wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

They had only exchanged plates. The two guests who had come together to feast in a posh restaurant near Cologne. Each wanted to try something from the other. When they were full and satisfied and went to pay, they were in for a surprise: on the back of the bill was a handwritten note that was quite something. "We refrain from welcoming them back as guests". Apparently, the exchange of plates had caused such shock among the black brigade that they forgot their good manners and practised quasi-expulsion. The guests were horrified, they left the establishment in bewilderment and immediately passed on the terrible incident.

But there is a catch to the grisly story. Although it has not yet been proven, it has been circulating in the media for quite some time and has been passed on in the circles of restaurant testers and diners alike. Everyone knows someone who was close friends with exactly this plate exchanger. Only the restaurant in question changes. Sometimes it is said to have been a three-star restaurant in Bergisch Gladbach (two of them come into question), sometimes the incident is reported from a top restaurant in Frankfurt. But all attempts at research came to nothing. The head waiters who might have been responsible vehemently denied the accusations. "There was never anything like that," one of them stressed, "and if the guests should actually bring the bill with the ominous note, they are invited to dinner." The matter came to nothing, nothing was known of a meal being served, no affidavits exist. The bill with the unfriendly note also remains untraceable to this day - although the author of this column has done his utmost to locate it. So the assumption is that the whole story is an Urban Legend, and thus a similar scare story to the ones that are always whispered about the tarantula in the banana box, the alligator in the sewers or the chemtrails in the sky: creepy, but untrue.

Urban Legends thrive in dark gourmet restaurants

Urban Legends also exist in wine. There are still rumours on the Moselle that a renowned vintner was once banned from a restaurant because he dared to enter with his own Rieslings under his arm. The owner of the restaurant, which had been highly praised by restaurant guides, is said to have been offended by this acid. There are, of course, no independent witnesses to the incident, and so it will hardly be possible to find out with absolute certainty whether the winemaker has misbehaved in some other way, or whether people in the restaurant objected on principle to customers bringing wine with them - or whether it is simply a modern fairy tale.

Incidentally, neither American nor Australian or South African gourmets would have any sympathy for discussions about whether the bring-your-own principle is legitimate or disreputable. It is much more normal there to bring your favourite bottle to dinner when you feel like it. It goes without saying that a certain margin has to be paid for the use of glasses and the services of the sommelier. But in Germany, too, there are generally no problems with self-service. The Wein-Plus columnist himself brought an ancient bottle of Madeira to a three-star restaurant in the Eifel many years ago because he felt he wanted to enjoy something so rare in combination with some exciting chocolate desserts. Not a case for the complainer box: the sommelier didn't mind, the bottle was decanted without complaint, and the requested corkage fee of 40 DM I didn't find cheap in that era, but appropriate to the overall services of the establishment.

Bring your own - no problem in South Africa or the USA - sometimes it is in Germany...

In view of such experiences, can the urban legend of the most reluctant wine waiter of all times be real? It was told, claiming to be true, by someone who knows his way around the wine scene and produces renowned wines himself. It is said to have taken place in London - and to have involved one of the best pubs in the metropolis. The narrator got it from an acquaintance who lacks neither money nor wine. This collector wanted to open his 1947 Cheval Blanc not at the kitchen table at home, but in precisely that award-winning dining establishment in the British metropolis. Together with a few friends, it was supposed to be a pleasant, alcoholic evening. But what did the sommelier do? He refused. It was not customary to bring one's wine, he countered the request, and did not allow himself to be put off by solid arguments. Apart from a fat corkage and tip, one wanted to order bottles from the menu for 10,000 pounds, the reporter's acquaintance allegedly cajoled, and of course take the large menu! But the sommelier remained strict and rejected the request. He had his principles...

Well, in principle, of course, there is nothing at all wrong with having principles. But anyone who refuses to be allowed to taste a sip of 1947 Château Cheval-Blanc (that is, after all, the job of a sommelier) has, on principle, a slight roof damage. And anyone who - still on principle - screws up a huge turnover for his employer has missed his job as a waiter. Incidentally, the same would also apply to the employee of a gourmet restaurant who would get grey hair if his guests switched plates. If the Urban Legend told at the beginning of this article is true after all: Please send a copy of the bill and an exact description of the incident to Wein-Plus, for the attention of fairy tale and scandal editor Wolfgang Faßbender!

Related Magazine Articles

View All
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS