Friday Night at Franco's

Friday, April 19, 2014

Called my friend Terry to see how he was recovering from hip replacement surgery and he was in a "get out of dodge" mood. We agreed to meet at Franco's Italian Restaurant in Cypress. Easy drive for him and an easy swing by for me coming home from work.

For a Friday night the restaurant was surprisingly empty but within an hour it did filled up some. Because of it being Good Friday and Easter weekend I would imagine that had something to do with it. The waiter said the last 3 Fridays nights had been extremely busy.

Alex has been teaching a new waiter how to recite the specials. He does not quite have Alex's flair but it was close.

Both Terry and I ordered the Rack of Colorado Lamb. It was excellent. I opted for the Spicy Basil Tomato Soup which was very good. We both had a dessert.

 Now that they charge corkage it does bring the bill up. With tax, tip and corkage for 2 bottles the tab was $130 - that is $65 a person. We had exceptional wines so it was worth it but now unless we can negotiate corkage I will have to reconsider some things.   If they continue the corkage policy I will start leaving my own wine glasses at home and use theirs. If I have to pay at least they will have to put something out there for me to pay for. The waiter opened the wines and poured for us. I was not paying any attention and he filled my glass with about 5 ounces of wine. To me that is a big turn off. This is something I will have to keep in the back of my mind so it doesn't happen again . Usually first pour is a taste to see if the wine is good or not. This waiter had not been trained correctly.

I brought a 2005 Stolpman Angeli. Terry brought a 2000 Georges DeLatours, Private Reserve, Cabernet. The Cab had an off taste to it when first opened. We should have decanted it, But it did open up quite well but still remained a  lighter wine. The Angeli was excellent. 2005 was a good year and the wine is showing really well now.