So The Bear Has No Wine Representation. Then Again, Neither Do Many Real Life Restaurants

Or how restaurants too often treat wine as an afterthought

One of my favourite ways to write articles is when I read something and think I HAVE OPINIONS ON THAT.

That is how this piece came about, after reading

Jason Wilson

’s excellent story “If The Bear Was A Real Restaurant, It Would Be A Wine Bar.” That, and I love TV almost as much as I love talking about the state of wine, restaurants and hospitality.

If you like what you read, be sure to give the ❤️ a click, leave a comment, share, or (if you haven’t already), upgrade your subscription to paid. That’ll give you access to absolutely everything The Sauce has to offer.

Image credit: FX Networks (fair use)

Poor Sweeps the budding Somm. All he gets is a copy of The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert and a vague promise of Somm school. Both of which feel like an afterthought.

It’s not quite as good or glamourous as Martin’s internship at Copenhagen, is it now?

There has been a lot of complaining in the wine industry about the lack of wine representation in The Bear’s season three. How — they ask — can a restaurant shooting for a Michelin star largely ignore wine?

You could argue The Bear is escapist TV. It doesn’t have to accurately represent real life. You could argue wine is boring so they didn’t bother to write it into the show. You could say restaurants are more about food than anything else. There’s a reason why it’s the chefs who are celebrities, right?

Perhaps. But throughout reading all the commentary, all I could think was:

No wine representation in a restaurant? Yep, that sounds accurate.

The lack of wine representation isn't a made-for-TV thing. It happens every single day in more restaurants than I care to count.

Even the good ones.

Despite wine being such an important part of our dining culture, it’s too often treated as an afterthought.

The Bear might not always accurately represent restaurant life, but when it comes to wine, they’ve got it spot on.

Uh oh, we forgot about the wine!