"Never order the second cheapest bottle of wine in a restaurant; it's typically the one with the highest mark-up on the list".
Sounds plausible. Nobody will buy the least expensive wine on the list (or they'll look cheap) so put the mark-up on the one most people will buy...
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Either we have another B3ta reader who contacted you or there is a bit of co-incidence going on.
I have heard this from a number of sources, unfortunately none of them from pubs. (Although various pub workers tell me that profit on soft drinks is vast (Per drink) compared to almost anything else.)
posted
What's wrong with it having the highest mark-up, if it's the one they like the taste of, and it doesn't make them look cheap?
Posts: 69 | From: Orlando, FL | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Well I think the conotation is that you'll be ripped off. While I'm sure the correlation with cost/quality of wine is by no means perfect if your someone like me who has little knowledge of wine then it may be used as a rough indicator if you don't have to opourtunity to taste before hand. Of course this all depends on whether the cost/'quality' correlation stands, which except for all but the cheapest paintstripper (The £2.00 a bottle stuff that you roll out when you are to drunk to care. I've actually enjoyed some of this a lot, I'm not sure whether this was the wine or me) it probably doesnt.
posted
I do like my wine, and am knowledgeable in my areas of expertise, primarily French red, and one thing I can tell you about wine lists is that the mark-up on everything is usually high, regardless of it's price - this has far too much a tinge of contrivance forme to accept it as anything other than conspiracy based rubbish.
The aforementioned price/quality correlation is often true of wine and especially on restaurant wine lists. A good wine list is the best wine for the price from top to bottom, these places have no need to be cunning to make a fat profit off wine. Esentially for whatever price you should be getting a good drop - splurge on a fine claret if you have the money or simply fork out for what you can afford - your maitre d, somelier or just the guy in the joint in charge of the list should be able to recommend a good bottle for your budget.
Things to avoid are noticabley poor wines. Cheap and cheerful is a good watchword but a little knowledge can stop you forking out over the odds for a good vintner but a poor year. The bottom line is, you don't have to buy it until you've tried it - if for whatever reason you are unhappy then refuse it - heaven forfend you are served a high tannic oaky burgundy when you specifically asked for something sweeter to go with the venison!
-------------------- This is where I come up with something right? Something really clever... Posts: 6552 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
No point to this post but I thought it was funny when I found out that a local steak house served "box o' wine" as their house wine (sorry, but I don't remember the name of it right now). At least at Maccaroni Grill and Olive Garden the house wine comes in glass bottles (I'm not saying that makes them any better... but it does look better than a lined cardboard box).
To be quite honest I have a really cheap taste in wine. I perfer Manischewitz Blackberry above almost everything else. It has a sweet taste and can easily be made into an ice cream topping. Dry white wines come in second in this household since they blend nicely with mustard for a yummy fish sauce (but I'd rather invest in nice mustard rather than fine wine).
The martini is the drink for my dad's side of the family. Oddly the gin never matered (maybe because they're all a drunken lot). It seems to olives that draw the most attention and not the spirits. For years my dad (being his "honest" self) has poured the cheap crap in the expensive bottles and no one has noticed the difference.... uh oh, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that online.
-------------------- "The question for joining the protected forum for real magicians should be:
What is the use of women?" Steve W. from JREF's 'This is no fun' Posts: 7622 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I have ordered the house wine in many restaurants, and have been pleased with it most of the time. I have no idea how it is packaged since it is served in a carafe. If the taste is acceptable the first time, I'll order it again. If not, I'll order something else. If I object to the profit the restaurant makes on a bottle wine, I know where to buy it so I can drink it at home. Besides, I don't consider a restaurant to be a place to go when I want to save a couple of bucks on a bottle of wine.
Ken
Posts: 140 | From: Arlington, VA | Registered: Dec 2003
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Chimera: No point to this post but I thought it was funny when I found out that a local steak house served "box o' wine" as their house wine (sorry, but I don't remember the name of it right now). At least at Maccaroni Grill and Olive Garden the house wine comes in glass bottles (I'm not saying that makes them any better... but it does look better than a lined cardboard box).
Saw this at a restaurant on holiday in Orkney, and initially I thought it was funny too. Then I realised it made complete sense for the restaurant. Their house wine was the only one served by glass, or by 500ml carafe, rather than by a whole bottle. Since it was quite a small restaurant they probably didn't want open bottles hanging around that might not get drunk in time. It was perfectly drinkable, and I was out more for food than for a top-class meal, so I didn't really have a problem with it.
The only odd thing was that they poured the wine out of the box behind the bar where I could see it; if it was me I'd probably have hidden it in the kitchen to avoid scaring the snobs!
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
At least for most of the restaurants I frequent (Olive Garden, CPK, Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill, and a few smaller local places) the formula seems to be whatever the bottle costs, that is how much it is for a glass. Since the majority of those places sell things like Beringer, Ravenswood, Kendall-Jackson, Sutter-Home, etc. Unless the year is before 99, the bottles range from $5-$12 in the store, and $5-$12 by the glass in the restaurant.
Unless it is a very special occassion or I am not paying I just can't bring myself to pay $8 for a glass of something I can buy for $8 a bottle at the store. Then I get 4 glasses!
