Enobytes Wine Blog

On-premise wine retailers should take notice of the changing tides headed their way. In the near future, the economy on all levels will start to reflect the high fuel prices everywhere including what shows up on your plate at local restaurants. As this happens, it will become necessary for some consumers to decide if they are fortunate enough to enjoy wine with their dinner or will they have water and wait until they get home to have some wine.

Recently I have been surprised with how often a new question regarding a wine choice is being repeated. It goes something like this “Marc, I need your help. Myself and a group of friends are going to dinner and we are meeting at my house first. I need a wine for us to consume before we go.” There is apparently a trend of no longer even purchasing wine by the glass at a restaurant much less bottles at the ridiculously high mark-ups most restaurants are charging these

days not to mention the $20-$35 corkage fees. You might think I am referring to recent college grads who are still paying back college loans but that would not be the case. Most often the group mentioned involves professionals from one of the big two employers in Hillsboro and Beaverton and these folks are closer … Read the rest of this entry »

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Pagliuca’s Restaurant
14 Parmenter St
Boston, MA 02113

This restaurant has its best days behind it. Although you may still appreciate the value and the nostalgia, there are better places in the North End to experience good Italian food. We started going here back in the 80’s and the place was authentic, quality focused and fun. After we moved away from Boston, the next time I ate here was in 2000 and it was still pretty good but standards had dropped a bit. Read the rest of this entry »

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A while back I was reading the San Jose Mercury newspaper and came across a column about the food that was being served at some of the high profile Silicon Valley employers like Yahoo, Cisco, and Novell. It has been reported that the food was good enough for vendors and contractors to make up excuses to visit these locations around lunchtime. It was an impressive article and it got me to thinking about my own journey through institutional food. Read the rest of this entry »

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After reading a few Citysearch reviews about Bistro Ralph on the square in Healdsburg, it seemed time to write this story. Yeah, I occasionally look at other people’s reviews because I try to offer a unique perspective in my reviews. There seems to be a theme of comments regarding the attitude at the restaurant and I thought it would be a good subject for a column in “I Don’t Buy That”. Read the rest of this entry »

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