Even with food prices sky high and good restaurants busier than ever, greedy restaurateurs are looking for new ways to gauge their patrons.
Two such restaurants in Carmel-by-the-Sea:
Flying Fish: Once a favorite fusion eatery. Now they’ve joined a growing trend among merchants: Making the consumer pay the credit card transaction fee—a 3.5% commission. That’s on top pf a 9.25% (state, county & local) sales tax. (Village Auto in Montecito now does the same. Shame.)
Seventh & Dolores. On Sunday evenings this restaurant offers a selection of wine by the bottle at a 50% discount. Their list includes Ampelos Pinto Noir (Santa Rita Hills) so I opted for a bottle. When the check arrived, it reflected the discount… but based their 20% service charge on the full price.
No such thing at La Bicyclette, a class act: just great pizza with buffalo mozzarella & San Marzano tomato sauce, a superb salad and mushroom caps served escargot-style.
And then there’s The Cheese Shop…
Stick to sheep’s milk cheese and you are well within the famed Mediterranean Diet (says Dr. Steven Gundry in his book Gut Check, bought at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, what, two months ago?—a great read).
Hotel Art (Auberge)…
Much better art at the galleries all around town…
And Bud’s, a bar I should have known about a long time ago…