Sheldon wrote:

> I can get a pretty decent dinner in almost the same neighborhood at a
> nice steak house for $35 a person; that's an appetizer, 16 oz
> porterhouse entry with spuds of choice and veggies side, and a very
> nice salad bar, and one very healthy 2ni (they charge $4.50). Dessert
> and coffee is a la carte. But for $35 a couple I'd be hard pressed to
> have a pasta dinner at the local dago dive pizzaria in town... there a
> caraffe of house wine (obviously box wine) is like $12, not really bad
> for a full liter of red. But a pasta dinner is just pasta with red
> sauce and choice of two meata balles, or two saw-seege, or a grilled
> skinless boneless chicky titty... with mozz broiled over adds like
> $3,50, nothing to write home about but I don't expect much for under
> $20 per... and they do give you more pasta than is humanly possible to
> consume... and their waitresses will give any Hooter's gals a good
> lickin'... that's the only reason it's always crowded, that and the
> giant TV sports bar in back.

When I was working there was a restaurant in one of the towns where I used to work where
you could get a dinner special...., soup or salad, entree and coffee for about $8.50. They
also sold half protions for $6.96. The entree was usually breaded pork chops..... 2 good
sized chops. Sometimes it was a rack of ribs. They came with a vegetable and you had a
choice of mashed, fries or spaghetti. The spaghetti or pototaoes came oin seperate plate
because there was not room on the entree plate. Portions were huge. It was quite edible,
good home cooking, but no great cuisine.

It's the kind of place I would go if I was in town and wanted a decent meal, but I would
not go to that town just to eat there.

Service was great. They had lots of waitresses there, almost always the same women. They
must have treated them well there because there was hardly any staff turnover. They were
closed Mondys and they closed for Januaray and February. The day they reopened in March
there would be a line-up at the door.

>
> > Worse yet, after they have socked it to me for a 200% markup I am supposed
> > to leave 15% to the waiter?
>
> I don't mind the tip for good service but I damn well mind paying big
> bucks for wine that gets ****ed out exactly the same as any box wine.
> No way I'm gonna pay the equivalent of $10 a glass for wine. If I did
> order a bottle of wine I'd probably drink it all myself and not even
> get a buzz. For $30 I can get too loaded to drive legally on bar
> cocktails. I'll typically order two 2nis with dinner for 'bout $10
> and I don't feel ripped off. If my wine bill will be more than my
> dinner bill I would eat at home first. At home I can have as big a
> porterhose as I want, cooked perfectly as I like and all the Crystal
> Palace and Ruby Red grapefruit juice I can handle and never worry
> about the guy in the big hat arresting me on my way from kitchen to
> bed.

My brother and his wife used to go out for dinner every Friday night at a local place.
Entrees were $10-20 + per person and they would have a few drinks. We went with them a
couple times and it would cost at least $50-60 for a half assed meal. What we usually did
on Friday nights was stop at the grocery store, get some fresh salmon, shrimp, or steaks,
then to the bakery for a fresh loaf of Italian bread, and pick up a bottle of wine. For
less than $20 we could have a much better dinner at home, including the wine. They were
quick, easy dinners to cook, little to clean up, and we didn't have to worry about
drinking and driving.

> Wine is all hype anyway, it's just fermented grape juice.

It is very tasty fermented grape juice. Please don't confuse good wine with the stuff in a
box.