ARRGGGGG!!!!

[Drew]

Took Eileen and mom to Carrabba's, Italian chain restaurants, last night. Carrabba's, at least the one on Belair Rd in Overlea where we went, always has good food and good waitstaff. Food and service was again good BUT their wine list Sucks. Eileen had eggplant, mom seafood and pasta, me pasta and sausage. I order a La Crema Pinot, Jes our waitress comes back, "Don't have" I order the next best pinot, again "Don't have" and she's holding the only other pinot in the restaurant which "just came in" an '04 Kendall-Jackson which I ordered and was just ok, very simple, paired ok but wouldn't buy again. I ask Jes why the restaurant doesn't have a better wine list. "Well most people order our cabs and merlot...they're our best sellers!" I've included a link to the restaurant's menu. Look at the menu and tell me how many of the dishes would pair with cabs and merlots...ARGGGGGGGG!!!!

http://www.carrabbas.com/menu/pdf/60R.pdf

Drew

[Innkeeper]

We ate at our first Carrabba's in Longwood, FL during our quick trip down there in January. We had the same experience. Everything was fine except the wine list. We had a terrific discussion with our waiter about it. He was very enthusiastic about wine and wanted to know more about Italian Wine. He said he liked SM Pinot Grigio, and we gave him four or five others that were better and sold for $10 less, and he wrote them all down inbetween trips to our table.

[hotwine]

What a shame! That menu deserves a good selection of Italian wines.

[brappy]

Drew, did you happen to notice what the pitchers looked like? I see they sell pitchers of wine. Is that like wine in a beer pitcher? [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/confused.gif[/img]

I don't see why these corporate chains can't have individual wine lists. I could see creating a wine list for a national chain to be tough for the simple reason of not wanting to run out of anything; having a constant supply of swill. But.... they don't seem to realize when they make thier job easier, they give us NO choices. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/mad.gif[/img]

[Drew]

Didn't notice, all who were drinking wine around us had bottles.

Drew

[winoweenie]

Braps think you may have confused chains. I've been to a few Carrabas' and they only had bottled wines some of which were served by the glass. Olive Gardens have dreck by the milk bottle. WW

[brappy]

I just followed the link above and they give the option, with several wines, of glass or pitcher. I was just curious at what the pitcher looked like.....

[robr]

"Olive Gardens have dreck by the milk bottle."

Love that word "dreck" -- I think it's German for "mud"!

[Drew]

Went back and looked at the menu. It looks like the several pitcher offerings were of wines that come in a gallon package.

Drew

[robr]

Carrabbas is what it is, a slightly better version of Olive Garden. Have you ever heard the radio commercials? I think the owners sound like a bunch of rednecks. Not that there's anything wrong with rednecks, but it has always struck me as strange.

I would not expect their wine list to have much sophistication, just based on that alone.

[wondersofwine]

Actually I love the food at our local Carrabbas which has only been open for maybe a year. (I've eaten there two or three times.) Portions are too large and I don't really remember about the wine list. Will check it out more carefully next time I eat there. (It can't be worse than the white wines by the glass at Trio Cafe. New ownership--maybe I can convince them to revive their white wine list).

[PinotEnvy]

dreck, drek (n.)

These are variant spellings of one of a large number of Yiddish words in American English. It is slang, meaning “dung” or “trash.”

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I always herd it ment a word meaning the same as dung that I won't use here.

[winoweenie]

BINGO! ww

[andypandy]

...yiddish being a variant of German. Dreck is originally a German word, and means exactly the same thing...rubbish, filth, etc.