters just as much as the numbers. Michael asks members for input whenever they pick up their boxes, and he hears the same thing back: keep doing what you're doing. They also speak to moments of sharing wine as a family, and the enjoyment it brings them. Given how much of his job is about creating those moments in the dining room, hearing that the club does the same thing at someone's kitchen table is, in his words, precious.

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Take the leap, then make it yours

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Michael's advice for another operator weighing a club of their own is simple. "I'd say do it. There's only one way to find out. Take the leap. You can adjust as you go." He's quick to add that the format only works if it's rooted in something real. SheWolf's concept was strong and specific well before the club existed, and Vino Curato works because it's an extension of that, not a departure from it.

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For a final thought on working with Table22, Michael puts it plainly: "It's been a net positive, one hundred percent." 

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Our platform, your allocations. Welcome to the club.