Sent Back The Whole Flight At Bin 36

When it comes to complaining, I’m not the restaurant-police type who pitches a fit at every real or imagined lapse in food or service. Nor am I timid, suffering overcooked steak or cold soup in silence. I do think it’s important to make a server or manager aware of an issue so they can correct it before it happens to someone else. As a business owner myself, I want to know if I’ve done something to disappoint a customer so I don’t do it again.

The other night, we met another couple at Bin 36 on State before the theatre. They arrived first and were already seated with glasses of wine when we arrived. Looking at the by-the-glass wine list, the Italian whites caught my eye. I asked our server which of the four listed wines priced from $6.25 to $8.50 she’d recommend. She suggested I try all four in a flight of 2.5 oz. pours for $12.10. Seemed like a good chance to sample a range of styles, as well as pair up nicely with the mussels I planned to order.

The four she brought were:

2002 Soave Superiore, Tamellini, Veneto,
2004 Inzolia, Cusumano, Sicily
2003 Pino Grigio, Venica & Venica
2001 Muscat, Vignalto, Sirio, Veneto

I’m not a wine expert, though I do have a bit of experience with Italian wines. It was immediately obvious these weren’t wonderful examples of their genre. Instead of fruity, they were herbal and grassy, which didn’t complement the food at all. The Pino Grigio was a bit musty, and the Muscat was too sweet to go with the mussels. The other two were perfectly nondescript. Not two-buck Chuck, but beatable at Costco.

To our server’s credit, she took them away without a fuss, and brought me a glass of whatever my wife had ordered, which was quite nice. To her discredit, however, she failed to inform me when I ordered that my friend across the table had tasted and rejected two of the four before we arrived. Had I known that, I'd have chosen something else.

Just a note about the food at Bin 36. It’s pretty nondescript, too. Portions, even entrée sizes, are only slightly larger than other restaurants’ appetizer portions. Everything we ordered, mussels, Caesar salad, halibut, lamb and swordfish, were competently prepared but utterly unengaging. It’s almost seems they intend for the wine to dominate the food. Still, the bill, with four glasses of wine (they comped the flight), two appetizers, one salad, three entrees, and two desserts came to a hefty $186.00 plus tip. It's an attractive room, but I think there are lots of better places in the area to eat and drink at the $50 p/p price point.

I like what Bin 36 is trying to do (get you to taste wines you might not try otherwise), but I agree that two of the choices just aren't very good. Soave can be surprisingly nice (Anselmi and Pieropan come to mind), but the Tamellini isn't. I also agree on the Pinot Grigio, though I don't often find them to my liking. Where I disagree is with the Insolia and the Muscat. Insolia is an ancient grape from Sicily that has only recently become readily available. It's different, I'll grant you, but it can be good, especially with, say, an insalata di mare. Also, Muscats used to be cheap and dreadful, but the past decade has produced many that are excellent...not with mussels, but with dark chocolate or a sweet custard dessert, now you're talking.