Restaurant wine redux

Ioften feel like a broken record complaining about wine in restaurants. For the most part, the offerings are often mediocre, the choices meager and the prices grand larceny.

Periodically, one stumbles upon a wine list that shows inventiveness and fair pricing, but these are few and far between.

Fortunately, I was able to spend a large segment of this past February and March at the family home in Newport Beach, California. It's an old-fashioned beach house, much remodeled but still basically the same since it was originally constructed over 100 years ago.

All but a few of the other original beach houses around it have been torn down and replaced, except for the brick mini-mansion two doors away built shortly after ours, still owned and occupied by one of the sons of the second owner.

Our house sits behind a sidewalk and a beach on the bay. Docks jut out into the water. Beyond them is a channel, then many powerboats and sailboats on buoys. They all just sit there. I rarely see anyone taking any of these boats out. They are owned by people, I guess, with too much money and not enough inclination to make use of their floating investments.

Humphrey Bogart used to park his sailboat, the Santana, on a buoy in front of our house. He and my grandfather would drink martinis together, though Bogie also liked Scotch, at the nearby Newport Harbor Yacht Club. And my uncle, Peter Rabbitt — yes, you've read this correctly — would row out to the Santana and hang out with Mr. Bogart.

Once, when Bogie and my grandfather were at the Yacht Club drinking together, my Uncle Pete, who at 9 or 10 years of age was tagging along, was bugging my grandfather about getting a gun so he could go shooting birds in the nearby Back Bay. (Times were different back then.)

"Murray, why don't you just give the kid a gun," Bogie offered. "Hell, I'll pay for half of it." Uncle Pete got his gun, but Bogie never ponied up.

My Uncle Pete is today a member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, and periodically he treats me and sometimes my guests to dinner there. My son nearby Corona del Mar. It features an extensive menu of appetizers, soups, salads, risottos, pizzas, pastas, gnocchi, main courses and desserts, plus a wellchosen (albeit pricey) wine list. The black (squid) ink infused linguine with Manila clams, calamari, shrimp, fresh fish, tomatoes and pomodoro sauce is absolutely phenomenal!

Ross still remembers a tuna steak with broccoli dinner he had at the NHYC some 15 or so years ago. Today an excellent cook, he calls the meal "a foundational food memory" and "the first truly fancy meal I ever had." He also remembers the never-ending stream of popovers the club is known for.

The NHYC has a small but well-chosen wine list with reasonable prices, but in order to enjoy the club's excellent meals, popovers and wines, one needs to be a member or the guest of a member. I'm not going to even tell you what it costs to become a member, even if the club has openings at all.

But to get back to our subject at hand: restaurant wine lists.

In the Newport Beach area there are many excellent restaurants, including excellent wine lists to match. We end up eating at mostly Italian establishments, because my sister's companion, John Bell, a former Boeing engineer turned winemaker, loves Italian food. One, called Trattoria, his favorite, is on Balboa Island and has only eight tables.

Like all quality restaurants, they welcome customers who bring their own wines, charging $25 per bottle corkage fee. In our case, they waived the corkage fee for three of the four bottles we brought the second night we visited in less than two weeks, but that's probably because we invited our server to sample the $450-per-bottle Châteauneuf-duPape we brought the first night.

In Europe, where wine is considered more an essential part of the meal than in the U.S., restaurant wine prices are much more reasonable, save for the toptier, Michelin-starred establishments. Unfortunately, for most restaurants in this country, wine is considered a profit source used to subsidize their food. Little do they realize that charging exorbitantly high markups for wine just forces would-be customers to seek out restaurants with more reasonable wine prices or eat at home.

Before going out, it's always a good idea to check out a restaurant's wine list if it's been posted online. And certainly, when making a reservation, ask if they allow customers to bring their own bottles and what the corkage fee is. A reasonable price is from $10 to $25, though some don't charge any fee at all.

Two rules, though: First, never bring a wine that the restaurant has on its list. And second, don't just bring cheap swill to save a buck or two. Bring a wine that is interesting (though not necessarily expensive) and unique. If the restaurant staff is knowledgeable and sees your choice, they'll think of you more highly for your wine savvy. Also, it never hurts to offer your server or wine steward a taste of the wine, especially if it's a rare or unique one. Who knows? They may comp the corkage fee that night or the next time you come in.

Cheers!

Another we just discovered on this trip is called Foretti's, located in Leigh Pomeroy is a Mankato-based writer and wine lover.

May Days

Community Draws

By Casey Christenson

May 5th Space Day

Fun Facts About Space

1. The Sun weighs about 330,000 times more than Earth.

2. Footprints left on the Moon won’t disappear as there is no wind.

3. Because of lower gravity, a person who weighs 220 lbs on Earth would weigh 84 lbs on Mars.

4. Pluto is smaller than the United States.

5. We know more about Mars and our Moon than we do about our oceans.

6. There are more stars in space than there are grains of sand in the world.

7. Light travels from the Sun to the Earth in less than 10 minutes.

8. Outer Space is only 62 miles away.

May 29th Memorial Day mother’s Da y may 14t h

Honor & Remember all who have served.