PENMART01 wrote:

> I also gave up ordering wine with dinner long ago... the prices charged by
> restaurants are ridiculously inflated. In my opinion no wine in the world is
> worth more than $3-$4 a glass... so I'd much rather the 2ni. I do my wine
> drinking at home, thank you... and still refuse to pay more than $15 a
> bottle... and that's my high limit, I'm generally in the $6-$7 range. By the
> 3rd glass no one can tell the difference anyway... I laugh when I hear folks
> brag about only drinking top shelf, when they're guzzling like a Texan gulping
> down six-packs at a Q. I can tell the difference with my first 2ni, by the
> second one too, but by the 3rd my taste gets kind of fuzzy and after that they
> may as well serve me house gin-rocks, save the vermouth... and that's exactly
> what I do, If I'm going to go more than three I switch from Boodles to house
> gin... why waste $2-$3 extra per.

I agree with a lot of what you have to say here, and that brings me back to my pet
peeve about tipping and corkage on the more expensive wines. I can go along with
tipping to supplement substandard wages to wait staff, but damn it I hate to be
expected to pay an extra high tip based on a percentage of something where I am
being gouged on the price, gouged on corkage fees and gouged on taxes. Around
here, that bottle of wine that costs a dollar to produce sells for $8 in the
liquor store. The restaurant charges $18 or more, then there is provincial and
federal tax, so the bill adds up to about $21. So now I am expected to pay at
least a $3 tip.

It gets worse with the expensive wines. Suppose menu price is $100. Now you are
being whacked big time for corkage fees and miscellaneous markups. There is no
more work for the waiter for this $100 wine than there was for the one that the
menu lists for $20. He or she has to go and get the bottle, cut off the wrapper
and uncork it. But now the expected tip is five times as much. Just because you
ordered a wine that is more expensive, the percentage tipping protocol expects you
to allow yourself to get soaked even more for "service"