Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Stefan and I are trying to set up a Champagne-Bordeaux-Sauternes dinner for Thursday night.
I'm conceptualizing about 12-16 people.
We can always set up a second dinner as well and break it up.
I have no idea how many people are gonna be in town on Thursday night.
And I have absolutely no venue selected.
I'm just trying to get an idea of how Thursday night is shaping up.
It sounds like we have Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights well arranged.

My brother and I will be available on Thursday night and we'd like to join you, Stefan, Lucie and the others for this most excellent event you are organizing. We wholeheartedly approve of champagne-Bordeaux-Sauternes as a most worthy theme, and one in which our cellars are deep.

Ok great that is 5. I have no idea where we are going but perhaps we should limit it to the first 8-12 who sign up, then see who else signs up and divide in half if necessary and do a second Champagne-Bordeaux-Sauternes dinner if we have too many.

Marjorie and me will be around and Champagne (and Bordeaux and Sauternes) sounds like a great theme.

Chris Bublitz

Excellent! 7 for Thursday's Champagne-Bordeaux-Sauternes dinner so far.

Can I be a tentative for Thursday?
I am trying to win some work in Dubai, and if I get it, I would probably fly back to SF on Thursday, hopefully in time. Sadly, if I do get that project, I would miss Wednesday at SF-Eds.

Michael-P

Sounds like a plan Michael.

Ok so it looks like we have the following for Thursday night Champagne/Bordeaux/Sauternes dinner:

JimHow
Stefan & Lucie
Blanquito and Bro
Marjorie & Chris

So that's 7 of us, with possibly Michael-P making 8.

Michael, Ed, et al, any suggestions on restaurants we might want to contact?

I'd really like to nail down a venue for that Thursday night dinner.
I'd like to see if we could get a reservation for 10 in case a couple more want to join us.
What could be more epic than a Thursday night BWE in San Fransisco drinking Champagne, Bordeaux, and Sauternes, with a group of the greatest wine lovers in the world? You crazy people who are lackadaisical about missing out on this are insanity-plus.
So...
I'm going to assume MichaelP is joining us. That makes 8.
I say we reserve a table for 10.
That means one lucky couple will be able to join us.
Now all we need is Ed or Michael to help us find a restaurant that will be friendly to our two-bottle-per-person needs!

Let's make this the most EPIC BWE Thursday night wine dinner EVER!!!!

Who gave Donald Trump Jim's BWE login info?

Um. Should have drunk Bordeaux tonight instead of paint thinner, Jim.

I think for 8-10 we'll not have a problem on Thursday night but it would be nice to have recommendations from Ed and Michael to get around bottle limits that some SF restaurants have.

Ok, I'm done.
I'll see you guys in SF.
I'm scheduled to arrive on Wednesday afternoon.
I'll check into Le Meridien at that time.
I understand there may be something involving older wines somewhere on Wednesday evening, not sure where.
Thursday, I'll keep open. We'll try to schedule a dinner with Stefan, Winona, and the Blanquitos. Not sure where, but I'm sure the 7 of us will find a place.
Mike, let us know if you can make it back from Dubai for Thursday night dinner.
Friday night, SF Ed has booked a place. Anything but Bordeaux.
Saturday night, the big convention dinner. I'll let you guys figure out any themes.
Can't wait to see you all there!
BD

What the heck have you been smoking/drinking Jim!!!

It was in 2009, but I went to a pretty nice Catalonian restaurant in downtown San Fran that let us bring wine. I can't recall if there was a corkage charge or not. Also, maybe not the best cuisine for claret.

Another option: I could ask for suggestions on Wine Berserkers and probably get 50 suggestions for BYOB friendly restaurants in San Fran (assuming they are generally available). Should I do so, Jim?

Sure that sounds like a plan Patrick, why don't you see what you can find out.
Thanks for taking the initiative.

Jim, you're sure you're not changing your mind and coming to Napa with us on Thursday? The plan is to find that stunning blond woman met in 2002 in the warehouse full of Bordeaux on the way to Napa...

Nic

I remember her, Nic.
Heather her name was.
She wanted to go to the Saturday night dinner with me but my ex-wife was there as my date.
The agony.
The agony.

Lisa (the brains and beauty behind SF-Ed) was able to negotiate a low limitless bottles corkage fee at Bob's Steak at the Omni Hotel in SF last year. Not sure who she did that with but we were a local BWE group (plus Jonathan P from Japan) about 10 people that time.

Michael-P

ooh that sounds like it would be perfect for Thursday night!

I have a 1995 d'Yquem for the Thursday night dinner, now I have to figure out what I'm going to bring for my red Bordeaux and Champagne....

I've heard back with a few suggestions, including the Heirloom Cafe where an offline was held as recently as January:
"Heirloom Cafe charged us $15 a bottle, good food and decent stems."

Also, Arv says "the alcove area at Gamine is available - it seats 8 perfectly. I'm not convinced their corkage fee is in sync with the stemware and wine service, but you could try calling and see if they will work something out like a table corkage fee, rather than per bottle."

If these places look attractive on yelp, etc (they do to me), I am happy to give a call to see what we can set up.

Well done Patrick, sounds like we have a few options.

I'm on hold with Bob's Steakhouse. This could work.

What time do we want, 7pm?

7 sounds good to me!

We arrive SFO @ 4:08 PM, so 7 is just right for us.

Thanks for taking charge, Patrick.

Should we coordinate wines, maybe in an email interchange? With 7-10 we want to avoid duplicates, yes?

Yes, I'll send out an email to you guys.