When is a glass of wine not a glass of wine?

I was poking around BBC News and came across this article: Doctors slam ’supersized’ drinks.  Per the title, I had thought the article dealt with the enormous soda cups, where a “small” is a miniature bucket, like the one I bought last week at the cinema–it was huge!  I couldn’t finish it all!

Actually, the article didn’t deal with soda, but rather the increasing trend of pubs and bars in the UK of offering larger glasses as the standard size for wine, and adding more liquor into mixed drinks than previously.  In the article, it explains “[t]he 125ml wine glass used to be the standard size but now just 16% of pubs and bars say it is their normal size.  Some 73% say 175ml is the new “standard” and 250ml the large.”

On one hand, you have the industry leaders professing they’re merely offering “value,” but the article states that 250 ml is equivalent to a third of a bottle of wine, which is a large amount in one sitting on its own for me, being the One Drink Wonder.  Couple that with two or three more glasses, and you have someone drinking at least a whole bottle on their own in only a few (huge) glasses and may not even realise it, counting glasses rather than the liquid amount.

Greg Mulholland, a Liberal Democrat, is proposing a bill in the House of Commons to standardise the 125 ml as “a glass,” and to make all restaurants, bars and pubs carry the size.  In this situation, I think that the restaurants can go ahead and offer the larger sizes for their customers should they so choose, provided the customers are well-informed.  In this earlier article on the wine glasses, I like the proposal that a reader by the name of Eddie in Edinburgh proposed:

I don’t like the idea of force, or compulsion. It might be a better idea to change the labelling, so instead of 250ml, it says Approx 3 Units - assuming a reasonable norm of about 12% by volume. I’ve noticed increasingly that more alcoholic beverages purchased in shops are doing this, maybe we could extend it to all drinks in pubs - how many units are in that pint you just quaffed…

Upon reading the rest of the reader comments, it was interesting to see a good many people support the legislation, whereas many others opposed it, likening the action to be that of a “Nanny State,” and telling people to “grow up” and the government to “stop dictating us.”

I can’t help but draw similarities to the wine consumption sizing issue to that of the sizing issues we have in the United States with food.  It’s well-known that portions have gotten larger in many restaurants, especially those national and regional chains, and there have been dietitians who have pointed out that the more on the plate, the more we eat.  It may also be true for alcohol for people; I know it’s true for me when I’m unable to measure the amount of, say, beer I’m drinking because rather than the standard bottles, I’m drinking from a large 1.5 litre bottle of La Chouffe.

Although I’m unsure if a blanket decree is in order for Britain’s wine glasses, I think it would be helpful, as suggested, to indicate the amount of units a patron would be drinking, and also to provide smaller glasses for those interested in merely whetting their whistle.

Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux

Earlier this evening, I went to Stardust with the intention to have dinner there, but with the parking lot full and the chairs loaded with people, I opted instead to check out a new place I had my eye on as it was opening.

The sign for Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux had intrigued me when I passed by the little strip mall the restaurant was nestled in, or rather, going to be nestled in. At the time I had noticed it, the cafe was still in the process of “coming soon!”, so I was sort of waiting until I had seen it was open for business. Sometimes, the time it takes for a restaurant to open can be lengthy, but it didn’t seem so with Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux. I believe it was sometime earlier this week or last week that I had seen its little “Open” sign alight above some curtains.

Since Stardust was crowded, and I wanted to try out the place anyway, I scooted on over to Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux. Now, when I think of people who ride bikes in Orlando, I’m more inclined to think of the group of youngish folks behind Orlando Critical Mass: the bike punks who work it with their cut-off jean shorts, longish hair, tattoos and a disdain for automobiles. I had fully expected for Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux to be a bike punk haven, but when I entered the small cafe and was met with light wood veneers, little tea candles and low lighting, “bike punk chic” was not what I had gotten.

The proprietors, a husband and wife, greeted me eagerly behind a couple and baby seated at a little bar area. The husband, who later introduced himself as Darrell, kindly directed me to the menus in a couple containers mounted on the wall near the entrance. “The Beer & Wine menu is two pages!” he informed me as I looked at the fixtures. I grabbed them, although I went with getting some organic English Breakfast tea in the end, but it should interest you to know that their house beers, served in bottles, include beer from Orlando Brewing, and there’s a bunch of wines I’m woefully unfamiliar with, because I’m not a wine person, but I’ll list some for you winey folks: Chateau Paradis Casseuil Blanc, Bordeaux, France; Moon Mountain, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma Valley, California; Echelon, Pinot Grigio, Clarksburg, California; Chateau La Nerthe, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rhone, France.

Although I was not interested in getting any beer or wine, I was very keen on getting some food, and was torn between the Tour Mediterraneen and the Caprese Panini. After a fevered deliberation at the cash register, I decided to go with my first instinct and ordered the Tour Mediterraneen: Smothered with hummus, this tasty creation is served up with lettuce, tomato, red onion, sprouts, olives, cucumber, feta cheese and drizzled with Greek dressing on Italian bread. Upon ordering the sandwich sans onions, I was told that they were out of the bread, but offered multigrain or honey wheat in its stead, of which I chose the latter.

When I got the sandwich, it came with a bag of Sun Chips (although you could also opt for carrot sticks), a pickle and, interestingly, a tiny bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans, which I later tucked away to eat in whenever I got in a candy mood, or to give away to someone, as I’m not particularly big on jelly beans. My sandwich was delicious. The only thing I would have liked to have made it perfect was to have had a fork to scoop up the stray tomatoes, olives and feta that would slip out from between the bread. I loved the flavor of the Greek dressing, and the cucumbers tasted so wonderfully fresh and crisp.

Ah, Sandwich Nirvana.

I had texted a few of my friends while I waited for my sandwich, because as I studied the menu, I could definitely see many of my friends liking the place. The food is both vegetarian and non, and in addition to beer and wine, they have a nice selection of different coffee drinks and organic teas, as well as smoothies. Plus, they’re open at 7 am every day for breakfast, except for Monday–they’re closed.

As I ate my sandwich, drank my tea and read a book I had brought along with me, the place began to fill up, and what struck me was how warmly the owners greeted these customers by name. There was a group of men who came in and grabbed some beers after handshakes and chit-chat with Darrell, and sat in the facing leather couches under a flat-screen television showing, from what I could tell from a few glances at the screen, the Cycling Network. Is there such a thing? There were a couple of guys who came in on their own, one of whom was visibly taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi in the cafe.

If you’d like to check out the menu to see if you’d like to make a visit to “B3,” you can visit their website: www.B3Cafe.com.