In my world a $50 entree would be an extravagance. Not unheard of, but a special occasion. I would think that a bottle of wine in the same price range as my meal would be about the right cost.
But I hate red wine.
Again maybe it is that I have no experience with something like this other than cover charges or minimums at bars, which are ALWAYS collected at the door or clearly posted, but that looks like a scam to me.
Is it possible the servers foolishly get complacent and just assume every customer is so rich they won’t care?
Hmm,this might be a possibility if they both were planning on quitting. I know several casinos in New Jersey have closed and the incident took place in September, towards the end of beach season. So, I could see some sort of a plot like this if both employees were planning on leaving. But, according to Wikipedia, the Borgata is one of the few casinos in Atlantic City doing well.
I can’t buy that possibility. For the restaurant to knowingly have scammed Lentini, the waitress would have had to know she was going to be asked for a recommendation. And she would have had to point out the most expensive wine on the price list - which would mean she somehow would have had previous knowledge that Lentini couldn’t read the price without his glasses. And she would have had to hope that Lentini would only ask her about the price rather than show the wine list to his wife or friend to read. And that when she said “thirty seven fifty” Lentini would think $37.50 was a believable price.
The chances of all this happening are effectively zero. I can’t see any way in which the restaurant was trying to fool Lentini. The only possibilities I see were that Lentini was trying to fool the restaurant or there was a genuine lack of communication.
Its a casino and I haven’t been to one outside of a birthday for a very long while. Way back in the day, before 4 casinos tanked in AC, I seem to remember the high-line restaurants charged you easily 500% mark up.
It always made it worth it to suck-up parking & eat at a family-style place on The Black Horse Pike (Og, I Miss “H.I.Ribs” and if you can get a reservation at “The Smithville Inn”, Do it. ).
I never understood the Trump idea that if you made a normal paycheck, you had no business in AC because only the Benjamin-Franklin-Charmin-Elite were supposed to eat, drink, and game there.
Still, its that paradigm that puts $3,750 bottles of Cab on a menu and makes people think about picking it.
There are a Million things wrong with AC now and I couldn’t fix it if I tried. Still, I’ve been saying for 30 years that there is a Huge workforce down there that would adapt flawlessly to manufacturing.
Hijack Be Damned: What About it Cambell’s Soup? What about it Ford? Don’t you think that if all those people had Paychecks and Worked for you that they just MIGHT buy your products? Or is that just Too Hard for you to understand?
*Oh, I don’t know… why not right here? You remember that old tool
and machinery works? You tell your father he can get that for a song.
And all the labor he wants, too. Half the town was thrown out of work
when they closed down.
*
Any scam on the part of the waitress/sommelier could have been precipitated by the waitresses observation of 1) someone different from the one picking out the wine paying the bill, and/or 2) the fact that some or all of the party were already intoxicated. No prior knowledge of Lentini not having his glasses, etc would have been required to initiate the scam.
IMHO, there quitting wouldn’t have anything to do with it. This may have been something routinely attempted with a very small percentage of success but when the right mark came along then they would hit the jackpot.
What’s the word?
A billionaire friend has said, “There’s nobody cheaper than rich people.”
I’m not even a wine drinker. I’m a beer lover. But I do enjoy a cabernet sauvignon every now and then.
ETA: Meaning, "I don’t know shit about wine, but I’ve imbibed some cabernet sauvignon and liked it, so I look for that on the label.
No, I’m not buying it. It’s wildly improbably bordering on impossible.
This. Screaming Eagle is a “look at me” super low production Napa Cabernet that’s jaw-droppingly expensive. I’ve tried a few small tastes and it is in fact really good…not my usual style, as I tend to prefer balanced elegance over power in my wines, and when I do want an American wine with power I tend to gravitate towards Red Zinfandels because they are super yummy and I can actually afford them, but SE is really damn good nonetheless. Not almost $4000 good to me, but impressively good.
Wine markup in restaurants versus retail has been outrageous for decades. It’s hard to believe that people don’t know that in 2014, especially at a higher end place with $30-50 entrees. Restaurant markup is generally 200-300% over retail on wines. It’s pretty common knowledge, just like paying $10 for an ounce and a half pour of decent bourbon at the same place. The markup is similar and how high-end restaurants make much of their money.
It sure isn’t the food. A $9 a glass “house” wine of decency costs the restaurant $10-12 and they get five pours for a total of $45. It is what it is.
So do we believe Lentini when he said he wanted decent wine OR do we believe
If he ordered the best, do you really believe he thought it was $37.50?
Right beside the Mad Dog on the shelf at 7/11
Even if he didn’t order the “best” - he himself admits to asking for a “decent” bottle…
Personally I would never expect a “decent” bottle of wine, that I’d asked a waiter to recommend would be $37-50, doubly so in the sort of place we are talking about here…
So my upshot is…maybe the restaurant could be clearer, but the bulk of the blame lies with the customer - a 30-odd % discoount seems like a “fair” outcome…
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
Regards,
Shodan
$37.50 buys a decent bottle of wine in any wine store. Making wine isn’t rocket science. It’s not like a vineyard can throw money at the grapes and make them something special. It’s wine not a Porsche.
There’s certainly nothing on the menu that suggests a paring with a multi-thousand dollar wine.
Seems to me he asked for a recommendation - they gave him one.
He asked for the price - they told him.
The bottle and price was on the menu - he had the menu in his hand.
They verified that that was what he wanted - he said yes but claims he was “distracted”
What do you want the restaurant to do for God’s sake?
This thread is so much better having aged for six months.
He was going to look at the date, but he was distracted.
They should drop the price of all wines to no more than a hundred bucks a bottle. Nobody can tell the difference anyways, you’re paying for perceived brand quality