Amy Racine fell in love with restaurants at a very young age.
In North Canton, Ohio, where Racine is from, the hospitality industry she was exposed to in her youth was a simple one, but one she remembers fondly. Going out was always a special occasion, and wine was an integral part of it.
“Growing up, it didn’t feel like wine was just a drink,” she says. “It was at the table with the food, it was a part of the conversation. Wine was in the rhythm of what we did when we gathered as a family.”
Racine’s real a-ha moment came a few years later when she was presented with a glass of Gewürztraminer from Maison Trimbach in France’s Alsace region, though she had still yet to begin any formal wine education. Blown away by the bubblegum scent, she knew at that moment she wanted to pursue her interest in wine further, but wasn’t sure of how to make it a viable career path until she got to culinary school.
While at the Culinary Institute of America, where she studied culinary arts, Racine was exposed to invaluable knowledge that she still relies on today as beverage director for JF Restaurants (JFR), of which she is also a partner. In her role, she oversees the entire beverage program — that’s cocktails, wine lists, and personnel — at over a dozen concepts across the United States, each of which comes with its own brand identity and culinary philosophy.
There’s the North Fork Table & Inn on Long Island, Manhattan’s Iris, the Wall Street Hotel, and the Times Square Edition, the latter two of which feature three and four different concepts, respectively. Then there’s also the Tampa Edition, where Racine oversees four distinct bars, and the Winthrop Center Boston with three. As if that’s not enough, she also works as the wine consultant at Lincoln Center’s acclaimed restaurant, Tatiana By Kwame Onwuachi.
“Culinary school and the regime of kitchens taught me discipline, and that helps me to this day,” Racine says. “But it also helps tremendously in thinking about how flavors are layered and how I approach balance and structure by thinking about what each dish might need alongside it.”
For example, at Iris, an Aegean restaurant opened in 2021, dishes like Cod Schnitzel and Grilled Octopus might need something crisp and textural for balance. So Racine fills the cellar with Turkish and Greek wines made from varieties like Assyrtiko and Savatiano, but also Xinomavro and Syrah. If guests are unsure about taking their chances on a bottle made with an unfamiliar grape, Iris offers each wine on the list in half-bottles to eliminate some of the financial risk. At the North Fork Table & Inn, things look slightly different.
At the Southhold, N.Y., restaurant, the menu rotates seasonally and is intended to showcase the beauty of locally farmed ingredients. To match the menu’s ethos, Racine selects a number of local wines, such as One Woman Chardonnay, a skin-fermented Gewürztraminer from RGNY, and McCall Cabernet Franc. For those who might be trepidatious about trying wines from the North Fork, the restaurant offers a ‘Local Legends, Global Greats’ tasting to provide a solid reference point.
“Long Island wineries are still not as highly regarded as I think they deserve to be,” she explains. “So with this blind tasting, one local wine is served alongside its global counterpart. It really challenges people to think about the New York region in a way that puts it on the same caliber as more established regions.”
No matter how different each property’s beverage program may be — whether it’s these more specialized concepts or the more general Lobby Bars at the Times Square and Tampa Editions — one thing remains central in Racine’s approach to selecting bottles: the story of the producer.
“Ten or so years ago, there was a lot of label-chasing and needing to fill your cellar with X,Y, and Z because it was hard to get,” she says. “Now, something that I love so much is that guests want to hear about winemakers and producers with deeper purposes, with stories to tell. It could be about a place or a varietal they exclusively focus on, but it needs to be something authentic. And, of course, delicious.”
While that may be the case in her New York properties, Racine has come to realize that the inverse is true in markets like Florida, where JFR operates the Tampa Edition and is currently preparing to launch a new project later this year. In Florida, guests are still interested in some of the big-name producers, but they’re willing to get out of their comfort zone. So for those guests, she sprinkles in some of the smaller producers and emphasizes their stories when speaking with diners. And knowing how, and when, to do that requires one simple thing in her view: actually listening to your guests.
“The markets have been one of the most interesting pieces of this job,” she says. “That was easily the biggest learning curve for me, starting to work outside of New York after I’ve been here for such a long time. But it’s one of the most important pieces of the job — you have to listen to your guests.”
To track guest interest in each individual market, Racine conducts a running review at the end of every quarter. In it, she identifies top cocktails, top bottles, top spirits, top modifiers, and more to determine what future menu placements might look like. And despite conducting these reviews regularly, she explains that she’s still shocked at how different every market can be, but if anything, it’s opened up her creativity.
“I have a much greater, zoomed-out lens now. It’s not about creating one perfect cellar, or dining experience, or even hospitality experience,” she says. “Times are changing, and accepting that there’s not a specific answer at every location, and being able to shake off everything I thought a stereotypical ‘perfect’ restaurant should be, has helped me tremendously.”
To expand that creativity even further, Racine recently launched Unfiltered, a wine and dinner series that brings in wine professionals from across the country to spotlight purpose-driven hospitality. Hosted monthly at Iris, the series is intended to celebrate sommeliers whose work in the industry is more than just what takes place on the floor — they’re also widening wine’s reach, building new communities, and, overall, making the wine industry a more welcoming place. Each guest sommelier selects a handful of wines to pair with seasonally inspired cuisine, with proceeds from each dinner donated to a charity of the sommelier’s choosing.
The inaugural dinner kicked off on Sept. 17 with Touré Folkes, the founder and executive director of Turning Tables, a non-profit organization advocating and striving for equity for Black and brown bartenders in the hospitality industry (and Next Wave 2025 Nonprofit of the Year). In October, Jordan Salcito, sommelier, Ramona founder, and author of forthcoming book “Smart Mouth,” will host with proceeds going to Earthjustice.
“My main goal with Unfiltered is to simply highlight great people who are doing great things beyond their usual focus,” Racine explains. “I want these voices to come in, pull their favorite wines or bottles they’re excited about, and host a mini wine list in our space. And by donating a portion of the dinner proceeds to charity, we can hopefully keep the good work going.”
