jbonne

so here's my question, RR: how do you think distributors in California -- where nearly anyone can sell wine to anyone else, essentially -- differ from reps in most other states that don't have quite as liberal laws on the matter? CA is always held up as proof that distribution can still work -- even without laws that functionally guarantee an oligopoly -- because wineries don't have the time or resources to drop their goods off like milkmen and will gladly pay someone else to do the work. true, or hooey?

i don't think i've had the Sable, but i could be wrong. in any case, the Launois is great stuff. ditto on Gary Westby too. i chatted with him for a bubbly column not long ago. very helpful guy.

a 2nd for K&L. their grower Champagne selection is excellent, which should impress the Frenchies' sensibilities. it's their specialty, and they sell Champagne for true Champagne drinkers. i'm still remembering the Launois Grand Cru reserve blanc de blancs we had not long ago. gorgeous stuff.

glad Juanito pointed out the parbaking part. i'd be curious whether the various Tescos are parbaking at each location. i'd assume so, but well ... never assume, &c.

sounds somewhat equivalent to what Ripe is doing in Portland. good for 'em.

unmentioned in the resume is a stint at the ill-fated 727 Pine. more here.

heh. big congrats to you, Kathleen (and nice to meet you offline) and congrats to everyone else too.

if you haven't already headed off to shop, and there's Vietnamese groceries in the area, consider some goi cuon (the often-misnamed "salad rolls) in the mix. skip the cheese.

almost a certainty. note that on "Hell's Kitchen," rampant product-placer Shafer even had the would-be cooks using $40 merlot as cooking wine. while the San Pellegrino water labels on the tables were blurred out. could tell who was forking up dough for that one.

i've been very hot on Bergerac rosé since trying the '04 Calabre a few weeks ago. review here, along with many musings on rosé.

so sad, if it's true. i'll be curious if they really are putting it on the market. the actual building there is a gorgeous artifact, in addition to some top-notch grub.

Several years ago, Chez Panisse did away completely with both tipping and service charges, attempting simply to pay a decent wage; but the tax structure was so biased against this that waiters suffered and they opted to go to the present system. Or so I'm told by one of the directors, who hasn't yet misinformed me. ← so an equivalent gross income by a server composed of straight wages would in fact have netted them less than the same gross amount composed of wages/service charges?

an interesting twist on this theme. i was reminded yesterday (by this Seattle P-I article) that several states, including Washington, do in fact mandate that servers are paid the state minimum wage. (Washington's minimum is $7.35/hr.) yes, this still means that service is a minimum-wage job. it does not, however, mean that it is a sub-minimum-wage job, as is largely the case across the East Coast. To me, this rather substantively alters the "anything less than 20 percent deprives servers of their livelihood" argument. note also that California similarly has a minimum-wage requirement, with a minimum of $6.75/hr. (it does allow for voluntary agreements to have employees docked for house meals.) worth considering in the context of the French Laundry and Chez Panisse service charges. in any case, more food for thought ...

seconded.

there are days i'd like to fully unload my personal notes on what a lot of things taste like. there's lots of descriptors that by all reckoning should scare away a lot of drinkers who actually would enjoy the wine in the glass. all those fine Burgundies described with notes of barnyard, cow ... um ... output, dank forest, &c. or syrahs with bacon fat and burnt rubber? or Bordeaux with pencil lead and cigar box? the case could be made that this is all a little exercise in subjective noun-packed poetry. but that's too philosophical a topic for me to handle on a Thursday ...

may or may not be to some folks' tastes, but i think it works. i picked up that very note (happily so) in a cab franc the other day. wrote it down as "rusty-iron earth," and probably translated into something more reader-friendly, but kudos for going for what it evoked. i assume in either case, it's an oxidized-iron note with a bit of salinity or minerality, which could taste like a rusty backhoe, or blood, or both.

yep, a malbec rose -- not bad, though too much RS for me. i think you're right about Mondovino, but haven't seen it since February.

