Today's award goes to a British trainee restaurant manager.
The unidentified group ... walked into the Hawksmoor's bar on a busy Tuesday night whilst the restaurant had its hands full with 170 other diners.
“It was an usually very busy night for us,” restaurant manager Dale Clovey said. “The Biba conference is currently taking place in Manchester at the moment, so we think they came from that. They were suited businessmen.”
Alongside a 350g ribeye steak, two 300g fillet steaks and a side of mash potatoes, they asked the waitresses for a 2001 bottle of Chateau Pichon Longueville Contesse de Lalande, which has a price tag of £260 [about US $333].
The waitress asked a manager, who was visiting from another store doing some training, if she could fetch it for her but she picked up the wrong bottle.
A £4,500 [about US $5,760] bottle of Château Le Pin, Pomerol, 2001 was sent to the table instead.
Will Beckett, 41, a co-founder of Hawksmoor, said: “Another manager picked up on it when they asked for a second bottle.”
Not wanting to cause a fuss the staff member “gently steered the customers toward another bottle of wine and kept quiet”, he said.
The steakhouse only has a single bottle of the Château Le Pin in stock at any one time, with only 500 cases of the vintage ever made.
It is on their “rarities” menu and costs almost £3,000 [about US $3,840] more than any other bottle available.
The final bill for the three men came to just over £400 [about US $512] – less than a tenth of the cost of the wine.
There's more at the link. All currency conversions are correct at the time of writing.
I wish I'd had a mistake like that made in my favor . . . if the price is anything to go by, that must have been a passing fair plonk. No wonder they wanted another bottle!
Peter
7 comments:
They should have tried the Pinot Grand Fenwick. It's so rare that wars have been fought over it.
That's right, McChuck, and it has caused mice to roar. Now that's a fine vintage.
"But Mrs. Faversham, when is anything I learn in school going to be relevant in the real world?"
"You mean like reading, Reggie?"
Well, at least they ate it, rather than trying to charge the customers... So they did THAT right... LOL
I agree with Old NFO. The restaurant handled it properly. The wine would have been memorable. At least the didn’t ask for ice and 7Up to make wine coolers with it.
I once had Opus 200. I'm no wine fanatic, but it was incredible.
Last time I saw any for sale it was $200-something a bottle. Good thing I didn't pay for my share... company expense account.
I notice your post civil war books were only on audio??? Also would like to know if any new books coming soon
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