Affiliation : BR Guest Restaurants, New York, NY
Location : New York, NY, USA

 

LAURA MANIEC, MS
Director, Wine and Spirits
B.R. Guest Restaurants

As B.R. Guest’s Director of Wine and Spirits, Laura Maniec ensures that every restaurant meets –and exceeds– the company’s high standards for its wine program. She not only develops extensive wine and spirits lists, but also advises the creative design elements for each new location’s beverage initiatives.

Growing up, Maniec looked forward to her grandmother’s Sunday night dinners where the entire family gathered around for a great meal and bottles of wine. With this vibrant passion for food and wine in her genes, Maniec always knew it would be an industry she would one day have a future in it. Prior to enrolling in culinary school, Maniec took a wine course at Windows on the World in September of 2001. This course combined with the events of the world really opened up her eyes to following her love of wine and turning it into her career.

Maniec took her first step towards this career by earning a degree in hotel and restaurant management. In 2001, at only 21 years old, Laura landed her first job as the sommelier at Blue Fin, managing a 600 bottle wine list. Her impressive work was then lauded in the first year of Food and Wine’s annual “Best New Sommeliers” awards.

In her present role as Director of Wine and Spirits, Maniec is responsible for overseeing and executing the training of the wine program for all employees at 15 restaurants across the country. To manage this, she holds intensive hands-on training sessions internally referred to as “Wine College.” Maniec also teaches regularly at the highly regarded French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. “Teaching what I love most gives me the opportunity to inspire others’ passion for wines, and in turn, bring that excitement and knowledge to our guests,” Maniec says.

Most recently, Maniec earned the highest status for sommeliers and achieved the distinguished title of Master Sommelier, a distinction held by very few women in the world.