Wine But Don’t Whine

A couple of San Francisco restaurants made it into this Wall Street Journal article today. Beyond the general point that restaurants are offering relatively cheap meals to keep customers dining out during the slow economy, we learned something specific and useful: Fifth Floor has an honor bar, at which you pour your own wine and stuff money into a box to pay for it.

Now, the benefits of this extend far beyond the obvious temptation to “forget” to feed the kitty. For one thing, on a Friday night, it’s next to impossible to get a bartender’s attention at a lot of bars. This seems like a possible workaround for short-staffing. Also, you can pour as much or little as you want, thereby lessening your intake manually, or lessening your need for trips to the bar.

Aside from that little tidbit, there wasn’t a whole lot of use to San Franciscans in the WSJ article. But if it inspired you to run out and grab a cheap prix-fixe, you can look over on today’s calendar page at SF City Dish to find a handful.

Also, on the topic of cheap wine, Larkspur’s Lark Creek Inn sent out an e-mail this week saying their half-priced bottles will remain on the menu for the next couple of months. Nice work!

What’s Not Cooking [Wall Street Journal]
Fifth Floor [MenuPages]
Fifth Floor [Official Site]
SF City Dish [Official Site]
Lark Creek Inn [Official Site]

[Photo: Via habitatgirl/flickr]

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Wine But Don’t Whine