Me, I have no beef with the wine list at SD, which is great, but with something else which, as a provincial European with no California sophistication, I found appalling: they plonk your bottle of white wine down on the table, with no ice bucket or icy contraption to keep it cool. When I mentioned this here a couple of years ago after dining there, I was roundly chastised - white wine is drunk so quickly at SD tables that there's no need to keep it cool, I was told... Yet I still find it odd. I still like to fiddle with my (white or red) bottles, taking it out of the bucket and back in, in order to keep them at the temperature I like. We do those funny things in this forlorn southwestern corner of Europe.
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That mean man is at it again
- Thread starter SFJoe
- Start date
originally posted by VS:
When I mentioned this here a couple of years ago after dining there, I was roundly chastised
No one should have ever said that. Though perhaps, here, it is not the custom to serve very cold whites with an automatic ice bucket, you should have received one if you wished to have one. That was wrong if it didn't happen.
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton
Mr. Ellenbogen,
Thank you for continuing to offer an interesting and thoughtful selection of wines in the face of hostility from those who would seem to be acting like you take a paycheck with their signature.
I appreciate your iconoclasm, and it serves as a model to me in my own endeavours.
Thank you, again.
Thank you for continuing to offer an interesting and thoughtful selection of wines in the face of hostility from those who would seem to be acting like you take a paycheck with their signature.
I appreciate your iconoclasm, and it serves as a model to me in my own endeavours.
Thank you, again.
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
Besides, anyone who eats - I mean - dines at SD is a snob. As the Chowhound populists will point out, there's better and far cheaper Vietnamese food all over the bay area. YMMV.
If your mileage varies, doesn't that mean you're a bad driver?
Scott Kraft
Scott Kraft
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
The mean guy is a snob - he looks down on lists that don't include the wines he likes.
Really, Scott? I don't think I've ever made a public comment about anyone else's wine list.
I wasn't saying that about you! It was in reference to the critic.
Scott Kraft
Scott Kraft
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
Besides, anyone who eats - I mean - dines at SD is a snob. As the Chowhound populists will point out, there's better and far cheaper Vietnamese food all over the bay area. YMMV.
If your mileage varies, doesn't that mean you're a bad driver?
My daily commute involves a rather big hill.
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Mr. Ellenbogen,
Thank you for continuing to offer an interesting and thoughtful selection of wines in the face of hostility from those who would seem to be acting like you take a paycheck with their signature.
I appreciate your iconoclasm, and it serves as a model to me in my own endeavours.
Thank you, again.
Ooh, private correspondence on a public board.
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Apparently, Charlie lurks here. He proposes the following wines:
-- gewurz from Navarro and Fogarty
-- riesling from Claiborne & Churchill, Poet's Leap, Pacific Rim
-- chenin from Blacksmith
-- viognier from Voss
-- sparkling wine from DVX, Roederer, Schramsberg
His tone is also really trenchant and unpleasant.
Maybe California could pass a law that requires these wines be served whenever wines from Germany and France are on the wine list?
originally posted by Bwood:
I've always been afraid to admit it, but I've been offended at the lack of Bloomin' Onions on the Slanted Door menu.
Now that made me laugh out loud.
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Ooh, private correspondence on a public board.
Sharon,
The Radikon is drinking great this evening here in NY.
How are things in Paris? Is it true that you chased that Racines guy out of the business?
Seen any good movies lately?
Best,
LD
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
Hi Levi,
Good to hear from you. Paris is well. There is a new wine bar near the place de l'Odon, and I had a glass of 08 Lapierre Morgon there yesterday.
Cannot confirm my role in Racines' demise, though I did my part to exhaust stocks of Overnoy/Houillon.
You will be shocked to hear I have been watching a television series, rather than movies, lately.
Cheers,
Sharon
Hm, I'm wondering how I can give this post more "edge"; the joke ages so quickly! Maybe going "meta."
I feel like I'm writing a summer-camp letter. I was never any good at those. One of those things you knew the whole office of the camp was reading before they sent it out.
Wait, did they still do that in the 1980s? Am I remembering someone else's memories? Something I read?
