Tag Archives: wine service

The problem with restaurant wine service

restaurant wine serviceThe Wine Curmudgeon can rant and rave all he wants, but restaurant wine service remains one of the biggest problems facing wine drinkers. It’s just not the overpriced wine, but the rude staff and the lack of training. Which is why it’s time to get help from those well-known arbiters of wine etiquette, The Muppets. Because if a waiter acts like this to Kermit and Miss Piggy, it’s no surprise that too many restaurant wine types are treating the rest of us the way they do.

The video is courtesy of sarahleeab via YouTube. And yes, this is from the first Muppet movie in 1979, which demonstrates that the advance of wine culture in the U.S. has not changed enough. Though regional wine has come a long way since then — right, Idaho?

Once again, why Americans don’t drink more wine

restaurant wine problemsThe Wine Curmudgeon was traveling, and stopped at a major U.S. chain restaurant that will remain nameless to protect its identity. (OK, it was Chili’s.)

One of the group wanted a glass of wine, and ordered the Australian chardonnay that was on the list. And Chili’s does have a wine list — not great, but not awful, either. The wines are professional, and shouldn’t embarrass anyone. Barefoot, even. And, in fact, this post isn’t about the quality of the wine list. Or that the chardonnay, which retails for about $5 a bottle, cost $6 a glass. One deals with what one can get.

Rather, it’s about how too many restaurants — even ones that spend millions of dollars on server training — don’t have any idea what they’re supposed to do with wine. The chardonnay took 20 minutes to arrive at the table, which was bad enough. How hard is it to walk to the bar, pour a glass of wine, and bring it back to the table? More, after the jump:
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