I bought two beers at two upscale restaurants last week and received two crap pours in two fake pint glasses, while paying pint prices for both. If a restaurant is going to charge premium prices for less than a pint of beer, can it at least serve it in a glass that is not trying to look like a pint? It angers me when I feel a restaurant is trying to con me. Neither Kitchen 4140 nor Soda & Swine said they were offering a full pint, but serving a beer in a look-a-like pint glass is an implicit nod to a pint. And there must be a design flaw (for the beer drinker, not the restaurant!) in the fat-bottomed glasses, because every beer poured in thick-base glass results in a disproportionate level foam, leaving the beer drinker with even less beer - about 12 ounces, I'm guessing - which is where a petty crime becomes a felony. I figure that is 25% less beer poured but that is still sold for the price of a full pint. There is no wonder why restaurants love and use the modified pint glasses.
The faux-shaker glass at Kitchen 4140 didn't surprise me. It is a restaurant first, beer seller second - it only had two beers on draft - so I half expected a small glass. Idiot me paid $7 for the approximate twelve ounce draft of Mike Hess Harley Pale Ale. I should have ordered a $5 bottle of Sculpin. The new Soda & Swine in Liberty Station, to me, is as much a bar as a restaurant, so it has no excuse for offering dodgy glassware. Its prices per beer vary, but all are what you'd expect to pay for a pint, not a short pint. While Soda & Swine didn't dip to fake shaker fraud, it still used a bottom heavy glass where the beer poured with a big foam. I'll leave the beer at Soda & Swine for the beard and funky glasses and expense account set, and I'll get my meatballs as takeout and then stop at Stone for a growler fill.
The food at both restaurants was good, and I'd go back to both restaurants, but I am not going to order any draft beer. I am on to the con and won't participate. I need to start being that beer jerk who asks the size of the beer glass before ordering.
High beer prices are here to stay. I know that. I recently went to dinner at Monello's in San Diego's Little Italy where drafts of four Societe Brewing beers were available for $9 to $10, depending on the beer. I was too stunned by the prices to order a beer, so I don't know whether the restaurant served a proper sixteen ounces or not. (If I had to guess, I'd say no, but for $10, I want my Apprentice in a quart-sized glass.) So restaurants, if you plan to charge $7, or $8, or $9, or even $10 for a draft beer, you have to give at least a pint. Don't insult me with a fat-bottomed glass you are trying to pass off as a pint. If you want to serve less beer and charge full price, spend some some money and buy some properly deceitful glassware, don't cheap-out with a bastardized shaker.
1 comment:
I agree totally!
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