Couple sues V. Sattui winery

[Carolyn Tillie]

Man finds rat parts in a sandwich... - so reported in the Napa Register

I've never been a big fan of V. Sattui -- now moreso...

(However, I guess if my blog is going to be complete, I'll have to go there at some point, but I'd never eat anything there!)

[Jensen]

Putting aside for a moment how the rat came to be in the spring mix, how the hell could a sandwich be assembled without someone noticing that there was a freaking rat in it!

The winery and/or their insurance company should have paid the $15G if only to avoid the publicity it's now getting.

[Pan]

I enjoyed a visit to Sattui a few years ago and bought a bottle of their Muscat wine, while my brother bought two bottles of their Johannisberg Riesling. I guess I'm glad we didn't have any sandwiches. . .

[Rebel Rose]

Putting aside for a moment how the rat came to be in the spring mix, how the hell could a sandwich be assembled without someone noticing that there was a freaking rat in it!

Precisely, Jen. How did it happen that a head and tail both ended up in one sandwich? And how did head and tail parts conveniently end up in both halves? Without anyone noticing that rat tail does not resemble spring mix or mustard or sprouts?

"Diminishment of earning potential"? What, is he claiming chronic nausea and emesis for the rest of his natural life?

"The Changs charge the food was unsafe for public consumption," yet they sure as hell didn't turn right around and take the sandwich back to the deli. I would have marched right in with it and showed everyone there. My SO would have had to hold me back from force feeding the deli staff. I guess some people are just so delicate they'd rather go home and not worry about everyone else eating at the deli that day.

[Raoul Duke]

The obvious choice of wine would have been the 2001 "Rodent Red".

[crosparantoux]

Sounds like an urban legend. Did anyone really check with the Napa newspaper about the validity of the story. There lots of stories like this, with official sounding legal followup. And newspapers often get caught passing on such nonsense. Check www.hoaxbusters.ciac.org or other urban legend sites--there's lists of such funny stories. My kids trade them all the time about local restaurants.

How can anyone making a sandwich not see the ends of a rat?

[mongo_jones]

so...you're saying you smell a rat?

i have to say that if i found recognizable rat parts in food that i was not expecting rat parts to be a part of i might well suffer some long term food aversions.

[chefzadi]

I'm inclined to go with the Urban Legend theory. Remember the widespread story about natural born blondes becoming "extinct" within whatever number of years.

So many parts of a rat in a sandwich or any other dish. That's just not how a commercial kitchen works. Doesn't make sense. Unless it was knowingly placed there. or the rat crawled into the sandwich to die and no one noticed package tampering.

[ludja]

...

So many parts of a rat in a sandwich or any other dish. That's just not how a commercial kitchen works. Doesn't make sense. Unless it was knowingly placed there. or the rat crawled into the sandwich to die and no one noticed package tampering. 

←

This IS very funny. It does seem strange that 'so much' of the rat was in the two sandwiches...

edited to add: I'm getting a perverse pleasure in 'bumping' this post up again. (kind a like touching a sore tooth). I just want to forget completely about it and get the mental image out of my head; then I see that someone else posted and I feel compelled to check it out! Thanks Carolyn

Edited February 18, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

I would normally fall into the 'Urban Legend' theory myself except for one quote in the story (the bold is mine):

In a statement released by V. Sattui President Tom Davies, the winery acknowledged the incident and said it had empathy for the couple.

I'll be going by over the weekend and I'll ask personally if they DO in fact acknowledge that it happened. Not often that Urban Legends can be personally tracked down, huh?

[chefzadi]

If it is true, I would chock it up to employee sabotage. Really it's unfathomable to me that something like this could get pass the kitchen line or the server.

[crosparantoux]

You could be right: employee sabotage, if it’s true that the owner acknowledges the incident.

But I’m still betting on urban legend. If you’ve watched Napa Valley and the Highway 29 corridor grow over the last 20+ years, you’d understand the issue of V.Sattui vs. Old School Napa Winemakers.

V. Sattui is not Heitz or Dominus. It is park tables and a booming retail shop, selling inexpensive wine to busloads of tourists. In Napa there’s always been grumbling about V. Sattui’s success and style of business. Just as KFC and McDonalds are often targets of rats-in-food stories because of their huge (perhaps obnoxious) success, I suspect Sattui may be a similar victim.

I don’t personally like Sattui wines, food, or their business model, but they are a business. They work hard at what they do and believe in what they do. Lots of customers like them. Those customers may not be the discriminating types that redial French Laundry for three solid hours or who buy cases of Opus One for a baby’s 1st birthday, but they do spend honest money in Napa. All of us in the food biz are in small businesses, working hard, believing in our product. Why hurt someone, a fellow small business owner, with such nonsense as the old rat-in-the-food story, just because their chosen path to success does not meet our tastes?

Let’s get some truth out of this amusing thread. Even better, some apologies may result.

[chefzadi]

I'm with you crosparantoux. I just can't believe it really happened. It's some bullshit story. One of us could verify it with the owners. Even if it did happen I stick by my sabotage theory. I want everyone to know that it just can't happen otherwise in a commercial kitchen.

[jeffperez62]

If they both had parts of the rat, thers should have ben a "plate sharing" charge!

[liamdc]

Why didn't they just go ahead and put ratatouille on their menu?

Now, if this is an urban legend precipitated by competitor wineries, I hope they're forced to eat crow.

[samgiovese]

Let's hear from the owner!

Click here.

[Trishiad]

I used to wait tables in a place that served organic greens. We sometimes found a caterpillar but never a rat.

I have really fond memories of picnics at v satui as a child. I was hoping that my son would have those same memories. Lucky for us, he thinks rats are cool.