Stand Up to Waiters Who Rudely Refill Your Wine Glass
Slate's Christopher Hitchens tells his readers to "Fight back against restaurants' cruel abuse of wine drinkers," the abuse being the act of abruptly refilling your wine glass during your meal, thus interrupting the conversation of the table and conveying the message, "Hurry up and order another bottle."
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8 Comments:
What the hell is Hitchens talking about? This common practice is part of the art of providing service. Rather than have the customers be made to pour the bottle themselves the waiter is doing the service for them. It is done without asking in order to prevent interrupting the conversation at the table. No self respecting restaurant would pop a bottle on a table and leave it there for diners to pour themselves.
A commenter at Slate puts it well:
"Proper wine service includes pouring the wine for the customer, but not dumping, or "blasting" a bottle. More on that in a moment. Proper service maintains a level of a 60% glass pour, or a little four ounces at a time, for each customer at all times. Heavy drinkers like Mr. Hitchens are refilled at the same time his guests are refilled. They will be getting less, often just a drop, but everyone's glass stays the same. The result is psychological: all the customers feel they've been served the same amount. This way, Mr. Hitchens doesn't come off as big of a lush as his reputation, and his guests feel they've spent the evening drinking right along side him."
I actually prefer a glass filled no more than half way, and even less depending on the size of the glass. A well trained waiter will know how to look for subtle clues when a diner does not wish to have more wine. I don't know what kind of joints Hitchens is going to, but pouring wine for diners is neither rude nor a plot against them. Hitchens is a crank and I pray I am never asked to provide service for him.
potroast at 5:55PM on 05/30/08
Chris Hitchens just can't be happy if he ain't hissy-fittin'.
srhcb at 7:40PM on 05/30/08
Christopher Hitchens? He IS a lush! Morning, afternoon, evening -- doesn't matter the time of day -- I haven't seen one of his television appearances since the 70's when he wasn't plastered out of his mind. Sometimes he's so drunk he's incoherent. And he's COMPLAINING about having his wine glass refilled abruptly??? Wait for it -- he's building up to blaming his alcoholism on waiters.
The man is a horse's petoot.
Brownie at 7:42PM on 05/30/08
potroast -- 60% of a pour doesn't necessarily mean 60% of glass capacity. Red wine glasses are standardly substantially larger than a standard pour of 5-6oz, and so 60% of a standard red wine pour will be rather less than half of the glass's capacity. 60% of a standard white wine pour will be at just about half the glass.
thepictsie at 7:56PM on 05/30/08
thepictsie, thanks, why is it called a 60% pour?
potroast at 11:26PM on 05/30/08
The restaurant I work in pours 6oz glasses of wine when ordered by the glass. When pouring wine to guests from an ordered bottle, we pour a little lower, to maintain temperature, to make sure everyone gets some, and for the reason that we can keep touching up the pours whenever we return to the table. It is such that we unobtrusively pour an ounce here, two there. It is never --NEVER-- blasting the bottle. We get in serious trouble (rightly so) if we overfill glasses.
DGibb at 1:26AM on 05/31/08
I hate having any glass at a restaurant remain empty. If it stays that way for more than a few, it will be reflected in the tip. There had better be water, at the least. If the wine bottle is on the table, I certainly don't mind pouring my own. Am I going to sit there with an empty glass and wait for my server to pour? Hell, NO, unless said server has been doing so at frequent intervals for the rest of the table (I eat and drink very slowly). Then I will wait for a few, but only a few.
PerkyMac at 2:07PM on 05/31/08
It just bugs me when writers (or anyone really, but writers tend to have audiences) adopt an adversarial stance with restaurants or servers based on nothing, but a momentary whim.
If Mr. Hitchens doesn't want the waiter to touch the wine after opening it, then he should tell the waiter that. However, I'll just bet that Mr. Hitchens' guests might be the ones to suffer, as they sit waiting for some wine while he enjoys being at the "very peak "of his "form as a wit and raconteur." **barf**
I wonder, if after a different dining excursion, Mr. Hitchens would write about the slack waiter who expected a full tip if the waiter were to neglect to pour the wine.
wookie at 3:32PM on 05/31/08