06 · Customer assistant

A whiskey guide that only recommends what's on the shelf.

Winston is a chat assistant for Wild Corgi Pub, named after the bar's corgi. Guests describe what they like, a price, or a bottle they already enjoy, and Winston suggests whiskeys from the bar's own shelf, with tasting notes and the pour price.

Visit the live app See the shape of it

Problem

A long whiskey list is a great asset and a hard menu to read. Guests who don't know where to start ask the bartender, which works until the bar is busy. A general-purpose chatbot would happily recommend bottles the bar doesn't carry.

Approach

  • Recommendations come only from the bar's actual inventory. Broader whiskey knowledge stays in the background, so Winston can understand "something like Eagle Rare" without sending someone to a bottle that isn't there.
  • Every suggestion arrives as a card: name, style, pour price, whether it's on the menu, and its top tasting notes.
  • Follow-up buttons keep the conversation easy on a phone: "Tell me about this", "Something like it", "Cheapest you have", "Make it sweet".
  • Built to run cheaply, so a single bar can afford to leave it on all the time.
Winston whiskey assistant on a phone recommending Bowmore 12 Year for a smoky Scotch
A recommendation card from the bar's own shelf.

What a guest sees

  1. Ask Winston in plain words, or tap a suggestion such as "A great pour under $15".
  2. Get two or three options from the shelf, each with notes and a price.
  3. Narrow it down with a tap, then order at the bar.

Notes

Winston has a light and dark theme and separate tabs for browsing ("Sniff Out", "The Shelf"). It's the template for a wider idea: assistants that answer only from a business's own information, at a cost a single location can carry.