Pacing wines at dinner

[Wiener]

Not here too often so I hope this topic is of some interest to all. I enjoy eating out at a nice restaurant as often as I can. I find it very very difficult to find a restauant and /or server , that can set a smooth pace of service throughout a meal. For starters, I enjoy a glass of champagne as soon as I can have one served to me. If we are a large group, I might order a bottle. We then often have a bottle of wine with dinner and if the occasion really calls for an after dinner drink I like a port or perhaps an Italian dessert wine. I do not do this often, however, when I do, I find it is most difficult for many servers to pace the wine and or drinks throughout the meal. In other words, I don't want to receive my wine one minute before the entree arrives. Etc etc . Any suggestions?

Edited January 25, 2007 by Wiener (log)

[Busboy]

Not hear too often so I hope this topic is of some interest to all.  I enjoy eating out at a nice restaurant as often as I can.  I find it very very difficult to find a restauant and /or server , that can set a smooth pace of service throughout a meal.  For starters, I enjoy a glass of champagne as soon as I can have one served to me.  If we are a large group, I might order a bottle.  We then often have a bottle of wine with dinner and if the occasion really calls for an after dinner drink I like a port or perhaps an Italian dessert wine.  I do not do this often, however, when I do,  I find it is most difficult for many servers to pace the wine and or drinks throughout the meal.  In other words, I don't want to receive my wine  one minute before the entree arrives.  Etc  etc .  Any suggestions?

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Hmmm. I don't see what's wrong with the wine sitting out for a few minutes. I'm exactly the opposite -- I go batshit if the wine doesn't get to the table before the food. It's a bit less of a problem if you're going really high end, and are working with both a sommelier and a server but, generally speaking, your waiter can't be both in the bar/cellar getting your wine and in the kitchen getting your food at the same time. In addition, the server had more control on the timing of the wine, especially on a busy night.

But really, if it's a problem, just tell the waiter, in a polite rather than demanding voice: "you know what I hate? I hate it when the wine gets to the table before the food," and he or she will do their best to make sure it doesn't happen.

(I was in Miami once, at a very swank joint, and had the equal and opposite of that conversation with my waiter. And when the food came out first, I suggested I was disturbed, and they made everything very, very right).

[tommy]

i generally order drinks before i order food. i pace the meal myself, unless it's at a top tier restaurant, where i might actually have faith in the staff. problem solved, for the most part. i also generally pour my own wine so i can pace that aspect as well.

Edited January 25, 2007 by tommy (log)

[Sneakeater]

I hate it when the wine doesn't arrive until after the food. Which is all too often.

How can you order the wine until everybody's decided what they're having?

[markk]

Assuming that they can't come out at the same second, I much prefer the wine to come before the food, so I have it when I'm ready to start eating.

And now what I hope will be a cute story illustrating this...

In the 90's, I was at L'Orangerie in Los Angeles, arguably at many times LA's top luxury restaurant (I had been there a lot in the 80's and thought that things had slipped a bit, but I digress). While waiting for our table, I perused the menu and wine list and saw that they were offering by the glass a particular 1981 First Growth Bordeaux (I just don't remember which one) for $35 a glass, and asked the sommelier who had passed by how that came to be. He said that he had recently taken over the job, and found a number of such wines in the cellar that really needed to be consumed before too long lest they pass their prime and was selling them off by the glass.

Well, we weren't drinking bottles of wine that night, and decided on two glasses of the Bordeaux with our main course of duck. When the duck was served, the wine hadn't come. A moment later the owner of the restaurant, a very charming and professional lady, passed by and asked, "Gentlemen, is everyting alright?" and we replied that it was, thinking that our wine would arrive momentarily, which it did not. We held off eating though, waiting for the wine. She returned about two minutes later and very wonderfully said, "Please pardon me gentlemen, but you've said that everything was alright, yet I see that you're not eating, and I worry that something may be wrong."

So we explained to her that we had ordered two glasses of that night's 81 Bordeaux which hadn't arrived, and when she looked around the room, she spotted the sommelier deep in converstion with another table, apologized deeply, and sped off to correct the situation. And I was very impressed with her handling of the whole thing.

But yes, I'd like the wine to come first just in case...

[tommy]

I hate it when the wine doesn't arrive until after the food.  Which is all too often.

How can you order the wine until everybody's decided what they're having?

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i'm not sure if you're directing that question to me, but it's easy to decide on food and wine and then just order the wine. when it comes to the table, order the food.

[Busboy]

I hate it when the wine doesn't arrive until after the food.  Which is all too often.

How can you order the wine until everybody's decided what they're having?

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i'm not sure if you're directing that question to me, but it's easy to decide on food and wine and then just order the wine. when it comes to the table, order the food.

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That's a good strategy. Asking the waiter not to fire the first course until the wine arrives works.

I agree with your early post about pacing the meal yourself...too often you end up with waiters hovering over you waiting for food orders whan they haven't even brought a cocktail over yet or flinging courses out one after the next, without allowing enough time to savour each one. Dammed uncivilized.

[tommy]

one must take control of ones experience whenever possible. for sure.