iBEVs Founders

  • Brad Nugent | Directing Partner

    Brad Nugent is a hospitality leader and beverage strategist with more than 20 years of experience building some of the most successful, high-performing beverage programs in the country. A self-taught operator who has spent his entire career in restaurants on the floor, behind the bar, and in the wine cellar.

    Brad specializes in turning beverage programs into a competitive edge. Over the years, Brad has led multi-million-dollar beverage programs, most recently for Major Food Group’s flagship Northeast properties; including Carbone, Torrisi, THE GRILL and ZZ’s Members Club.

    His expertise in curation, pricing, inventory control, wine education, sales training, and team development has consistently delivered double digit revenues and profits.

    Today, as the founder of Innovative Beverage Strategies, Brad partners with restaurants to “make beverage the most profitable part of your business.” iBEVs offers full-service beverage management solutions and targeted mentorship for existing beverage leads, delivering operational systems, sales strategy, and guest engagement tactics designed to boost profitability, strengthen staff performance, and cultivate repeat customers.

    Brad’s approach is simple: combine operational precision with creative, guest-focused strategy to produce programs that work; in the books, on the floor, and in the minds of your guests long after they’ve left the table.

  • Patrick Wert | Operating Partner

    Patrick Wert is a hospitality operator and beverage strategist focused on building systems that allow great beverage programs to scale. With a background spanning elite New York dining rooms and high-volume luxury restaurant environments, Patrick specializes in translating creative beverage ideas into structured, repeatable performance on the floor.

    A graduate of Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, Patrick trained in some of the industry’s most demanding environments, including Eleven Madison Park during a formative era of precision and systems-driven excellence. He later worked with Major Food Group across both New York and Florida and was part of the opening team at THE GRILL, gaining firsthand experience operating complex, high-revenue beverage programs at scale.

    Patrick has developed a reputation for turning vision into infrastructure by designing pricing models, sales frameworks, training systems, and operational workflows that allow beverage programs to perform consistently across teams and markets. His work lives at the intersection of hospitality and performance, ensuring that great ideas translate into real-world profitability.

    Today, as co-founder of Innovative Beverage Strategies, Patrick helps restaurants operationalize beverage strategy; building the structure, clarity, and execution layer that allows programs not just to inspire guests, but to scale sustainably.

The Proving Ground

Every system Innovative Beverage Strategies teaches was built inside a restaurant that was already succeeding and still leaving money on the table.

In 2018, Brad Nugent and Patrick Wert took on the beverage program for Major Food Group's collection in the Seagram Building: THE GRILL, THE POOL, and The Lobster Club, all under one roof in Midtown Manhattan. THE GRILL occupies the only historically landmarked restaurant space in the country, home to the Four Seasons since 1959. Three full-service restaurants. A twelve-person sommelier team. Thirty thousand bottles in inventory and roughly three million dollars in wine sitting in the cellar.

On paper, extraordinary. In practice, stuck.

The program had been built around a library mentality. Rare bottles were price-protected to keep the list looking impressive for as long as possible. The cellar was treated like a museum rather than a business. Wine came in and stayed. Capital sat on shelves. The sommelier team was talented and the list was deep, and neither fact was showing up in the numbers.

What Changed

The decision was to stop protecting the collection and start selling it.

Pricing was rebuilt around perceived value rather than margin percentage. A 2014 Roumier Morey Saint Denis carrying a $130 cost came off the list at $875 and went back on at $395, producing $265 in profit against an average of roughly $150 per transaction. Wine people found it, got excited, and started asking what else was on the list like it. They discovered value existed everywhere. One bottle turned into two.

Underneath the pricing came the unglamorous work. Barcodes and unique identifiers replaced a location-based inventory system. The list was reorganized so guests could navigate it without help. Vendor placements were consolidated to secure better access and better velocity. Systems were installed where none had existed.

It took about four months of relentless detail work before the friction stopped. Then everything started working at once.

The Result

Bottle sales rose. Check averages climbed. Tips followed, and the floor team's confidence with them. Inventory turned faster, which freed cash that had been locked in bottles nobody was buying, which funded deeper buying, which gave guests more reasons to return.

Collectors began planning trips around the list. Industry professionals came specifically for the value proposition. Guests shopped the list online before booking. The program became part of the wine culture of New York City.

Not because the wine got better. Because the system did.

Why It Matters to Your Program

The problems at THE GRILL were not exotic. Protective pricing, stagnant inventory, missing systems, and a talented team working against friction instead of with it. Those conditions exist in restaurants at every scale and in every market.

The methods that fixed them travel.

Contact us for a formal review of your wine list and we will provide a private, complimentary analysis.