PrintDrink Wine Out of Baby Bottles at La Cave des Fondus
Drinking wine at Le Refuge des Fondus.
New fondue restaurant La Cave des Fondus in Soho will serve wine and beer in a unique way: out of baby bottles. La Cave des Fondus is modeled after the famous Le Refuge des Fondus in Paris where wine is served in the same way, but commenters at the New York Times' Diner's Journal aren't loving the idea.
My blasé attitude toward drinking wine out of a receptacle I haven't used since I could barely walk may have to do with me not liking wine in the first place, but my other reason is that If La Cave des Fondus is supposed to be like Le Refuge des Fondus, it would almost be strange to drink wine in a normal manner. I ate at Le Refuge des Fondus two years ago: it's tiny and cramped and has a crazy, crowded, chaotic, barlike atmosphere. You're surrounded by cigarette smoke, shouting in mostly French and English, pots of bubbling cheese, and, of course, wine in baby bottles. I have a feeling it's not the typical fondue experience—and that's why people go there.
Does the prospect of drinking wine and beer out of baby bottles entice (or repel) you to eat at La Cave des Fondus?
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27 Comments:
I would only do it if I could be assured of having a fresh, never previously sucked upon nipple.
simon at 1:19PM on 12/10/08
Wine out of a baby bottle...interesting. What's next? Will they puree all of the food and feed it to us on coated spoons while making choo-choo noises and those "open wide now" faces mother's always make?
No thanks.
juliebugsmama at 1:25PM on 12/10/08
LOL. Enro-French crap. I hope you deuchebag yuppies suck on it and die.
dgl440 at 1:31PM on 12/10/08
Are nursing mothers provided for non-wine drinkers, for a similar experience?
Psychiatrist on staff?
Is this infantile?
Depends
in lieu of nappies.
PerkyMac at 1:36PM on 12/10/08
I have eaten at Le Refuge de Fondus several times: you go for a cheap meal that will get you drunk before you start actually eating the stale bread. Regardless of the food/drink situation, its an incredibly fun place to go to. Part of that fun is the language barrier of speaking poor drunken french with other college students and with the waiters. I don't think les vrais parisiens go to this restaurant- maybe this new Soho place will be the same way. We can leave it to the tacky tourists to go.
allistew at 1:40PM on 12/10/08
When I was in middle school, there was brief period when it was "cool" for people to use baby bottles as water bottles. My mom refused to allow me to get one because she thought it was bizarre and juvenile. I, of course, was outraged that she wouldn't let me do what everyone else was doing. As an adult, I have no desire to drink alcohol out of baby bottles because a few French kids are doing it. Maybe I really am growing up. Mom will be so proud.
jlbrach at 2:19PM on 12/10/08
@allistew: That's a good point; it would have to just be frequented by tourists (or..foreign college students?) to be like the American counterpart of the Parisian version. My experience was such a sensory overload that I walked out in a daze. ...After climbing over the table to get out.
roboppy at 2:23PM on 12/10/08
It will prevent me from going there.
Lippy at 3:15PM on 12/10/08
Is there some point to using the baby bottles other than just trying to be different? Did they have some reasoning behind doing it? Like it somehow prevents the wine from contacting the air as much and that makes it better?
wunami at 3:31PM on 12/10/08
Refuge des fondus in Paris has been doing this for years! :-D
Marlala at 3:36PM on 12/10/08
I've been to the one in Paris too and it's just ridiculously fun. Can't wait.
Jenn Sit at 3:51PM on 12/10/08
Okay, I don't get it. If it's at all a decent wine, wouldn't you want to use your nose? Smell is incredibly important in taste. So, like, you wouldn't really taste the wine? Why would you want to drink wine you wouldn't want to taste?
I am confused.
chisai at 4:10PM on 12/10/08
I'll go if they let me poop my pants.
SmokedMeat at 4:11PM on 12/10/08
The fondue sounds great, particularly on a day like today. Wine in baby bottles? Ridiculous.
Laren Spirer at 4:12PM on 12/10/08
Ok, but WHY? Wine glasses were constructed the way they are for reason. Wouldn't drinking it this way effect the taste?
Linnea Covington at 4:25PM on 12/10/08
@chisai: There's nothing to get, it's a bad idea. The only way this would lead to a better wine drinking experience is if you're drinking horrible wine, in which case you wouldn't want to taste it. Smell is of course a major part of our sense of taste, especially with wine! A lot of the enjoyment of drinking wine is in the smells, there is so much going on before you even sip it. Drinking it out of baby bottles is stupid. Of course, from the video it doesn't look like wine appreciation is high on the list of priorities at Le Refuge des Fondus.
Buckethead at 5:04PM on 12/10/08
@chisai: if Cave des Fondus is anything like Refuge des Fondus, you're not getting a great wine. At the original resto, dinner is determined by two questions: meat (borguiguoinne) or cheese (savoyard)? White or red (wine)? And then they hand you your baby bottle.
For everyone wondering why....the story I've heard is that the owner devised the scheme as a way of getting out of paying a stemware tax that Paris charges on wineglasses. It is a real honest-to-god baby bottle, with the end of the nipple cut off.
A Parisian wouldn't be caught dead in Refuges des Fondus, but it's packed with tourists (lots of American college students). And yes, it is lots of fun if you don't mind dining without a shred of dignity.
Nuriya at 5:26PM on 12/10/08
More than anything, I dislike the idea that they are just ripping the restaurant out of its cultural context. Until its New York equivalent is filled with 19-year-old American backpackers ecstatic at the opportunity to drink legally--and out of any vessel--and overeager tourist types, it won't be the same.
mabisa at 5:38PM on 12/10/08
One thing great about this economy is crap places like will go out of business. Let metrosexuals with sexual hung up about their mommy suck on the nipples.
dgl440 at 5:52PM on 12/10/08
Jesus. I don't even like drinking water out of those damn sports bottles. This whole idea is pretty off-putting.
klg19 at 7:06PM on 12/10/08
Drinking wine off of rubber? Uh, no thanks. I have to believe the only wine that would not suffer from being consumed in that fashion would be pink zin . . . and I could be wrong about that.
Mizbee at 7:44PM on 12/10/08
The Sunburnt Cow serves their cocktails in baby bottles as well. So unless La Cave provides burping service or the like, once was enough for me.
JubileeNYC at 10:03AM on 12/11/08
WOULD RATHER HAVE IT OUT OF BABY SKULLS
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
DrinkinBrewss at 10:10AM on 12/11/08
No way. I can't even handle sports-top water bottles. Remember that early 90s trend of wearing giant neon baby pacifier necklaces? Yeah. This is going nowhere good.
butterface at 12:08PM on 12/11/08
The original in Paris served wine in baby bottles to avoid a stemware tax. It's not a trend, or enhancement. It's just ridiculous, and copycats are ludicrous idiots.
PerkyMac at 12:22PM on 12/11/08
This reminds me of a college classmate of mine who was initiated into the basketball team by having to drink beer in a baby bottle - just plain dumb.
But this really brings a new meaning to the term "nursing the bottle".
tina_eats at 2:36PM on 12/12/08
most of the flavor of wine comes from smelling it. so doesn't the baby bottle prevent that? i guess it makes it a good vessel for really cheap wine where your goal is to get drunk, not so much enjoy the wine.
princexy at 8:12AM on 12/13/08