Cecilia and I have developed the theory that on any given night, one can find a restaurant somewhere in Atlanta that is having some variety of wine special. It might be a half-price bottle night, a wine flight night, or even a "help us get all this open stuff out of here" night. Whatever the case, it’s a great way to acquaint yourself with some new and interesting wines at a discount.
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of the restaurants make it a challenge to find these specials. As an example, Cecilia and I are both big fans of Feast in Decatur. Each Tuesday night, you can build your own wine flight for $10 using any four wines they sell by the glass. If you didn't already know about the deal, though, you'd have a hard time finding out about it. It's not listed on their website, it's not written in their menu, and we had to ask our waitress about it to be sure it was still going on. The only evidence is a small sign in the corner of the restroom. (To be fair, the bartender did openly mention the wine flight option to a couple of patrons who came in after we were seated. I was thankful for this because it helped to explain why there were eight glasses of wine on our table.)
I think it would be great if there was a website somewhere that attempted to keep a list of Atlanta area wine specials such as this. I realize that there are already sites such as localwineevents.com that are similar. They seem to be skewed towards "one-off" type events, though, and I hope to offer a more attractive price for recurring events (as in free). Just be aware that any listings are subject to verification including (but not limited to) calling, checking the restaurant's website, and/or a certain Random Oenophile and her husband showing up to partake.
So I open it up to you, Atlanta readers. What are some of your favorite wine specials?
2 comments:
Obviously, there's the JavaMonkey bi-weekly wine tastings (every other Thursday, including tonight), six small pours for $15. I'd also note that the Feast wine special can be done in various combinations - e.g., if you really like two wines, you can ask for double tasting pours of just those two.
I seem to recall that Twist (at Phipps Plaza) has half-price wine bottles on Mondays. Olive Bistro (in the Whole Foods Midtown shopping center) has half-price bottles Mondays and Tuesdays.
I'll keep thinking of others to add to your list!
Here's another special coming up this week: Feast is having a tasting of eight wines from Ridge Vineyards, including the phenomenal Monte Bello (which usually retails for about $140). The cost is $25, but if you stay for dinner they'll credit $15 of that toward your bill. It's drop-in from 5:30 to 7:30, and they're requesting reservations. Cecilia and hubby, interested?
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