Restaurants that dont serve Cocktails

[awbrig]

Hello Mr De Groff,

I have enjoyed following your career! The stories you could tell or have heard!

Question: How do you feel about a select group of high-end restaurants that do not serve hard liquor or cocktails at their restaurants - only wine, champagne and the occasional beer. I have heard their reasoning is that hard liquor disturbs or weakens the palate and taste buds. How do you feel about this?

Thank you.

[Kingcocktail]

Hi Awbrig,

Yikes!! In a word.

I watched Julia child for years and on many occasions she saw fit to prepare herself a pre-prandial cocktail. Julia is the best example of a long list of well-known chefs who mark the beginning of the dining experience with a well made cocktail.

Part of what leads to the attitude you describe is culinary snobbery and the other part is the decline of the well made cocktail. One of the biggest problems is the ridiculous trend towards huge cocktail glasses that started with the steak house crowd. The cocktail was meant to be finished in 12 to 15 icy cold sips and then followed by another well made icy delight. That is not possible with the battleships we call glasses these days. Two of those martinis and dinner becomes a faint hope…making to the next room upright is the immediate concern!

Dale