It was quite a surprise to find myself featured quite so prominently in the Sunday New York Times Travel Section yesterday. When the author asked if I would join him for a glass of wine to talk about wine bars a couple of months ago, I thought perhaps at most I’d end up getting quoted in the story, and so I armed myself with pithy quotes about the rash of restaurants in San Francisco that call themselves wine bars, but are really just restaurants with more than eight wines by the glass.
Instead, I got a few minutes of fame as the authority on San Francisco wine bars — a title I certainly aspire to.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother blogging about a mention in the paper. I still enjoy and appreciate my press coverage, but I try not to make a big deal out of it.
I decided to mention the Times piece, however, as it would give me a chance to correct a factual error in the piece, and to protest that my smiles seem somehow to be read as smirks.
Implications of my snobbiness aside, the article has me incorrectly quoted as saying that one of my criteria for a wine bar is that it must have at least five wines by the glass.
Actually my minimum criteria for a wine bar is that it have at least five red and five white wines, and those better change on a regular basis. And if the wine bar is worth anything, it better have more than that. For anyone curious as to what I actually think constitutes a wine bar, I suggest you read my post on the subject.
And for anyone curious as to why I would smirk when a reporter I’m with orders a glass of excellent northern Italian white wine, join the club — I’m still working that one out myself.
