If the spotlight on the re-invented Black Point Inn now shines mainly on the dining experience, accompanying the menu is an impressive wine list. Norine Kotts, food and beverage director, encourages diners to indulge with great gusto. Like any seasoned connoisseur, she believes that fine wine should be sipped and savored — by the bottle, not the glass.
“What’s celebratory or fun about drinking wine by the glass — the theater is completely missing,” says Kotts. “Ordering by the bottle gives the guest time to engage with the waiter — there’s that moment of expectation when the designated taster takes the first sip, when you’re on your way to the first of many nods of approval over the course of the evening.”
To encourage this fine-wine philosophy, Kotts offers several selections of bottled wine at an affordable price, making guests less inclined to order wine by the glass. The majority of the bottles are under $30, whereas the trophy purchases, like Mouton Rothschild, Spottswoode, Pahlmeyer and Veuve Clicquot `Le Grande Dame’, are marked up only slightly over retail,” to make them accessible,” explains Kotts.
“Reading this will no doubt make our accountant jump from his chair and come looking for me because wines by the glass are usually the profit center for a restaurant,” she laughs.
Yet after a few glasses (okay, a bottle), how do the diners without a room booked upstairs find their way safely home? “The winding country road from the Black Point Inn is dark and tricky after a few glasses of wine,” notes Dan Furst, owner of Home Runners, a business that drives home Portland-area customers he describes as “happy, partying people who don’t like to end an evening out with a nasty surprise on their drive home.”
So in the spirit of embracing decadence without guilt, a new scooter-to-the-rescue business gladly transports home guests, using their own car for the drive, yet with a completely sober driver at the wheel.
“Just give us a 20-minutes heads up, maybe when you’re enjoying your last drink,” encourages Furst. “Then one of our 14 fully insured drivers will pick you up.”
Home Runners arrives at the restaurant by driving one of the company’s three fold-up scooters, each one capable of fitting nicely in the back seat of a car or tied with a bungee cord in the trunk. “We try to keep the scooter standing up at all times,” explains Furst who is completely comfortable when his more relaxed passengers select to remain prone.
When there ere are six or seven people needing a safe drive home, the company sends out a two-car team. Patrons enjoy a snack pack of bottled water and crackers on their way home.
To call Road Runners, dial 332-RIDE; the rate from the Black Point Inn to destinations in Scarborough, South Portland, Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth is $30, with $1 a mile added to a longer drive home.
— Sally Noble