Posts: 789 | From: Illinois | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I know quite a few owners of smaller places that cater mainly to serious drinker and happen to serve food and they have always told me that the big markup is on all mixed drinks, and on glasses of wine. I eat way too often in Chilis and they kill ya with the drink prices but then again the glass they use looks like a small aquarium.
-------------------- Excuses satisfy only those who offer them. Your enemies won't believe them and your friends don't need them. Posts: 211 | From: Ponce, Puerto Rico | Registered: Aug 2005
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Rhiandmoi
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
Regarding Box-O-Wine, many premium bottlers offer this packaging.
quote:The BIB is superior in function to all other wine containers for a number of reasons. First, it’s hard to break, second, it’s easy to open, and most importantly, it stores wine, for the medium term, better than any other container, allowing a person to have glass after glass, while the wine stays fresh. As the wine is dispensed, the bag shrinks, so no fresh air is exposed to the wine. Oxygen has a profound effect on wine over the course of hours or days; most wines open up, turn flat and then begin to turn into vinegar.
-------------------- I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - My friend Pat.
posted
For some reason, i've never had a problem with wine going stale
Boxed wine is perfectly acceptable, especially in an environment where numbers of bottles would be an inconveniance - there are some good quality options out there for sure (as well as some genuinely nasty ones), and you can always look forward to the amusing episode when the drunk bloke sticks a knife into the bag to drain the last bit and ruins his shirt
-------------------- This is where I come up with something right? Something really clever... Posts: 6552 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2002
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quote:Originally posted by snopes: Comment: Sounds plausible. Nobody will buy the least expensive wine on the list (or they'll look cheap) so put the mark-up on the one most people will buy...
And buying the second least expensive wine on the list DOESNT make you look cheap?
-------------------- "Dear Lord, please protect this rockethouse and all who dwell within..." Posts: 1093 | From: Japan | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by ASL: And buying the second least expensive wine on the list DOESNT make you look cheap?
That's actually my way of being frugal without being cheap in my own life. It's not a hard and fast rule, but when the quality of something matters to me, but I don't have a whole lot of money, I shoot for something that's just a little better than the cheapest.
Posts: 418 | From: New Port Richey, FL | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Where I've worked it was usual to take our cost and simply double it to get the per-bottle cost. Then the price would round up or down to give the best 'marketing price' ($29 is likely to sell a lot better tha the bottle at, say, $31 and $9.00 is way too cheap, so it becomes $12 or $15). I guess, using that formula, the mark-up is greater on the less expensive wines.
But, again, if you're trying to "beat the system" in some way, your best drunk-per-dollar comes from shots of 151 rum...good luck with that
-------------------- As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly. Posts: 1679 | From: Illinois | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Now I'm beating myself up over not knowing the name of the trapeze place eiher. I know there are several but there were a couple that used to make me entertained and a little uneasy as a child. I think they mostly had "street" or "place" names. Churchill Station? Church Street Station? Victoria Station? Burbon Street?... I think those are all wrong but it was always something simular to that. Oddly I've always loved Pat O' Briens in New Orleans. Dirty piano ditties are fun for the whole family... girls in fishnet stocking swinging from the ceiling are just weird. While I never bought the wine at any of those place I'd always spend some coin for Pat O's most excelent huricane drinks. Sadly I also spend much more than I should at Red Lobster. There's something about a giant lobsterita margarita (with a bead necklace you get to keep) that's just irresistable. There's a lot of places that hook me with gimmicks like the half yard of beer but Red Lobster has always been the worst offender for me for some reason. I just had to collect a set of light house glasses and then the bahama mamma glasses and then the huricane glasses. I'm glad the local place doesn't have as many promotionals as it used to or I would've probably drank myself to death by now... but at least I would've died with a large colection of glassware.
-------------------- "The question for joining the protected forum for real magicians should be:
What is the use of women?" Steve W. from JREF's 'This is no fun' Posts: 7622 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:I have to honestly say that my wife and I have never been in a situation where it was never a matter of looking cheap for what we ordered. It's always about what type we like and if the restraunt has it.
Finally. This is what it should be all about.
Wine lists should alter with customer input, if you mark up whatever you feel like word will get around, poor wine at big prices is one way to ensure your establishment doesn't get as far as food evaluation when it comes to the crit'
Personally, I recommend buying a superb bottle from a bottle shop, and drinking water throughout the meal, before repairing, well fed, with your date, and opening the good stuff in a more convivial environment for supping good grape
-------------------- This is where I come up with something right? Something really clever... Posts: 6552 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
Drink what you enjoy and pay what the place asks for it - you know what the price is before you order anyway! If you feel ripped off by the place, don't go back (and tell your friends).
Sommeliers (and simple wine waiters..) will sometimes push a wine that's not moving onto customers who ask for reccomendations, simply to clear the plonk from their cellars. Just like waiters do when asked what's good today - the chef will try to shift anything that's been around for longest!
-------------------- Many a True Word Spoken in Jest! Posts: 73 | From: Devon, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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I just can't bring myself to pay $8 for a glass of something I can buy for $8 a bottle at the store. Then I get 4 glasses!
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