Bamboozled: What happens when a 'thirty-seven-fifty' bottle of wine really costs $3,750
Lots of people enjoy wine with dinner.
Few enjoy seeing the bill.
Joe Lentini, after a business dinner at Bobby Flay Steak at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, experienced sticker shock.
Dear readers, let's see Lentini's experience as a cautionary tale: make sure you know what you're ordering.
Lentini said he isn't a big drinker and he'll maybe drink a glass of wine once a month.
"I don't know much about wine at all," the Hazlet man said.
A week ago, he and two others of his party of 10 decided to share a bottle of wine, he said.
The host of the dinner -- the guy who would be paying the bill -- told Lentini to pick a bottle, Lentini said.
"I asked the waitress if she could recommend something decent because I don't have experience with wine," Lentini said. "She pointed to a bottle on the menu. I didn't have my glasses. I asked how much and she said, 'Thirty-seven fifty.'"
The drinkers at the table agreed to the price and they ordered, Lentini said.
Soon, the sommelier -- the wine steward -- presented the corked bottle at the table. Lentini said he was having conversation with his companions and didn't really pay attention, but he approved of the bottle.
A taste of the wine was served for him to sample. He approved, he said, and the bottle was placed on the table.
"It was okay. It was good," Lentini said of the wine. "It wasn't great. It wasn't terrible. It was fine."
When dinner was over, the check was handed to the host, who was sitting opposite Lentini at the round table, Lentini said.
"[The host] was sitting across from me and he handed the bill to person next to him, who handed it to the next person until it got to me," he said. "I showed the gentleman next to me and we were shocked. We couldn't believe it."
The total bill was $4,700.61, including tax. The bottle of wine, Screaming Eagle, Oakville 2011 -- cost $3,750.
"I thought the wine was $37.50," Lentini said.
A photo of the receipt from Joe Lentini's dinner at Bobby Flay Steak at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Lentini said he called the waitress over and said there was a problem. He said he explained that he never would have ordered such expensive wine, and repeated that when he asked about the price, the waitress said "thirty-seven fifty," not "three-thousand, seven-hundred-and-fifty."
The waitress disagreed, and a maître d'/manager was called over.
"I said the waitress told me it cost 'thirty-seven fifty,' not 'three-thousand, seven-hundred and fifty dollars,'" Lentini said.
The maître d'/manager offered to give separate bills, so the dinner bill, which wasn't being disputed, could be paid.
Next, Lentini said he was told the best price the restaurant could offer was $2,200.
Lentini said he couldn't afford that, but to be able to leave, he and two other diners agreed to split the $2,200 bill.
The diner sitting to Lentini's left at the table, Don Chin, said he heard what Lentini heard when the wine was ordered.
"Joe had asked for a suggestion on the wine and the waitress pointed to a wine," he said. "Joe asked the price and she said 'thirty-seven fifty,' not 'three-thousand, seven-hundred and fifty,' which is what I would have said, so we all thought it was $37.50."
When the bill came, "We all had a heart attack," Chin said.
Marcia Lentini was sitting to Joe Lentini's right at the table.
"My husband said to the waitress, 'I don't know much about wine. Can you pick for me?'" Marcia Lentini said. "He asked her how much, and she said, 'thirty-seven fifty.'"
"But then it was $3,750. Who would expect that in a restaurant?" she said.
