Mark Sommelier

Look out, here come the "High Horse Police."

Before I dropped Pinot Grigio off my list, I stocked several. I tried the Jermann and the Schiopetto. Invariably, the customers who ordered them, and they were ordered way too often, didn't like them because "it doesn't taste like Santa Margherita". Well, DUH! The closest I come these days is the delicious Pinot Gris "Le Fromenteau" from Domaine Josmeyer in Alsace. Just because Olive Garden sells pinot grigio by the glass doesn't mean every restaurant in the world has to follow suit.

I hear you, Katie. My list has 650 selections. Every now and then I get one of those great experts who says "oh, you don't have this, you don't have that....blah blah blah". My response is always: You're right. This is a list of what I HAVE.

I don't.

Some of us have been buying and tasting this wine for many years. The current wholesale price is $835 a bottle. $1170 is below normal retail price.

OK, I'm going to jump in first. Personally, I HATE HATE HATE this crap about woman or man looking at the wine list. Both sexes ask me questions every night. Some of them are stupid questions, others are more informed. They cannot be allocated to sexes. Yes, there are as many stupid guys out there as........ welll, you get the drift. I don't consider myself a snob, but I do have several conceits. I'm in a French restaurant, so I don't have a pinot grigio. This gets asked for every night.

Don't forget Linzer Augen.

You really should look for some good Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximenez. This is where sherry gets interesting. Look up the word "flor" in a good wine dictionary. Another thought: What about Madeira?

Desserts are served in the lounge at Citronelle on the late side. If you ask nicely you can get the "downstairs" dessert menu with 10 desserts, the full dessert wine offering, 6 different strengths of espresso and 8 fresh gourmet loose teas from Rishi Teas ( the Teaism people). Hope this helps.

Just emailed Terry. We'll get to the bottom of this.

The remedy for any crappy wine you are served at a party is ice cubes and 7-Up or club soda.

Champagne is the only French wine they will have. The "concept" includes only wines from North and South America.

More atmospheric than Stoney's is the legendary Post Pub.

Palette, the new restaurant at the Madison Hotel, just put their website up: http://www.palettedc.com January 21 is the target opening day. Read the copy under the heading "Atmosphere".

uh..oh.......

Because they won't be able to eat there while they are in jail. Parmalat is not being covered well in the USA? Parmalat is certainly being well covered here in the US. "Europe's Enron" is the current quote. Why is Guide Michelin waiting so long to award stars in the US? Is it any more surprising than Italy, Germany or England?

ABBA rules !

I repent. I should have used "turkeys" insted of the I word.

This is sick. Do these idiots realize they're eating at McDonalds?

You can read about it here: http://www.oneandonlypalmilla.com Trotter is responsible for the food in "C", which includes room service. I heard recently that the hotel chef will be Larbi Dahrouche, formerly chef at Tacquet outside Philly.

It was JUST a sandwich. Is it such a big deal??????

I remembered that the 2 vintages from the 30's were the '34 and the '37. The best source for tasting notes from these vintages is Michael Broadbent's book "The Great Vintage Wine Book". His tasting notes go back to the early 1800's.

Michael, I tried to point out the fact that keeping kosher is more than just what a person eats. It involves a whole way of life. Therefore, public restaurants that are not kosher establishments preclude themselves. I knew I shouldn't have jumped into this, and now I regret it. I'm out.

Blovia, I remember many years ago when I worked at Jean-Louis at the Watergate, a customer told me that 2 of his guest kept kosher. He asked what they could eat. I leanded over and whispered in his ear: "Nothing". Everything in that place had been kissed by pork parts you never even heard of. It seemed like a silly conceit to me at the time. It still does. Manipulating the laws, that's a great way to put it. Thanks.

Well put. It should be brought up more often. It's an old Christian statement, one meant to justify violation of Kashrut - one of the things that caused the Jewish Christians to be considered heretics and split them off from the Jewish community. The context of the statement and its target cannot be ignored. It's one thing to make a personal choice about whether to restrict one's diet or not, and quite another to make polemical statements against Kashrut. I think we should be careful not to be disrespectful toward people's religious dietary laws. We don't have kosher-observers on eGullet upbraiding treif-eating Jews as sinners, so how about if all of us, Jew and non-Jew alike, don't belittle or otherwise argue against the observance of kashrut. I notice that the kosher-observers in this thread haven't taken offense, but nevertheless. Huh? Exactly how is this offensive? Did I miss something? Evidently so. Don't you get it that telling people who keep kosher that their beliefs are incorrect is polemical and can be offensive? Certainly this topic is applicable to the many different peoples who keep some kind of restricted diet. There are McDonalds in India. What were they thinking?