Bar dining at Sage

[lissy]

I went to Sage back when it first opened and thought it was OK, but I haven't been back. I'm thinking of hitting the bar there for dinner and drinks tonight. Any feedback on the bar menu (they do have one, don't they)?

[hotoynoodle]

fwiw, i thought the food at sage was terrific, but had really really terrible service at the bar. painful to the point where his ineptitude made me rush to leave the place -- after it took him 15 minutes to pick up my clearly visible credit card.

i prefer to eat at the bar, so unfortunately, sage has dropped way down the list of places to go. especially at the price.

[MC Slim JB]

I love the bar menu at Sage, especially since the dining room menu can be expensive. Great panini, arancini, pastas, salads, small plates. They're revamped and improved the wine list lately a bit, too. Not cheap, exactly, but a relative bargain for the level of the food. You can order off the dining room menu in the bar, too (though not vice versa).

[jpeso]

Can you prove the value with your unscientific look at Wine prices? why would it be a bargain for food at that level?

[MC Slim JB]

It's an interesting idea, jpeso. I'm not sure how I could do the simple thing I did with wine prices (here: www.chowhound.com/topics/425221 ) -- which was to compare by-the-glass prices at some Boston restaurants with what you'd pay for the same glass of wine if you bought a bottle of it at retail in a wine shop -- for restaurant food.

So my take on the value of the bar food at Sage, like most of what I post here, is pure opinion. You could argue it's not a bargain, that it's in fact overpriced, and I couldn't really dispute that in any quantitative way, since the terms "bargain" and "overpriced" are so purely subjective.

I guess it boils down to my liking the chef's general approach in the dining room (a combination of quality ingredients and straightforward Italian cooking with regular flashes of refined technique, as in his rice-smoked duck breast), and appreciating the attempt in the bar to adapt that approach to a more modest, affordable enoteca menu (most plates $10 and under).

Most of these dishes are small enough that you need two or three of them to make a meal, and $20 or $30 for dinner isn't exactly a steal in most people's books. But it is a relative bargain next to the dining room, where it isn't hard to spend $50/head just on food. Sage's bar also suits my style of dining out: two smallish plates of food I love for $20 is preferable to a big plateful of average food for $10-15.

It doesn't hurt that I like the atmosphere, bartending, wine list, and service in the bar at Sage. But offer *proof* that it's a value? I got nothing.

[lissy]

Thanks for the feedback. We did end up at the bar at Sage. Sadly, much of the restaurant was empty and by the time we left at least the bar area seemed to pick up somewhat. My friend and I each had a couple of glasses of a Spanish white (usually one of my weaknesses) which was perfect on a hot, muggy evening...crisp and light just the way I like it. I think it was maybe $8 per glass. We split an arugula salad with a goat cheese (maybe) that was good and then split a fettucine with mushrooms, snowpeas and truffle butter. It was really good...kind of like buttered noodles adult style. We also asked for an extra order of their bread with that absoluately delicious fresh tomato puree that I remember so fondly from their North End location. The bartender was efficient but didn't have a ton of personality. They were kind enough to split both orders for us which I appreciate immensely. We ended up ordering everything off of the regular menu, though there were a few things on the enoteca menu that looked good especially the robiola panzotti. Total bill all inclusive for 2 wines each and splitting one salad and one pasta came to about $42 each. I need to remember this place especially since I'm already tiring of Rocca and Gaslight.

[hotoynoodle]

am i reading this right? you split one salad and one pasta and it cost you $42?

oh, wait, ok, 2 wines by the glass each... silly kittens. that's a bottle, you know?

fwiw, the mark-ups on the sage winelist are healthy, but you can do ok with careful selections..

[lissy]

Yes we really should be ordering by the bottle but you know how it is, you think it's going to be a one glass night and it ends up being two, four, whatever!

[Buddernut]

The last time a server suggested my dining partner order a bottle of wine instead of 2 glasses he fell for it ! There are more than 2 glasses of wine in a bottle.... 3 healthy or 4 skimpy. This person was on a tight budget ... had some personal issues, needed to get out and asked me to go and be the soundboard. Well, I had to pick up the tab for the bottle of wine ... it was $40 bucks versus 2 x $7.50 per glass. This particular place had a huge mark-up on whole bottles (why??? I dunnno). Since I had scotch that nght, I really paid dearly, as this poor soul's emotions were quite amplified after drinking the bottle of wine. Another good argument for "stick to the 2 glasses".

[lissy]

There were 2 of us that each had 2 glasses so a bottle probably would have made sense.

[invinotheresverde]

Of course there are more than 2 glasses in a bottle of wine. A 750ml bottle of wine contains just over 25 ounces. As most restaurants in the US give a 5-6 ounce pour, that's 4 glasses MINIMUM per bottle.

Your friend isn't exactly master of the obvious.