The opportunities to make tough decisions in life are plentiful, so there is no need to add to those opportunities by adding wine choice to the list. Wine is a favorite indulgence for so many, a staple at girl’s night gatherings, dinners, special occasions, or just a relaxing evening on the couch. Having a glass of wine should be easy with little decision making involved. But as simple as the decision should be, the breadth of wine choices is extensive, making the world of wine, also known as “viticulture,” a domain that requires its own education to be fully appreciated and experienced in the most enjoyable way. As much as wine lovers would be interested in learning more about their favorite way to wind down, most are too busy making those tough life decisions and just don’t have the time or know where to start. This can make looking over the wine list at a restaurant daunting. Conor Dowler, a young entrepreneur from Anderson, who found himself getting frustrated with so many wine choices and so little knowledge of any of them, set out to fill this gap with the development of his new business, Palate Pal.
Dowler started Palate Pal in March 2024 during his final months before graduating from Furman University with a degree in Business Administration. He was doing marketing for a local wine shop and had the idea of a feature on the shop’s website that would help customers choose the right wine based on what they were going to pair it with. The idea came from his own experiences of being confused and feeling undereducated when looking at a wine menu. From there, he expanded the idea to restaurants. Says Dowler, “I know how intimidating it can be for people, including myself, who are trying to find a wine that suits their preferences amidst a long list of foreign words that they might not even be able to pronounce.”
Realizing he had the answer to this dilemma, Dowler pitched his idea at the Paladin Pitch Competition at Furman in April 2024, and he won the “Crowd Favorite” award. With the positive feedback and encouragement he received in the competition, Dowler moved forward with his concept and grew it from a wine shop tool to a restaurant aid to what it is now—an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software that provides customers with a way to feel empowered when ordering wine, but also a way for restaurants to maximize their wine sales and cater to its clientele using data from surveys.
Palate Pal works by providing personalized surveys that assess a restaurant customer’s wine preferences and food choice. When a survey is submitted, the AI “Pairing Guru,” assesses the survey answers and the restaurant’s unique database of wines to provide pairing recommendations in the user’s email inbox. This allows for personalized wine recommendations while also providing restaurants with information on what their customers are looking for.
“Once the Pairing Guru makes up to three selections, it will send an email to the customer that includes the wine choices, an explanation of why each wine was chosen, a pronunciation guide, and information about the wine. The best part is that every wine suggested is on the menu of the restaurant where the customer is dining,” says Dowler.
For customers, this process simultaneously takes the guess work out of choosing the right wine, but it also provides the education that wine consumers need to make informed wine selections. For restaurants, this process is a tool for serving customers better. The responses to the surveys are stored and reported back to the restaurants, allowing them to get a clear picture of which wines customers are most looking for. Using this data, restaurants can adjust the wine menu based on customer preferences.
“Using Palate Pal helps restaurants cater to their customer’s preferences and provides them with a fun, personalized dining experience,” Dowler notes.
Palate Pal is already a unique and innovative concept, but Dowler is not stopping here. He has more innovative plans for Palate Pal in 2025.
“The next phase of development will be to create an app that will allow users to take a restaurant’s quiz outside of the restaurant and even allow the user to let the restaurant know which wine they would like to have with their reservation. That way, a bottle of wine can be waiting for the patron on arrival, which is perfect for dates, business meals, and everything in between.”
Additional plans for Palate Pal include continuing to build on the capabilities of AI by having the AI track which wines users liked or didn’t like, in an effort to improve the quality of the wine pairings and building on the education piece by allowing for a wine journal that allows users to take private notes on the wines they tried.
To learn more about Conor Dowler, Palate Pal, and how to offer Palate Pal at your restaurant, visit his website at www.palatepal.io and visit his Instagram at @palate.pal.
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