Patrick

Today's NY Times has a most interesting article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/26/in...pe/26PARI.html

While in much of the US, restaurants refuse to allow patrons to take their unfinished wine home with them -- encouraging to drink it all there and then get in a car and drive home, in Paris they now offer and actually encourage the practice. Doesn't it make more sense for safety sake that people not drink so much before driving home, but be allowed to take it home for later use?

While this practice may or may not catch on in Paris (Chez Paul is the main example being discussed), it certainly seems to make a lot more sense than the American custom of suggesting that it is safer to drink all your wine and drive, rather than have an open bottle in your car that you're taking home while still sober enough to drive and drink it later.

cigalechanta

Chez Paul has been mentioned so many times here. Do those pictures do it justice?

Patrick

Don't ask me. We finally planned to have lunch at Chez Paul last summer and arrived about 1 PM on a weekday without a reservation. There was not a single person eating there, but a handful of waiters standing in the doorway in great anticipation. We were turned off by the emptiness, so still haven't eaten there. Very recently another Fodorite emailed me with a long discussion of their Paris restaurants and mentioned how disappointed they were with Chez Paul.

Tat

Pardon my ignorance...
what do they say to us in US when we ask for wine "to wrap" ?
Just NO ! in your face ???
I never had this issue, so just curious, I can't believe they will not let you take what was paid for.

NYCFoodSnob

Unfinished wine???? In 30+ years of dining out, I've never encountered a drop of wine left at the table. I usually leave craving one more sip.

With so many great restaurants serving excellent wines by the glass these days, I'm surprised this topic even exists.

cigalechanta

This article is about the French goverment trying to crackdown on drunken driving so they have distributed "sacs de chiens" to bistros and restaurants. So far it seems to be only tourists who take the left over wine back to their hotels.

clevelandbrown

In many states, having an open container in your car is illegal. Perhaps the restaurants don't want to be an accessory before the fact.

Patrick

Well, Cigalechanta, then maybe it's logical the article focuses on Chez Paul -- isn't that strictly a tourist restaurant?

I'm with you, NYFoodSnob. I have no idea what "leftover wine" means! But I have seen single diners ordering a bottle and leaving half of it. If I were dining alone and for some strange reason (maybe because I was driving home) chose not to finish my wine there, I certainly wouldn't be too proud to ask for a "sac de chien".

Travelnut

I like a little wine most every day , but can never finish a bottle at a meal. Perhaps we could consume a half-bottle between the 2 of us.. I have never mastered the pronunciation of 'bottle', so help me out - how do I pronounce 'une demi bouteille' ?

Is it 'oon deh-mee boo-tay-uh' ?

cigalechanta

That's my question, Patrick, is it a tourist restaurant?

Patrick

I take the coward's way out, Travelnut. I don't order them often (sometimes in the afternoon though, we'll split a half bottle at a cafe). I simply say "demi" and they know what I mean. Think Demi Moore.

cigalechanta

P.S. when I tried to find old posts about this place, they all came up as chez maitre Paul. Are they the same place?

kayd

In many places in the U.S., restaurants' liquor licenses allow them to sell alcohol for consumption on their premises only; they are barred from selling it for take-away, whether the bottle is open or not.

Laws governing alcohol vary so much from place to place -- I'd expect to be able to take the remaining wine home in New Orleans (where Hurricanes are sold in large plastic cups on the sidewalks of the French Quarter), but not in nearby Mississippi.

indytravel

In Indiana we have some quirky liquor laws. Most restaurants do not have a license that allows alcohol to be taken off the premises. You have to go to a package liquor store for that.

I was in a bar once that had a package license too. You could buy a six-pack to go, but it had to leave. You weren't allowed to sit there and drink it.

If you ordered a beer for drinking in the bar, they had to crack it open for you. It was not allowed to leave with you. Of course the pricing structure was different for the beers. Much more expensive to have them crack the beer open for you.

Patrick

Kayd and clevelandbrown, you've brought up my basic point. Isn't there something inherently wrong about a law which essentially tells people it is better to drink up all their wine before driving home rather than stopping and taking the rest home to drink later?

GeoffHamer

This topic has me mystified. I cannot imagine having any wine left at the end of a meal, and I cannot imagine anyone wanting to drive to or from a restaurant in Paris.

Travelnut

Alright then... it's une "Demi", or un verre du vin rouge, pour moi.

kismetchimera

Doggie bags is an american inventions..When i was in manarola this past summer I was so embarresed by am American couple next to my table.They had just a little pasta leftover and a little piece of bread left from their meal and asked the waitress for a doggie bag.
The waitress graciously gave it to them...
Talking about being Cheap..

TravelerGina

Kismet: Your post reminds me of a dinner we had at Marina Piccolo in Manarola. All three of us ordered the most wonderful pasta and shrimp dish, so they brought it all on one platter. There was a fair amount left when we were done, and had I been in the U.S., I would have definitely asked for a doggie bag. However, I remembered my Fodors manners and walked away without looking back (sigh), (and it would have made such a nice snack later that night after a few glasses of wine on our balcony!)

Underhill

Travelnut,

Your pronunciation is spot on.

At cafés and some bistros you can just ask for "un pichet" (rouge or blanc) (peechay)to get a little jug of the house wine.