the slightly bitter note (we got "lemon zest" from a couple folks) does add a curious complexity. i like it, but only for a glass or two, mostly because it gets to be a bit much given the heavy floral characteristics that dominate. totally agree about the similarity to albarino. one thing i'm curious about: any idea why you were served an '03? not that torrontes can't age, but Balbo is currently on the '05 vintage of torrontes. Southern Hemisphere, and all that. (my tasting note on the '05 here.)

damn -- that's not gazpacho, that's salsa. good tip about the Road House. sorry for the I-5 thing. deadly boring, even in a hot car. it's slightly better north of Everett, though still pretty boring. (Hwy 20, otoh ... )

sounds like the setup at Per Se should do this very thing. while i completely agree that BOH staff get regularly screwed, i do wonder: is a service fee the way to fix that?

reasonable wine markups, yes. gouge-worthy wine markups are bad policy and bad form. that said, Kim WB, rather than dock the staff a tip for the unreasonable markup, why not just refuse to order that bottle? as a general rule nowadays, i won't order any bottle more than 100 percent over retail -- let folks sit on their own damn overmarked bottle stock, as at least a small punishment for their greed. i'll be happy to drink the bargains instead.

couldn't say it better myself. i think it's a mixed blessing: you're going to draw staff who like the stability of the process. but in that mix, you may also find some duds. i'm guessing Panisse doesn't ride herd on their staff quite as rigorously as FL/Per Se. (few do.) we also encountered some perfectly charming staff there, just not our server.

totally agree. i always tried to take the studies with a grain of salt because many of the findings -- and the little suggestions given to servers based on the Cornell data -- would be invasive and inappropriate in a fine-dining context. Keller/Cunningham specifically train their staff *not* to tell diners their names, for instance, on the belief that service should be attentive but anonymous. re: the Panisse service charge, i remember appreciating that they were removing some of the tipping guesswork likely to happen when you journey to Alice Waters' altar. but given the lousy service we had at the cafe there, i also felt 17 percent was about the max i possibly would have given in a free-market system. i wondered afterward if the service charge had contributed to an atmosphere in which servers had stopped trying because they knew upfront that they were guaranteed a certain amount.

a couple quick things, then ducking back into read-only ... (1) i'm surprised folks haven't spent more time considering the revelation from Page Six that the service fee is meant to be shared between FOH and BOH. by my read, that translates into a lot less money for the wait staff, since they're suddenly going to be pooled in with line chefs, &c. note that the Per Se rep said that it's become "harder and harder" to keep the line staff. their solution is to dock the FOH? (2) i think i'm on the record endorsing Fat Guy's view of the general screwed-up-edness of the U.S. tipping system. given that Keller and his wife Laura Cunningham probably spend more time and effort training their servers than almost anyone else in America, it's curious that he didn't go all the way, as suggested above, and move to a French-style straight salary. given the level of training for the staff, you'd expect Keller/Cunningham to be finding a solution to keep their servers long-term, and a standardized salary/benefits/&c. would potentially help attract those people who view service as a career. that said ... (3) as Busboy mentioned many, many screens ago, diners always have the option of leaving (or more adeptly, palming) a cash gratuity to the captain, server or sommelier who has gone the extra mile. true, these (totally off-the-books) tips are an anachronism, but tradition usually dictates that they can be pocketed by the staffer in question. my father, who studied restaurant management in school and spent his share of time in professional food service, still occasionally engages in this practice for outstanding service -- when, for instance, a sommelier was the only helpful staffer among an otherwise inept set of servers at one Seattle restaurant. (4) Michael Lynn has truly fascinating studies on the subject, but my recollection is that most of his data is generated at casual restaurants. (it's been a while since i looked at his reports.) while i don't dismiss some of his conclusions, i think you have to acknowledge the gap between in customer behavior between the Olive Garden and Per Se.

just 3rding the comment about nebbiolo-based wines.