As someone who lives in the area, I can tell you I won’t go there. If I want to talk to the staff about what’s on the wine list and ask a lot of questions, that should be a conversation I have BY MY CHOICE. It shouldn’t be because your wine list is so crappy that I can’t figure out what the wines are or what to order.
Sorry, but 100% wine list fail from my perspective.
You’ve convoluted the encourage/force argument. If one decides to eat there, and that person wants to know what all of the wines are (very reasonable, of course), they are FORCED to find out from the server instead of being able to read a list. I don’t know why they even print that list, other than ego.
+1, but of course I understand the differences between forcing and encouraging and hospitality and hostility. Apparently these words are synonyms to some people.
There has been enough press / chatter (mostly negative) on the wine program that hopefully they’ve narrowed their customers down to people who want the experience they hope to provide. What that is like, who knows? As far as I can tell, none of us have been there.
Classic “anti-service” and a bit of an epidemic in the “hipster” wine world (at least in L.A. but I imagine elsewhere as well). Max’s previous list at Bestia got quite a bit of press but after several visits there myself (food is solid) I felt like the wine list was lacking. Too many esoteric choices, almost exclusively, at the expense of the diner. I like Slovenian whites and Croatian reds as much as the next wine nerd but no Sangiovese at an Italian joint? Come on. You can get some hipster Sangiovese from Farm or Amy Atwood, etc so why not at least give the diners the option of a grape that is recognizable and marries perfectly with Italian flavors. And yes, that list at Bestia garnered a lot of attention, so maybe that is what this stunt at Hatchet Hall is. For me it all comes back to service. That is why it is called the “service industry.” Encourage discussion yes, but don’t exclude people immediately for what appears to be simply ego.
Personally, I draw a strong distinction between offering a wine list that represents the sommelier’s point of view and offering a wine list that is unintelligible.
To be clear I don’t really mind the funky nature of the list or how hipster silly it seems to some, me included to some regard. I just think if you go “out there” be cool with the pricing and invite the wine curious to enjoy and learn with less onerous profiteering.
