BYOB Dining
Monday, June 21st, 2010 by HannahOn Saturday night, Margaret took me out for dinner at a BYOB Thai restaurant, as a belated birthday present (thanks again Margaret!). After choosing one of her favorite, inexpensive reds from her vast collection of vino, we hopped into my car and headed to the restaurant.
There was only one other table filled when we got there so the waiter brought us our wine, opened, with glasses, right away. Margaret explained that she positively loved going to this joint because, being BYOB, the bill stayed rather low (unless you’re ordering an exorbitant amount of food).
Until another table of guests popped in with a 6-pack of beer, the thought had never even dawned on either of us that, despite it being customary to do so, wine was not the only option for a BYOB restaurant. The epiphany was almost funny to me, seeing how I tend to pair more beer with food (check out these beer/food pairing posts from Deron too!) than wine, and drink beer on a much, much more regular basis. I still cannot believe the thought had never crossed my mind. Duh.
In my defense, though, this was only the second BYOB dining experience I’ve had in my life, the first being 5 years ago. So honestly, I had never really put an ounce of thought into the idea at all.
I suspect that many of you out there have brought beer to BYOB restaurants, having had said "epiphany" long ago, but for those who haven’t, this post’s for you.
Cheers!
TAGS [ BYOB RESTAURANTS | BYOB ]
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June 21st, 2010 at 11:10 am
I enjoyed the evening too Hannah! I was actually thinking about the possibility of bringing beer, but then I was worried about how to keep it cold. But after thinking about it, we were only eating dinner, we weren’t waiting for the veges to be grown, so the beers probably wouldn’t have gotten ‘hot’…
But I didn’t have any good beer on hand to bring anyways. The only beer I had in my possession was beer that I take for me and my friends to drink after a day of kayaking = not something that I’d drink for a nice dinner. I’ve got probably 50 bottles of wine to choose from, so I just went the easy/lazy route and went with wine.
Next time though, we’ll think more in advance and bring something from your list of beer pairings :-)
June 21st, 2010 at 11:29 am
You must have gone to The City Grill?
June 21st, 2010 at 11:43 am
M – I distinctly remember you being the one to say, “Beer – I never thought of bringing that, until I saw their 6-pack” … in fact, I never even saw they had a 6-pack with them until you pointed it out :P
June 21st, 2010 at 11:44 am
John – actually we were at Taste of Thai … but after after hearing some stories from a chef down the road, I decided that was not only my first, but also my last visit.
It was great to spend time with Margaret though!
June 21st, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Yeah, i do remember saying it at the restaurant, but I do remember thinking about it for 2 seconds at home the night before and didn’t really think it would work. Whatever…doesn’t matter. Maybe it was that bottle of champagne that I drank earlier in the day that was making me delusional.
We should find another byob restaurant so that we can bring beer to it :-)