Finally made it to the Cut Lounge, which except for the completely sucky offerings of wine by the glass, was a pleasant place to hang out and not unduly expensive compared to similar venues.
At 8:30 p.m. on a Thursday night, it was pretty empty, but by the time we left after 11:00 p.m., it was more crowded. The seating is quite comfortable, especially when compared with other bar and lounge area venues, and the waitresses were delightful.
They brought us complimentary small corn fritters with a spicy sauce, which were tasty, and when we asked nicely, they brought us a second order. We were just in a nibbling mood, so we ordered tomato, basil, mozzarella empanadas, which were served piping hot, and the truffled grilled cheese. Both were nice, although my dining companion thought the grilled cheese was too greasy.
The only way I can describe the wine by the glass list is sad. We tasted the Sancerre, a French rose and an Austrian Gruner on which Wolfgang Puck slaps his name. All were terrible low quality wines. Thin, insipid, unbalanced. After striking out there, I made the mistake of ordering, without tasting, one of their dessert wines, an Italian Moscato d’Asti. I love dessert wine, but after that Moscato I understand why most people cringe when they hear the word “dessert wine” because the Moscato was about on par with a can of Coke. However, since I had not requested a taste before ordering it, I didn’t feel I could send it back, so I drank my Coke.
I get cranky when given horrible wine, so wouldn’t return to the Cut Lounge unless I was prepared to order a full bottle of something. I didn’t peruse the bottle list, but I have to assume that they have some decent offerings on it. Although on the other hand, the completely insipid wine by the glass program leads me to believe that they don’t have any true wine professionals in the Wolfgang Puck operation or otherwise they would be too embarrassed to put those wines by the glass on the menu. I know they are looking for wines that they can buy cheap and take huge markups, but with a little imagination, you can actually find drinkable wine that is not priced in the stratosphere so you can take your huge markups to keep your profit margins up.