A fancier type of alcohol is spreading around Auburn with growing popularity as more restaurants and bars are having a night specially designated for cheaper prices on their wine.
The Hound Bar and Restaurant, Bourbon Street Bar and Moe's Original BBQ are a few places participating in this trend.
Moe's Original BBQ was one of the first places to start wine night.
"We started a while back right when we opened we were looking for different types of specials to do, and wine was the first thing you could do with bottle service," said Ricky Carmack, general manager of Moe's Original BBQ. "We thought it would be pretty cool for everybody to come in, have their own individual bottle of wine and sit around the table and hang out."
Moe's Original BBQ has $5 bottles of wine every Tuesday night. Carmack said it's usually people approximately 21-25 years old who attend.
However, The Hound Bar and Restaurant bartender, Scott Terrell, said they also have an older crowd come through sometimes.
Their wine night is every Tuesday, and they have half-off prices on all of their wine bottles.
"We realize we are in a college town," Terrell said. "Sometimes a bottle of wine is sometimes out of the price range of your average college student."
Terrell said they like to help the general public have access to good wine at a reasonable cost.
"Wine is one of the things where a lot of people aren't really accustomed to it coming to college especially," Terrell said. "Cheap beer (and) cheap liquor is usually the mantra when you first get to college. Once students open up to the possibility of wine, it's a whole different avenue."
Terrell said The Hound Bar and Restaurant started doing wine nights before he started working there, and that it has, so far, been very successful.
Some students are taking wine tastings a step farther and driving out to Hodges Vineyards and Winery to do vineyard tours.
"They're learning that wine's got some pretty good taste to it," said Demeta Williams, Hodges Vineyards and Winery employee. "We have a lot of [students] come out here. They like our wine."
Hodges Vineyards and Winery has free vineyard tours, where people can see how wine is made, taste the wine and tour the vineyard. Williams said they are working with a distributor to have their wine sold in places such as Winn-Dixie and Kroger.
Another venue that has recently joined the wine night trend is Bourbon Street Bar.
They are starting a Wells and Wine Wednesdays event, where they have $5 bottles of wine, as well as $5 32oz well drinks all night.
They have a $3 cover on these nights, from 7-9 p.m.
Carmack said he thinks so many other places are trying wine nights now because they saw how successful it has become at businesses around Auburn.
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