What's Your Biggest Pet Peeve About Drinking Wine In Restaurants?
Hey, I may work restaurants, and because of that I also eat out far more often than the average citizen; and so I have my own pet peeves. My biggest? When you go to a hoity-toity dive and are presented a big book full of the "hottest" names in winemaking, many of which you never heard of. That in itself doesn't bug me (I love hot, new wines); but what does bug me is wine lists that do not give you a hint in the way of descriptions as to what the wines taste like, what they're all about, or why they're so cool. Why am I always forced to refer to servers (with their shaky knowledge), sommeliers (whom I am deathly afraid will try to "sell" me) or condescending managers (I naturally look like an idiot) for information?
Anyway, that's mine. What's yours?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Gaier on -
My pet peeve is the bait-and-switch. You see a nice bottle, from a great vintage at a reasonable price, and you order it. But the server brings you either a different (and almost always, poorer) vintage, or a different bottle entirely but says it's "really the same" as the one you chose.
I wrote about this recently on Wine-Flair.com.
Cheers
Dave
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Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on -
aaaarrrrggg...
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Permalink Reply by Tonya Russ Price on -
Restaurants serving flat sparkling, you can tell instantly pouring it in a glass. Come on!!
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Lacamoire on
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I would have to say overpriced wines by the glass. Last night I ordered two glasses of wine ($12 each) and one order of fish tacos and ended up spending $40! Another pet peeve is when the server gives me a short pour. Ugh.
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Permalink Reply by Murphy-Goode Winery on -
Yeah, it's a shame that to get a "good" glass of wine, you have to spend at least $12... someday restaurateurs will address this issue in earnest...
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Grimes on -
It's interesting how long discussions span on some blogs this one traverses 2008 through 2009 but the issues and comments are germane regardless of the month or date entered.
Realizing that alcoholic beverages are a significant profit center for restaurants, and that restaurants are a labor intensive operations with operating costs and profit to cover, I'm encouraged by the increasing support for free corkage nights, or local/state laws allowing, BYOB. See BYOB Etiquette, Corkage fees, and Corkage free nights and Corkage Fee Etiquette
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Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on
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Thanks, Dennis... it's a good thing this thread is continuing, because I am the Bottom Line Editor for Sommelier Journal. It is very much my intention to bundle up some of the more salient points made in response to the original question, and package them in a column for the sommelier trade to chew on...
Thanks, everyone!
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Permalink Reply by Leo J. Baduria on -
Over-priced commercial wines (read: supermarket) and crappy glasses. Also, corked or oxidized wines in wine bars - can't they check it before serving?
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Permalink Reply by Tom McQuighan on -
My number 1 pet peeve is not being able to pay a corkage fee to bring and drink the wine that I want to drink. In Maryland, no restaurant is allowed to do this.
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Permalink Reply by Tanisha Townsend on -
My pet peeve is when restaurants serve wine in a glass that is straight from the dishwasher...meaning the glass is hot. My wine tasted more like a grapey tea! I've had this happen to me on more than one occassion. And the waiters look at me like I'm a lunatic for sending back the wine because the glass was too hot to serve wine in.
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Permalink Reply by Brendan McGuigan on
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My number one peeve is generic lists at restaurants that should know better. I'm fine going in to an affordable Thai restaurant and seeing the same twelve wines on the list that I see everywhere else in a region, but if you're charging me $12 a glass for a wine I can get for $4 a glass, I want to see that you put some thought into your selections and how they go with your food - not that you just let the distributor sell you all the wines they have the best deals on so that your markup could go even higher.
Number two are restaurants that allow their wines to go stale because they move their inventory so slowly. You need to either get comfortable dumping some bottles, reduce the number of wines you offer by the glass, invest in equipment that can sustain open bottles for longer, or get your sales up. But there's no excuse charging me a 225% markup for a glass of something dead and pallid that I had the day before when it was alive and full of zeal.
I also like lists that give me a little hint of what I'm in for when I get the wine, just in case the waistaff isn't as up on their research as might be ideal. This especially goes for restaurants featuring a lot of boutique wines - I love you for doing that (love you!), but odds are I've never tasted it, and even a brief note about the acid, oak, and fruit/spice balance can help me make sure I get something I'll enjoy.
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Permalink Reply by Phil Cheevers on -
I hope this offends nobody, but I'm quoting from my book, The Essential Icewine Companion with this tidbit.
As Cool As Bond and Nerdy too: Icewine Knowledge
James Bond's first stiff one.
In 1954 James Bond ordered the first ‘ultra cool martini’ by uttering these words:
“A dry martini,” he said. “One. In a deep champagne goblet.”
“Oui, monsieur.”
“Just a moment. Three measure of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large, thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”
“Certainly, monsieur.”
The barman seemed pleased with the idea.
Gosh, that’s certainly a drink,” said Leiter.
Bond laughed. “When I’m..er..concentrating,” he explained, “I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I can think of a good name.”
Every one of us remembers Bond and his Martinis and almost all of us at one time or another wish we could have pulled off something that cool.
With whimsy, I suggest that if you have the nerve to walk into a fine establishment anywhere in the world and say to the waiter…
“I’ll have a Vidal Icewine, chilled, with two spicy Thai shrimp on the side. Serve it in the Riedel glass…
“and my friend will have a Riesling Icewine, also chilled, with two Malpeque Oysters on the half shell and a thin twist of lemon zest.
“Serve it first, and then we’ll order.”
..no sommelier in the world will mess with you.
You will have just pulled off that thing James Bond did with the Martini in 1954.
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The Essential Icewine Companion is FREE at the VinoCanada website.
I live this stuff. For proof, my non-commercial blog at www.icewinetales.com
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