Grape of the Day

You sit down at a table at a restaurant and persuse the menu and the wine list. After a few minutes, you choose your food for the evening and a bottle of wine to share that goes with the food. Upon ordering the bottle, you can see that look in your server's eyes. She wonders what I have just asked for and how it is that she is going to get it served. You see, it's the first time any of her guests have ever ordered a bottle of wine. And, she doesn't know what to do. And, then to make matters worse, there is a chance she is reading this. But, then again, that's not all bad because some stories end better than others. In this particular case, she took one of the alternatives available to her. She approached a manager or beverage manager, I'm not sure which, for help. This manager came to the table and showed our hero how to open and serve the wine. Well, sort of. This manager says she is going to hold training for the staff so that they can all see the right way to do ...

I'll be one to say it and I'll say it here. I really do not like having to look at a restaurant menu or worse yet, a restaurant wine list on my phone. The whole craze of using QR (quick response in case you weren't sure) codes to get to a menu or a drink or wine list is a craze that makes me crazy. I'm not as facile as most of the people half my age and my eyes just don't like looking at the list either in a microscopic size or pinching it so that it's bigger, but then having to scroll all over the place to see what I really want to see. Imagine a 5-page wine list or a 10-page list or a 200-page list on your phone. Maybe you can, but for me, it is a nightmare that just won't quit. But, for restaurants, there are hueg advantages. If wines are kept online so that diners and drinkers can see the list on their phones, then restaurants can easily track inventory. They can also track the likes and dislikes of frequent guests. They can see how people are choosing t...