Il Pittore - Great Food, but Gouging Wine List

[jmk38]

Four of us dined at Il Pittore the other evening. Each of us ordered a different starter and a different
main, so had the chance to sample a wide range of the restaurant's offerings. All of the food was excellent - interesting dishes, carefully prepared and creatively presented. The down side of the
evening - and I think it is a big negative - is the wine list. The markup is ridiculous - fairly ordinary
wines for $47-49/bottle, well over $100 for anything interesting or special. Very ordinary glass of
white: $12 (may explain why the bar was so empty). Mr. Starr, is this really necessary??

[middleagedfoodie]

I am interested in what you had too, since I am going in May with a group of 3 couples.

BTW, I have noticed that Steven Starr really knows how to mark up a bottle of wine. At Parc, I saw something I am familiar with at 3 times the PA State Store price.

[jmk38]

It has been a week and I did not take notes, but I'll do my best to remember what our group had.
For starters, we had the octopus, gnocchi, special salad that night and can't remember the 4th; for mains we had papardelle w/wild boar ragu, sea bass, ribeye and another fish (but not the branzino). We had several sorbets for dessert, espresso & capuccino

[cwdonald]

Thanks for the reply. Re wine prices per glass, Il Pittorre is comparable with both Osteria and Amis. I was at Amis last weekend and didn't see much under 12 a glass.

[deprofundis]

Sadly, 300% wine mark-ups are pretty much standard in the business.

[Bob Loblaw]

that's my sense as well. 3x the in-store price. not that i'm happy about it but it's not somethign i think of as unusual. fortunately i barely drink these days...

[deprofundis]

Incidentally, restaurants in PA pay the same price for wine & liquor as you and I when we buy it from the state store.

[cwdonald]

Except they are often buying by the case which does include a discount.

[cwdonald]

What dishes did you eat? What did you like and what didnt you like (besides the exhorbitant prices for liquor?) I have only eaten there once, and stayed away from the mains due to issues with over salting. I am curious if the kitchen has settled in.