The Big Pour

While writing my last blog post about our waiter’s confusion over Chateau St. Michelle and Chateau St. Jean, I thought of another unique restaurant wine experience. While traveling though San Francisco’s Marina District one evening, we stopped to get an early evening dinner at a casual looking hang-out. We were not expecting anything fancy, but in the world’s greatest restaurant city we anticipated some minimal level of professional service.

Our young waiter was friendly with a warm smile and a cork pull at the ready. She brought over our bottle of inexpensive wine, plunged the cork pull into the top of the bottle through the foil wrapper covering the cork, and proceeded to twist the cork and extract it from the bottle. The cork pulled through the top of the foil wrapper and out of the bottle. No inspection of the cork or sampling of the wine. Portions of torn wrapper dangled in the evening breeze as she poured wine into a glass in front of me. She poured to the very top of my glass, and did the same with the other three glasses at the table to empty the bottle. She did all of this while joyously chatting with the four of us about nothing of great importance.

I felt a rush of weird emotions, but ultimately settled on humor and happiness as I reflected upon the absurdity of the moment. I might not have been too happy had this been a bottle of Pomerol at Boulevard, but there was no reason to blame the friendly young waiter who clearly had no training from her restaurant employer. Others at the table also found humor in our full glasses, and I wondered to myself if her Big Pour was really just my nightly dream finally coming true.

Best, Joe Plonk

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