ALOTT5MA FRIDAY GRAMMAR RODEO OENOPHILIA CORNER: My dad plays craps at The Borgata in Atlantic City every week. Thank goodness he's not a wine drinker:
"I asked the waitress if she could recommend something decent because I don't have experience with wine," Lentini said. "She pointed to a bottle on the menu. I didn't have my glasses. I asked how much and she said, 'Thirty-seven fifty.'"
..."It was okay. It was good," Lentini said of the wine. "It wasn't great. It wasn't terrible. It was fine."
When dinner was over, the check was handed to the host, who was sitting opposite Lentini at the round table, Lentini said."[The host] was sitting across from me and he handed the bill to person next to him, who handed it to the next person until it got to me," he said. "I showed the gentleman next to me and we were shocked. We couldn't believe it."
The total bill was $4,700.61, including tax. The bottle of wine, Screaming Eagle, Oakville 2011 -- cost $3,750. "I thought the wine was $37.50," Lentini said.
Lentini said he called the waitress over and said there was a problem. He said he explained that he never would have ordered such expensive wine, and repeated that when he asked about the price, the waitress said "thirty-seven fifty," not "three-thousand, seven-hundred-and-fifty....
I don't know a hell of a lot about wine but I know you don't freaking "recommend" Screaming Eagle. If someone wants a cognac, you don't "recommend" Louis XIII. If someone wants a single malt, you don't "recommend" Macallan 25. That sort of stuff should be specifically asked for -- if they want it, they'll ask for it.
ReplyDelete(When I used to drink wine, back in my big law days, I once went to a closing dinner held by some of our Japanese clients -- and they were ordering nothing but brag bottles. Cristal Champagne. Opus One, Screaming Eagle, and all that stuff. It was good, but completely and utterly lost on me.)
Yeah, you could make the argument that she just assumes by the name that they'd know what she meant by the price, but not after he says he doesn't know about wine and wants something "decent." She played him.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, but should we be all that shocked, shocked to learn that some other element of the house is taking advantage of people at a gambling establishment?
ReplyDeleteyour winnings, sir.
ReplyDelete