Champagne Wishes, Caviar Dreams, and Jackass Behavior

This is a fascinating article from yesterday's New York Times. I must say that in all my years of bartending and working in the restaurant industry, I don't think I have stories of drunken, misbehaving patrons to rival any in this piece. Which, given the nature of this blog, makes me a little sad.

Fine Diner to Riffraff: Tipsy Tales of 4-Star Benders

Here's a taste; the last, brutally honest paragraph made me chuckle:

Jean-Luc Le Dû, a sommelier in the restaurant, looked in that direction, too. And he saw her: the woman making like a dancer on a pole at Scores.

She stood facing the rest of the dining room. First she took off a vest or a jacket, as best Mr. Le Dû remembers. Then she went to work on her blouse.

Just as she was getting to her bra, the maître d’hôtel got to her. Thus her drunken, wobbly stint as a stripper ended, and so did her dinner. She and her date, a smiling, sloshed man who had seemingly egged her on, were escorted to the door.

“She was not necessarily attractive or young, so it was disruptive,” complained Mr. Le Dû, who left Daniel several years ago and now owns a wine shop in Greenwich Village. “If she were beautiful, it might have been different. People might have been cheering her on.”

I encourage everyone to read the entire piece... for the mental images of rich drunken debauchery if nothing more.

Well, you went uptown riding in your limousine
With your fine Park Avenue clothes
You had the Dom Perignon in your hand and a spoon up your nose
When you wake up in the morning with you head on fire
And your eyes too bloody to see
Go on and cry in your coffee
But don't come bitchin' to me

- Billy Joel, "Big Shot"