Picture selected based on the artist’s misunderstanding of when the USA was founded and when bards and swashbuckling pirates existed.
Recently, I had a birthday dinner at a local restaurant here in Minneapolis. It was French. It was delightful. It was serene. The most wonderful part of it though was the fact that this restaurant was offering half-glasses of wine (2.5oz instead of 5oz) on their menu of any wine they poured by the glass. Even better, the price of that half-glass was exactly half the price of the full glass. It was brilliant. I was inspired. I wrote a ballad about it:
The Ballad of the Half-Glass Pour
As I sat down at the restaurant,
Menu soon in hand,
I was craving bubbles from a Francophonic land.
But as my eyes danced merrily,
From savory small plate to sweet,
My wine desires multiplied, how would my cravings be complete?
But what was this? Could it be true?
I spied in the margin,
Half a pour for half the price? A fair and even bargain.
How else could I sample them all?
Mix and match as I pleased,
This restaurant was offering half glasses of wine, it seemed like such a tease.
Unlike the up-marked volume sales of the airport,
Where they offer you 6 ounces or 9,
I’ll take variety so 2.5 will be fine.
In the end a similar volume
Will probably be consumed,
But who can choose just one flower, when the entire field is in bloom?
Bubbles to start
Then I selected a Cab Franc rosé
Could have gone on to a red, but I’d already had a glass that day.
For dessert, I had the Byrrh,
A digestif to settle all that food.
Having only just half glasses had put me in the mood.
Satiated, satisfied,
I sat back in my chair with a delighted sigh.
It felt as though Utopia had finally drawn in nigh.
If you chance upon a restaurant
Whose menu begets a paradox of choice
You’d best hope they have the half-glass pour, and if they do rejoice.
For the wine flight is constructed
Meant for comparing and not completing
The option for the half-glass pour however, is certainly worth repeating.
Taken in Lyon, France…not the bottle I drank from the night of the half-glass pours.
Aaron Berdofe's Wine and Food Experience 