Last night while on business I ate at Mortons in Minneapolis Minnessota. The restaurant had THE WORST prices on wine I ever saw. Here are a few examples. 2005 Estancia cab that sells for 12.00 was on the list for 49.00 The 05 Mondavi reg napa cab a 25.00 wine was 95.00. An 03 BV GD Latour was 214.00 The only deal on the whole list was an 02 Shafer Hillside for 300.00 At those prices I dont know how they sell any wine. Its to bad because it is nice to have some good red wine with a steak and at those prices only a fool would buy it. I went with a couple of wine by the glass offerings.

It's like that with all of the chains now.

Price of beef has risen insanely in the past few months, but they can't exactly charge 80$ for a single cut of beef.

What you can charge is 50$ for a 12$ cab to unsuspecting people that *need* to have red wine with their meal.

TERPS,

Mortons... very pedestrian beef imo along with high markup on wine.

I'm in this type of restaurant weekly, and hate to advise, but see far worse often.

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Originally posted by wine+art:
TERPS,

Mortons... very pedestrian beef imo along with high markup on wine.

I'm in this type of restaurant weekly, and hate to advise, but see far worse often.

I like ruth chris' fwiw amongst the "chains"

The one in manhattan has a grahams 1970 for 200$ =)

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Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by wine+art:
TERPS,

Mortons... very pedestrian beef imo along with high markup on wine.

I'm in this type of restaurant weekly, and hate to advise, but see far worse often.

I like ruth chris' fwiw amongst the "chains"

The one in manhattan has a grahams 1970 for 200$ =)

Ruth's list pricing isn't much better than Morton's..but then again I bring my own to Ruth's.

They did have a 25.00 corkage fee which I wish I had taken advantage of.

quote:

Originally posted by wine+art:
Mortons... very pedestrian beef imo

Agreed. I think it is, by far, the worst of all the more highly regarded chains. I base that on the three I've been in- Chicago, NYC, and Long Island.

The steak was very good. Although the best Steak I ever had came from the butcher Lobels. There is a Steakhouse near me that I would put up against any steakhouse. Its called Sapore. Much better steak and food then any chain steakhouse.

Yep, prices at the big chains is pretty laughable. The selection always baffles me too. If they would just put a slightly more worldly theme to their wine list it would go a long way with the wine geek crowd. But the wine geek crowd is not their customer base, it’s 90% corporate charge cards that don’t know much about wine or good food.

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Originally posted by GlennK:
But the wine geek crowd is not their customer base, it’s 90% corporate charge cards that don’t know much about wine or good food.

How about if you're a wine geek & a corporate charge card crowd?

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Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by GlennK:
But the wine geek crowd is not their customer base, it’s 90% corporate charge cards that don’t know much about wine or good food.

How about if you're a wine geek & a corporate charge card crowd?

I’m in that crowd. When my clients want to go there, I just make the best of it. I was just saying the wine geek crowd, corporate or not, is probably a small % of their customer base.

02 SHS for 300 bones- that's a decent deal. The others are awful. What's corkage there?

The Mortons in West Palm Beach has actually had some fairly decent wine prices in the past.

The best deal is that they sell Beringer Private Reserve cabernet at the bar for $15 a glass. If you ask them, they'll bring a bottle of it to the table for $60. You can't even buy it retail for that price. I've gone several times when they've waived the corkage fee as well for our dinner party.

As far as the steaks, I'd rate them at about par. The local newspaper slammed our Mortons restaurant a couple of years ago, and they have improved mightily as a result of the bad press.

I agree with the sentiments about Mortons. If I have to have wine, I BYOB and face the corkage. Otherwise, I've often said, I can have several of their best cocktails for the price of their worst wine.

Out of curiosity, I don't remember anyone mentioning Smith & Wollenskys. How are they?

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Originally posted by mneeley490:
Out of curiosity, I don't remember anyone mentioning Smith & Wollenskys. How are they?

They lasted less than a year in Dallas.

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
Out of curiosity, I don't remember anyone mentioning Smith & Wollenskys. How are they?

They used to have free corkage. Don't know if that's still true. Eaten at the one in Chicago and South Beach and never real impressed.

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Originally posted by Rothko:
The best deal is that they sell Beringer Private Reserve cabernet at the bar for $15 a glass. If you ask them, they'll bring a bottle of it to the table for $60.

I had a similar experience some months ago. A good strategy, if you're at Morton's and on your own dime, is to fine the best wine they offer by the glass and order a bottle. Apparently their policy is to charge the bottle out at 4x the "by the glass" price, which often translates to a pretty good deal.

Otherwise, their prices are pretty lousy.

PH

The only "good" price is the 02 Hillside. That's relatively low for todays market.

To make it a bit less painful, here's a certificate for the food:

Mortons Steak & seafood for 2 for $99

Ruth Chris & Flemings both have similar deals going.

Terps, next time your in Mpls on business post for an offline. I could get a couple guys together and we could do it at Edina country club where I work. There is no corkage for me, free parking and you can get a nice steak, salad and dessert for a little under $50 with private room and riedel glasses. I do alot of offlines there.

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Originally posted by mpls wine guy:
Terps, next time your in Mpls on business post for an offline. I could get a couple guys together and we could do it at Edina country club where I work. There is no corkage for me, free parking and you can get a nice steak, salad and dessert for a little under $50 with private room and riedel glasses. I do alot of offlines there.

Has the snack bar been busy this year for you?

I'm thinking you receive a lot alot of tips.

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Originally posted by wine+art:

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Originally posted by mneeley490:
Out of curiosity, I don't remember anyone mentioning Smith & Wollenskys. How are they?

They lasted less than a year in Dallas.

Actually, they lasted close to 4 years. Opened early 2003 and closed on 12/31/2006. Wish something new and good would take that space.

Thanks for the correction.

III forks is also insane with prices for everything. Even sharing charge for a veggie.

Went once, and that was too many times IMHO