Sommelier & Waiter wine encounters?

[Kcwhippet]

To add to Steve's bit about offering a taste to the server. We live in a state where BYOB is illegal, except in restaurants that don't have alcohol licenses but only in towns where the chief of police allows them to (gotta love the Massachusetts puritanical blue law mentality). Anyway, we have a favorite diner owned by an extremely talented chef who got fed up with the big restaurant mode and his wife, who's a local real etate tycoon (that bit has no relevance to any of this story). They serve breakfasts every day and dinners on Thursday and Friday nights only. We chanced on them while driving around one Saturday morning and had the most wonderful breakfast in years. I had what he called the New Zealand breakfast, which was six asparagus spears boiled then sauteed in butter with a bit of lemon juice topped with a breaded sauteed rainbow trout filet topped again with two dropped eggs and freshly made hollandaise sauce. We saw a card on the table that they also served dinners twice a week and since they have no license the place was BYOB. So, we finally went in for dinner and brought our wine. They had an item on the menu called "Kobster Your Way" which means they'll cook it any way you want. I asked if they had it stuffed and the waitress said it was the best she'd ever had, so I tried it. It looked like a typical baked stuffed, but the stuffing - what a surprise!! It was stuffed with large shrimp and large scallops with just a sprinkling of bread crumbs over the top. So, we're eating this wonderful meal and the lady owner came by asking how we liked the meal. I said it was wonderful and asked if she'd like a taste of wine, and of course she said yes. I also offered her husband - the chef - some but he declined. We've been in numerous times since and she always comes by and gets a taste of wine, but her husband always refuses. Finally a few weeks ago she told me he was a beer drinker, and IPA was his favorite. So last Friday when we went in I brought him two 22 oz bottles of IPA from some microbreweries - a Moylan's Double IPA and a Victory Hop Devil IPA (working in a shop with a fanatical beer buyer is a good thing). I believe this can only work to our advantage.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 04-18-2006).]