If I order a $1,000 bottle of wine and they ask me for my CC right away, before my dinner is finished, they are not getting a fucking tip. That is rude and moronic.
they should institute a policy that everytime someone orders a $1000+ wine, they will ask for a CC and charge that amount right away, so there is no confusion later.
Tangential, but one thing I've always wondered. Imagine a scenario where a customer orders a very expensive bottle of wine, not accidently but deliberately. The sommelier comes out, corks it and pours a sample. The customer tastes it and rejects it. What happens then? They just take it away and eat the cost? I think someone in the thread earlier said something about it being sent back to the winery for a refund. Does this happen from time to time or is it very rare?
Again this isn't what happen, a second person verified the price with him.
A second person pointed to the bottle with price on the menu, and he confirmed with this second person that was what he wanted. He never indicated to this person he couldn't read the menu, in fact he indicated otherwise.
The guy looks pretty old to me. Either way, it's still pretty safe to assume that a person in their 50's could statistically have poor vision in dimly lit areas.
Also, why is the guy going to put his face on nj.com if he didn't feel ripped off? Nobody is going to go public unless they feel like they were disenfranchised. The facts are not putting Bobby Flay's restaurant in a good light (pun intended).
If I order a $1,000 bottle of wine and they ask me for my CC right away, before my dinner is finished, they are not getting a fucking tip. That is rude and moronic.
I speak for everyone when I say thank you. I'm glad you were there at the table and saw and recorded everything that happened exactly and were able to point a finger and identify the guilty person who clearly knew what he was doing.
The diner sitting to Lentini's left at the table, Don Chin, said he heard what Lentini heard when the wine was ordered.
"Joe had asked for a suggestion on the wine and the waitress pointed to a wine," he said. "Joe asked the price and she said 'thirty-seven fifty,' not 'three-thousand, seven-hundred and fifty,' which is what I would have said, so we all thought it was $37.50."
When the bill came, "We all had a heart attack," Chin said.
Marcia Lentini was sitting to Joe Lentini's right at the table.
"My husband said to the waitress, 'I don't know much about wine. Can you pick for me?'" Marcia Lentini said. "He asked her how much, and she said, 'thirty-seven fifty.'"
"But then it was $3,750. Who would expect that in a restaurant?" she said.
Yes, the restaurant claims that the sommelier also pointed it out to him on the menu, but there is no confirmation from the other side that this happened. The original article does not say that is what happened:
So either all the diners are morons or the waitress/restaurant are also morons or the waitress/restaurant took advantage of them. Either way, restaurants should have a dummy-proof system (like a waiver for expensive items + make sure the menu has $ signs clearly labeled) for situations like this. The onus is on them to not get scammed if the diners have bad intentions that could bring the restaurant bad publicity. Although I really doubt these diners had bad intentions since they're putting their face on the internet with a complaint.
You are wrong, and don't have the facts at all. He has already confirmed that someone else came out and asked him to confirm the wine and price.
You are wrong, and don't have the facts at all. He has already confirmed that someone else came out and asked him to confirm the wine and price.
You are wrong, and don't have the facts at all. He has already confirmed that someone else came out and asked him to confirm the wine and price.
I asked this exact thing. If you reject it based on taste, do they just eat the cost? I could understand if the wine was in fact bad, but just on taste seems like they'd make you pay for it.
They pour you a sample so you can see if the wine is corked not to see if you like it.
Personally if the Sommelier recommended something and it wasn't spoiled I'd only return it if it was nothing like he suggested. If it was something I chose I'd pretty much know what I was expecting and only return it if it was corked.
FWIW, I asked my lawyer roomate what he would have done in the customer's position here. He said he would have paid $37.50 and told the manager to call the police if they wanted more than that. He didn't know what would happen next, but he thought it was unlikely the police would arrest or force you to pay the amount, they would probably view it as a civil disagreement, and once they let you go, the restaraunt would have to come after you in court, and he also thought that was not likely to happen.
This happened to me in Texas, except it was for shots of tequila instead of a bottle of wine.
We asked the bartender to recommend a shot because it was a tequila bar so there were tons to choose from. He points out a few and we asked the price of one of them and he says "Four Fifty".
You can tell what we thought he meant and what the actual price was. Long story short cops were called after we had 2 shots ordered. The cops actually called the DA and asked if the bar had a case against us and they said no. We walked out without paying anything for the food / beers / expensive shots because the GM of the bar was so upset.
I could swear I made a post about this when it happened, but I can't find it.
I don't order wine blind or even on recommendations, so I've never had a problem where it wasn't something I liked.
This is pretty much what happened to me in an earlier post about a personal experience with the same scenario (different dollar amount):
Did you drink the shots?
This is pretty much what happened to me in an earlier post about a personal experience with the same scenario (different dollar amount):
Yes. I drank all of mine but I don't think my friend finished his.
How do you not finish a shot?
In other news: ATOT spends $10k in employers' time debating bottle of wine.
Interesting it didn't make the list:
http://www.grapesandleaves.com/limited-edition-jose-cuervo-250-aniversario-tequila/