More Strange Restaurant Experiences

If you drink wine when you go out to eat, you will undoubtedly have some strange experiences. Hopefully, after the fact, and possibly well after the fact, you can laugh about them. The curious thing about all of these is that they all occurred at non-chain, at least somewhat upscale restaurants. But, they all did happen and while I can now laugh about them, with any luck you can as well.

Let's start with one where the owner who was also the beverage manager was involved. This goes back a bit, so my guess is that even the guilty party wouldn't recognize it. It was a restaurant with good food and a not bad wine list, particularly for the size of the restaurant.

We ordered a bottle of decent wine. Not high end, but certainly nothing to scoff at. The bottle was presented and a taste poured. I didn't need to taste it. I could smell the TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole), the dreaded sign of cork taint. The bottle was corked. Not horribly, but knowing that the restaurant could simply return the bottle to their distributor and get it replaced, there would be no reason to feel guilty. 

The person serving the wine was no expert, so they called the owner/beverage manager over. That person smelled the wine and tasted it. Their reaction was roughly, I get what your saying, but it's not too bad. I can sell it by the glass.

Really? You're going to sell the wine that is tainted and for which you can get a free replacement by the glass? Makes you think twice before ordering by the glass there, but that was pretty long ago.

And, then there is a higher end restaurant. Excellent food. Very good, quite eclectic wine list, albeit not curated all that well for the food menu. If we look at the food menu, there are several dishes there that pair well with Chateauneuf du Pape (CDP) and they almost always have exactly one CDP on their wine list. 

So, we were in this restaurant ordering lamb and they had an excellent, yet not very expensive CDP, from a great vintage. We ordered it, the beverage manager served it, not too professionally I might add, and we enjoyed it. He did come by during dinner to ask how it was and we complimented the wine.

The next time in that restaurant, I noticed there was no longer CDP on the list and I was informed that they had run out of the wine that we had liked so much. That was quite alright though as the food we were having was not going to pair with CDP.

On a future visit, the beverage manager saw us come in and couldn't wait to tell me. Now, remember, this is the person who does their wine buying and selection. He curates their wine selections. And, best I can translate what he said, it came out as we have some more Shadow Pop. Shadow Pop? Well, I'm glad he remembered the wine we liked, but Shadow Pop. From the person responsible for the wine in the restaurant?

Finally, going back nearly 20 years, I was out on a date. I ordered a bottle of wine to go with dinner. The bottle was brought and presented properly and a small taste was poured for me. I grabbed the glass gently by the stem and raised it to my nose to smell it to ensure that there was nothing "off" about it before tasting. The glass felt a bit light and my date was laughing. 

I looked and sure enough, the basr of the glass remained on the table. Somehow, our server had placed the glass on the table, broken or at least severely cracked where the stem meets the base and there was no sign of damage, but as I lifted it, the base stayed on the table and the stem came with me.

I have to say that the restaurant handled it quite well. With me longer being able to drink the tiny amount that was poured for me to taste, the restaurant left that bottle, missing perhaps one ounce at most, on the table and brought us another bottle to replace it as well.

I don't know how that one happened, but I'm not forgetting it any time soon.