Will Restaurants now give the calorie counts on my wine?

Okay, so our new law, that restaurants have until 2011 to comply with, forces us to be cognisant of the number of calories we are faced with before ordering. But nowhere do I see that the caloric counts of our favorite libations have to torture/tempt us as well: http://www.cspinet.org/new/200809301.html

We were at BJ’s in Valencia Wednesday night, one of my husband Eddies favorite haunts, for a Grey Goose martini straight up with a twist, when I remembered to ask my wait person for a menu with the calories on it.

Pleased to find Ed’s ginormous baked potato with Alfredo sauce, chicken and broccoli spears had 4 times the calories of my battered and fried (condiments not included) fish tacos. I ventured further into the menu to see if they had listed the alcohol.

There it was in bold, unmistakable, plastic-sheathed language: (But not with the “ish” part that I added below, that’s being used as my photos didn’t measure up.)

Wine: (No varietals listed!) 140 (ish calories) 3 oz pour.

Spirits: (Scotch, Bourbon, Whiskey, Gin) 96 (ish calories) 1 to 1 and 1/2 ounce pour.

Yea, that’s how I decide whether I’ll have wine or a cocktail – whether I want 96 or 140 calories – big whoop.

There is sooooooooooo much wrong with this. If I were ordering a mixed drink, and then decided, oh-I-forgot-I’m-on-a-diet, would the calories listed on the menu cause me to water my drink down to dilute the calories? Shameful. Think ice in wine or, gasp, pouring some of MY martini into my husband’s glass. (Because, yes, he empties his faster for some reason.)

In Tootsie (rent it) an extremely hot Jessica Lange tells her not-a-hottie friend Dustin Hoffman, that she drinks so much wine because “it’s not fattening.” I’ve held that resolute in my mind. Hot Jessica Lange = Wine isn’t fattening. But the food we pair with it…is.
So I will look over the menu, if I remember to, and check the calories of my food before I order. But my wine? In the immortal words of Thumbelina (rent it) when being asked to marry the frog….”Never never never.”

7 thoughts on “Will Restaurants now give the calorie counts on my wine?

  1. Oh my God!!! Wine is not fattening. (((As I start my diet Sunday and on the road to boot))). We will drink wine and eat diet bars. Will that work? (((I know I know))). Love the column.
    Vicki

  2. Diet bars in the AM and Wine anytime close to 5PM is a decent motto to live by Vicki. And be sure and check back on the blog, we wine 101ers plan to keep you entertained many times on your long journey!

  3. That's right Michael, and your point is proven tomorrow when we'll be drinking at noon at Wallys festival!

  4. The Sonoma Diet includes wine, and is sane after the first 10 (or so) days…Just sayin'! 😉

    The thing that always cracks-me-up are the people that go to In-N-Out Burger, and order the following: "2 Double-Doubles, animal-style, french fries, and a large DIET COKE, please"…lol

  5. Chad,

    I know people that go further:
    Diet Margarita: Tequila, ice, lime.
    Rum & Diet Coke.

    and there's always:
    Ice in da wine!

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