I had never had wine, back in those days. I wouldn't have wine until I was 16, I think it was. There was this small red-sauce Italian restaurant in the West Village and my friends and I reserved a big table below ground. The wine was something red and coarse. We were celebrating Nami's birthday. The world got soft with ethanol. And afterward I gave half a chocolate mousse cake to a homeless man, as well as my umbrella.
Good to hear from you. Paris is well. There is a new wine bar near the place de l'Odon, and I had a glass of 08 Lapierre Morgon there yesterday.
Cannot confirm my role in Racines' demise, though I did my part to exhaust stocks of Overnoy/Houillon.
You will be shocked to hear I have been watching a television series, rather than movies, lately.
Cheers,
Sharon
Hm, I'm wondering how I can give this post more "edge"; the joke ages so quickly! Maybe going "meta."
I feel like I'm writing a summer-camp letter. I was never any good at those. One of those things you knew the whole office of the camp was reading before they sent it out.
Wait, did they still do that in the 1980s? Am I remembering someone else's memories? Something I read?
I had never had wine, back in those days. I wouldn't have wine until I was 16, I think it was. There was this small red-sauce Italian restaurant in the West Village and my friends and I reserved a big table below ground. The wine was something red and coarse. We were celebrating Nami's birthday. The world got soft with ethanol. And afterward I gave half a chocolate mousse cake to a homeless man, as well as my umbrella.
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
And afterward I gave half a chocolate mousse cake to a homeless man, as well as my umbrella.
A fine piece of poetry, this is. Really lovely.
At swim two birds.
Tom Glasgow
Thomas W Glasgow
Sharon,
Is this new wine bar worth a visit? I'll be staying nearby in several weeks. Thanks
Is this new wine bar worth a visit? I'll be staying nearby in several weeks. Thanks
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Mr. Ellenbogen,
Thank you for continuing to offer an interesting and thoughtful selection of wines in the face of hostility from those who would seem to be acting like you take a paycheck with their signature.
I appreciate your iconoclasm, and it serves as a model to me in my own endeavours.
Thank you, again.
Thanks for your kind words. It's funny in a city (SF) where there are 3000+ restaurants, almost all of which have gobs of California wines, some people seem to think that if I select wines that I like, and work relatively well with the menu, that I am committing a crime.
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton
originally posted by mark e:
Thanks for your kind words. It's funny in a city (SF) where there are 3000+ restaurants, almost all of which have gobs of California wines, some people seem to think that if I select wines that I like, and work relatively well with the menu, that I am committing a crime.
I know exactly what you mean. It's strange right?
Every other restaurant carries what such and such a person is used to, and some feel that I have somehow slighted them by not offering it as well. When the response might just as well be, wow, look a Pallagrello Nero to try.
Anyway, I experience this situation and that's why I wanted to give you the high sign and tell you thanks for trailblazing.
Honestly, as a sommelier, I'm not sure what value I would be adding to the experience if I weren't trying to lead customer taste a bit. What would be the point of just offering wines people are already quite familiar with, at a price point higher than they would pay for it at retail if they just brought it in as corkage? That would seem rather cynical to me.
The whole point is that you are listing something special that is perhaps not replicated in another nearby venue.
Scott Kraft
Scott Kraft
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Mr. Ellenbogen,
Thank you for continuing to offer an interesting and thoughtful selection of wines in the face of hostility from those who would seem to be acting like you take a paycheck with their signature.
I appreciate your iconoclasm, and it serves as a model to me in my own endeavours.
Thank you, again.
Thanks for your kind words. It's funny in a city (SF) where there are 3000+ restaurants, almost all of which have gobs of California wines, some people seem to think that if I select wines that I like, and work relatively well with the menu, that I am committing a crime.
I'm sure you know why. It's unpatriotic. To California, I mean. SF is a company town in so many ways. Or more accurately, a showcase. Actually, a showroom. For "the life." You're selling Macs at a Windows convention. The other exhibitors hate you for not conforming. The attendees because it's not what they came for.
Bad bad boy.