When You Have to Wait 100 Years for a Glass of Wine
Adeline loves food, often and in large quantities, both at home and out. Usually, that goes well, but sometimes it doesn’t. In the series Sunday Roast, she shares her observations. This time: when you spend three-quarters of your dinner waiting for a drink.
“You could just order a bottle, you whiner,” you might be thinking. Which I consider a perfectly logical thought, but sometimes the occasion simply isn’t very bottle-friendly. For instance, I’d rather not get behind the wheel after a bottle (and I hope you wouldn’t either), or I might want to spend an evening mixing drinks (starting with beer, moving on to wine, adding a liqueur, and ending with a hangover).
It’s like the fries
Now that I’m allowed to eat out again, an old annoyance flared up fiercely: waiting for your drink for half an appetizer and the entire main course. At first, it feels welcome, because I’m just glad I’m allowed to get worked up about it again, but that doesn’t make it any less irritating. It’s like the fries arriving after you’ve finished eating. Or even worse: the mayo when your fries are gone. “Irritating” doesn’t really cover it; it’s the kind of dissonance that has you shifting in your seat and trying to summon your drink onto the table by looking around with your neck stretched out. Which never works.
Drink your way rich
My former hospitality boss always used to say: they eat you poor and drink you rich. When a group started ordering large bottles of sparkling water and, as an extravagance, managed a glass of Rivella Light, I already knew there wasn’t much to be gained. I learned from that, and that’s exactly what I come to do when I eat at a restaurant: drink my way rich. Ask me with two sips left in my glass whether I’d like anything else, and I’ll say yes. It always starts with the intention of having “just” two refreshments, and if you play it a little smart, I’ll leave with a bottle’s worth of glasses in my collar. That could count as profit, if you handle it tactically.
As quickly as possible
If it weren’t for the fact that… When my main course is delivered, I often still want another glass of something (and I express that wish), but it isn’t served until around my last bite. After which they are lightning-fast to ask whether I’d like coffee, while I’m still sitting there with three-quarters of a glass of wine. Coffee during wine is like whipped cream on Camembert: disgusting.
My apologies
Really, you’re only safe with that bottle or a wine pairing, although it once happened to me that the dish and pairing fell out of sync and, well… I don’t really know what to say about that, because it’s even worse than not getting anything to drink at all.
And now that I’m writing this, I’m thinking back to all the people I used to make wait for drinks while the tournedos trio with red wine sauce was cooling down, for which I offer my sincere apologies.
Read also:
- We need to talk about people who chew on ice creams
- Dishes (star) chefs never put on the menu
- When your waiter turns out to be a “bucker”
