How Much Would You Pay for Wine?

by Sam Klingberg on Dec 10, 2010 • 10:00 15 Comments

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Last night Steve Dolinsky of Hungry Hound fame posted a bar check on twitter with this shocked comment:

“Check out this ridiculous bill for 4 drinks at Mastro’s. Very convention-y here and Journey playing on stereo. Ugh.”

Point is, $23 for a fucking run-of-the-mill glass of wine? Albeit, it’s a wine that doesn’t suck at all. But price is a subject that, as far as wine is concerned, is extremely relative. Would you pay $25 for a glass of 1996 Etienne Sauzet Champ-Canet Puligny-Montrachet? What about $15 for a glass of Ferrari Carano? (That shit better be Tresor, just sayin’.)

I think that most of the wine obsessed will pay for something they want, e.g. aged Premier Cru Burgundy. But a bottle you can buy easily, and for under a Grant? Not so sure I’m willing to drop that kind of cash this side of sobriety. And all the poor guy did was ask for an Oregon Pinot Noir.

So the question is: what is the most you’re willing to spend on a glass of wine?

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

I went to NYC last weekend and ended up paying probably $12-$15/glass, which is steep by my standards, but I swallowed it because I’m rarely there and we were having a good time. This is out of control, though. There are usually deals available if you find them. I’d rather get a bottle if I’m going to be spending at least $23 on wine at a restaurant.
http://twitter.com/dirtysouthwine Hardy / Dirty

In instances like this I can’t fault the restaurant. That is the price someone is willing to pay.

I put far more blame for the consumer for picking a chain steakhouse in Chicago
Anonymous

Yeah, 12-15 tends to be the going rate for the higher end wines around here. Apparently he just asked for a specific wine and then found out how much it cost. That’s a hard swallow.
Anonymous

Plus, he had to listen to journey the whole time.
Benito

Typically I only order wine by the glass if I really trust the restaurant. If there are a small number of interesting selections and they’re selling a lot by the glass, then it’s usually a safe bet. If they offer dozens of options by the glass and nobody’s ordering, then there’s no telling how long the bottles have been open.

I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $10 for a single glass, and even then I’m kind of gritting my teeth. The one example of ridiculous restaurant wine pricing that has always stuck with me is seeing a regular, basic bottle of Korbel sparkling wine listed for $35. We’re talking something with a local retail price of $7, no idea about the wholesale price. It’s the kind of stuff that restaurants pour for free on Mother’s Day and gets tossed into gift baskets just to fill up space.

I always felt horrible for whoever ordered that in an attempt to celebrate or make the dinner romantic.
Steve

Hey, we stopped in at the bar, after having dinner elsewhere, because one of my friends was meeting another friend there. We were in the bar for all of 20 min. before we bolted..
Anonymous

Ordering wine at restaurants is at some level a rip-off. 35 bones for Korbel? Hell no.
http://thepleasanthouse.com/ artj

I saw the photo when it was posted last night. At the time I chalked it up to nothing more than what you would expect at a place like that. However, I didn’t notice until now, the issue of the $23 glass of Pinot Noir. Here’s how I see it, for what it’s worth. There’s nothing worse than being treated like a tourist in your own town. And I could only imagine, there’s nothing worse than being treated like a tourist in your own town when you are a food and dining celebrity in your own town. I’m just a chef, but when it happens to me, it bothers me. For instance, my wife and I went to a place that was not a high profile steakhouse but a high profile fine dining establishment. It was cinco de mayo and my wife felt like a margarita. The “mixologist” asked if she had a tequila preference. She said, no, just something good, knowing that they did not have anything ‘bad” (something to that effect). When we got the bill, I noticed that the very top shelf tequila was put into the margarita bringing the margarita $5 or 6 higher than their highest priced specialty cocktail (which I had). Long story short, the margarita in a rocks glass came to about $16.00. Point is, we were treated like tourists or surbanites or whatever profile is used by industry people for customers that they believe will not be coming back. We may not have fit that profile in reality but because of how I was billed for this drink, I probably won’t go back. If the strategy of treating the customer this way or in the way that Mr. Dolinsky was treated works for the establishment then it makes sense they should continue doing what works for them. If that means that it will alienate certain people then I’m sure they’ve accounted for that loss. I’m not sure they’ve accounted for what might happen if you do it to a food reporter, but oh well, I guess. We all move on.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Art. 16 bones better be getting you one of those fishbowl margaritas, at least! It’s ridiculous abuse, to be honest. And like Ben said, it’s sort of a wicked underbelly of the Hospitality industry that’s unfortunately quite prevalent in beverage lists.
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http://www.suburbanwino.com suburbanwino

The economist in me says, “what the market will bear”…if folks are paying that much, then more power to the restaurant.

On another note, I always take issue with restaurants that serve wines that are easily found in off-premises retail stores. Knowing that the Argyle costs about $25 for a bottle retail- meaning they’re capturing 75% gross margin (though I understand the overhead is higher by-the-glass)- is a little insulting.

If they had stuck to wines that are hard to find in the retail world, we would all be none the wiser…
Anonymous

Chicago has some places that give that exactly, which is what makes this incident consternating. Mastro’s, unfortunately (?,) is an extravagantly overpriced joint on all levels.
Mike Amarilio

I paid 18$ for 2 shots of well vodka and 2 pbr’s at some awful dredge bar in Lincoln Park around Halloween. Thank god I already had more than a few already at the last bar, otherwise I might of jumped over it and started throttling the man in the fishnet t-shirt. Never letting a date pick out “interesting” bars again.
Vidas

I take issue as well…Chicago has a highly competitive restaurant market – particularly in the beef and red wine segment. As a local, I know that there are other beef and wine places likely within walking distance of Mastro’s. There may be a certain segment of consumer that feels being blatantly overcharged is it’s own style of exclusivity – alas, that is a club that shall not see me as a member. I’ll move on to where I feel I can find a better value.

Having read this thread, and Dolinsky’s original tweet – it’s highly unlikely I’ll visit Mastro’s. Journey over the stereo is a deal breaker for me.
Anonymous

Woah..fishnet t-shirt…Are you sure you weren’t in Boystown?

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