Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-26
WINES STILL COST TOO MUCH
Drinksbles Out Of Proportion to Price
Of Food.
SURVIVAL OF OLD HOTEL DAYS
one May Get Drinks At Fair Rates in
italian and French Restaurants,
but American PrOprietors
Keep I'm Prices.

cheap dinner" said the man who had lived
abroad, Il am able to get it in New York
without trouble. But there is one thing
that is not so easy to find. Where I can
get good American food 1t is impossible
for me to get wine without paying a price
out OF all proportion to the value Of the
liquid, Just look over the way Of doing
business at the average hotel that sup
piles American food and see how disap-
pirate to its value the price Of all wine u.s."
This complaint has often been heard
from the searchers for the low priced din
ner in New York. Only the places that
supply foreign food or are conducted by
foreigners make any provision for selling
wine at cheap prices. Chop houses in
which one may buy a dinner for less than
a dollar will sell beer and ale at the Gus
tomary rates. but to get a pint of red
wine will make It necessary for the diner
to pay about three times the retail price
Of the drink. II may of course be said
that chop houses are the places for beer
and not for any imported drinks, but there
are American wines that are just as native
as beer or ale and should also be obtain
able at something like reasonable prices.
Take, for example, said a man who
made this complaint, the case of a large
hotel uptown which provides food at very
cheap prices. The reputation of the res
taurant for this particular thing has made
the fortune of the proprietor. He is going
to build a $4,000 O hotel out of his profits,
and he deserves every cent he has made.
Vegetables we'll cooked and served In very
liberal quantities are never more than
20 cents, and they more often cost l0c.
Roast beef, thick, succulent and tender,
may be had with potatoes for 10 cents.
Everything is just as liberal and recogni-
ton of the quality and quantity of the
food, and his cheap prices has helped him
to his great success.
But when 1t comes to wine the whole
situation is changed. l ordered there the
other night a pint Of claret, which l am
In the habit Of drinking at home. l pay
at one of the well known grocers Is cents
a pint and 40 cents a quart. OF course
the hotel keeper who buys at wholesale
pays much less. He gets his wine at least
80 per cent off the figure that l have to
pay. Yet he charges me 60 cents for a
bottle OF wine tina costs him about 10
cents. In just the same way the quart
which 1 buy for Is cents cost $40. or
course, any such increase is out Of all
AN~2SA hAASNAASA = NAhS AAA~ a AeN
always bought for 50 cents, was listed on
not have cost more than 90 cents, was not
to be had for less than $40"
One Of the reasons which has had it's
share in determining Americans to take
to Scotch whisky and seltzer instead of
wine was largely the result of the rldicu-
lous prices that the hotels and restaurants
1900 NAA,o I..-N 49, N.o..k 81 TtoIIaya
charge for wine. 1t is not alone the chop
houses with their bars at hand to supply
the malt liquor and WHISTLES that put
the wines at a price to make them almost
prohibitive. Often the restaurants in the
apartment hotels charge more for the
same brand of wine thai a first class
restaurant. 1t is very easy for the propri-
etor to satisfy himself by saying that his
guests don't care for wine anyhow and
that not much of it is ordered. II the price
bore some appreciable relation to the value
OF the wine they might acquire the habit
In case they did not have 1t before.
These eccentricities in the price Of
Wines" one Of the restaurant patrons said,
appear to be confined to the wines. 1
have never noticed the great dispropor-
ton in the price of champagnes or sherries
and only the cheaper brands OF clarets and
sauternes are treated in this way. The
prices Of champagnes are well regulated
for ono thing and the agents see to it that
there is no departure from the rules. One
Of the most popular eating places in town
is a French restaurant which has large
cellars and supplies wine to many Of the
oremost hotels in the city. Here the cheap
diner can get a bottle of wine at a rea-
sonable price and for that reason the
patronage is invariably large. 1t is possible
to get a pint decanter of red or white wine
there for 10 cents, on which even at that
price the house makes some profit. The
same would be possible in any restaurant
Just as the establishments way of giving
it's customers a good claret for so cents
a quart, a ~drinkable white wine for the
same price and a possible Rhine wine for
a few cents more need not be confined to
this place alone. Any restaurant, any
apartment hotel even, could do the same
thing and make money on it,"
The maintenance Of the high prices of
wine in hotels is believed 70 be the result
OF the American idea of keeping wine as a
sort OF luxury apart from everything else.
That may have been true in the time Of
the old-fashioned American plan hotels, but
that Oay mas passed. ana the Landlord VINO
adds such excessive profit to the price IF
a bottle Of wine Is just about as much up
to date as the drug store proprietor who
holds his old-fashioned patent medicines
at the prices marked on the bottles. He
never gets that figure, and in fact never
expects TO. So the bottles remain unsold
on the shelves.
1T Is not only the wines that are put
into this category OF luxuries unattainable
except by the rich" said the man who
likes a cheap claret at dinner, but certain
mineral waters are offered at a preposter-
Gus advance over what they cost at retail,
and therefore for very much less than they
ever cost the hotel proprietor who wants
to make 70 per cent on them. / noticed,
for Instance, on the bill OF fare at an In
expensive hotel-one OF the places that
overcharges for its wines-a mineral water
that was put down for 20 cents a quart.
Now that retails at fifty bottles for $40 at
any grocery store. Another water tina
sells for Is cents a quart cost 70 on that
bill OF fare. OF course nobody is going to
pay any such prices as those when they
happen to be familiar with the real price.
Yet that same place had delicious potatoes
stewed in cream on It's bill Of fare at Is
cents. Americans would like TO drink min