So this guy orders a steak and shrimp, and then asks me "Which goes better with that, the suchandsuch merlot or the someothersuch chardonnay?" Him asking this tells me two things: he doesn't actually know anything about wine, but is trying to sound pretentious, and I'm probably not getting a good tip (I was right, slightly under 10%).
I smiled and said I don't like red wine, so I'd be biased toward the chardonnay. He stared INTO MY SOUL without a trace of smile. Okay, I guess I'm not funny. So I told him I thought red wine generally went well with beef, but white wine usually goes well with seafood, so I wasn't sure. He said he'd have the chardonnay, but then he starts looking around and says, "Why don't you ask HER?" and points at my manager, who happened to be walking by and is obviously not a mere, ignorant waitress.
She basically told him the same thing, and he decided to have merlot. Now, he was polite enough about it, but here's the thing: who goes to a Chili's/TGIFridays/Applebee's/Ruby Tuesday/average mass-produced food type of place and asks questions about the wine? I mean, really; if you're eating there, you probably don't actually have a very discerning palate. And I'm pretty sure any subtle notes brought out by the wine were gutted and left for dead by the A1 sauce he drowned the steak in.
2 comments:
A big Chardonnay from Burgundy or a big wine like a Cab from California would go good too depending on his choice of colour. But you are right he really seems too pretentious to be asking a question like that. He probably settled for something close to or it was the house red.
He had a Columbia Crest Merlot. That's as fancy as we get. :) Definitely pretentious.
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