This is spill-over from another post, but it’s a good one to have stand on its own. Let’s post corkage fees for restaurants here. Kristi posted that Saigon Le and Guadalupana don’t have fees, and I added that Lou’s Pizza Pie doesn’t, either (you can also take beer in).

Pete and Sam’s charges $2.50 per glass, so it’s $5 if two people are drinking wine, $10 for four and so on. And at Interim it’s $8, which is great.

Post ‘em here.

Went out for apps last night, at a stylish spot called Ten Mercer… just up the road from the Opera House… lots of well-dressed opera-goers doing the pre-theater thing.

Asked the bartender if he poured a sauvignon blanc by the glass, and he cracked that “good choice” smile before offering a beaut from New Zealand… this isn’t the first time a server has been “impressed” with a request for this steely white… which made me wonder if it had become the pinot noir of the whites…

Not that I’m counting, but it was the second time in two days I had received an “all right” from behind the bar… at the Elvis Invitational at EMP Friday night, my order of a shot of Jack’s prompted the man holding the bottle to do a little show-and-tell… pulling up his shirt and flashing me a pie-pan size belt buckle featuring the logo for the Tennessee sour mash. OK, cowboy, just hand me my drink…

Back to SB, anyone have a particular fave of this food-friendly wine? The name of the lovely selection bartender Brandon poured at Ten Mercer was hard to forget:

That’s right! Thanks to Kate for this entertaining heads up… Read all about it on this link.

What’s next?

Maybe a deep-fried martini? With an olive in the middle! Yeah, that’s the ticket…

Can you name the college where that mind-numbing tune was the official song? That’s right, the University of Washington. (As in state, where they once considered making Louie, Louie the official state song…)

Anyway, all trivia aside: Carly Pratt from Victor Ribilo is coordinating a Gran Centenario tequila tasting at Swanky’s Taco Shop from 7 to 9 on Sunday, Oct. 8.

Swanky’s is located at 6641 Poplar Avenue at the corner of Kirby and Poplar. Call 901-737-2088 for details.

… picked up a couple of silver medals at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

You can read more about that in tomorrow’s CA… and taste some of those award-winning brewskis at upcoming events, including a dinner next week: Click here for the scoop.

After a lovely martini made by my man (Hendrick’s is our new favorite gin…), went to see if we could get cheap seats at “The Rat Pack Returns” at The Orpheum… $20 bought a couple spots in the highest section of the nosebleeds… the house was pretty empty, too. Get a clue good people of the Orpheum, who were complaining that attendance was down: do like they do in London, sell tickets half price the day of the show. Stand-bys. (Quick aside: I saw lots of shows from the front row in London on those cheap seats… better a full house than a half empty one…)

I doubt that even a full house could have saved this corny mess… Geez Louise, the premise was that God sent the Rat Pack — Frank, Dean, Sammy and head cheesemeister Joey Bishop — back to Earth for one last show. They also dug up some of the oldest one-liners on the planet.

Oh, well… the band was good, and the songs were good. The guy who played Frank just didn’t sound a bit like him, though.

So, we left before “Joey” could storm the stage one more time, and headed to Tsunami for a bite. The small plates were just right: ono on that black Thai sticky rice, and a snapper with cucumber kim chee… half a bottle of Dry Creek fume blanc and we got out of there for $60.

What’s for Sunday din-din? Daddy-O volunteered to do his famous flank steak. We’ll probably put on some Ol’ Blue Eyes and try to erase the memory of Rat Pack redux…. What about you? Planning anything special for to close out the weekend?

Got a story in Friday’s Memphis Playbook about liquid relief from this miserable heat… I’ve come up with a list, but want to hear about some of your favorites, so please drop a comment below.

There’s a tasting of summer wines at Mantia’s tomorrow, click here for details.

I just came across a cocktail coaster from a recent trip to Louisville… Friend Jerry Slater had written a short list of his favorite Kentucky bourbons: Pappy Van Winkle, Russell’s Reserve, George T. Stugg, Blanton’s, and Woodford Reserve. The latter has made a bourbon believer out of me, with its seductive, smooth quality.

Besides Woodford, which I’ve purchased locally, are any of these available in/around M town?

Don’t miss my story in Friday’s Memphis Playbook on the best summer coolers.

OK, I don’t usually wade into sports, but cannot resist with the news that the feel-good story of the summer is suddenly stinking. Floyd Landis, this year’s Lance Armstrong, is being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs… he had high levels of testosterone after his amazing comeback after Stage 17.

He wondered yesterday if it might have had anything to do with a shot of Jack Daniels… his physician said he had read a scientific paper that alcohol can raise T levels…

Wondering how the marketing department at Brown-Forman might spin this revelation…

Floyd asked that we adhere to the innocent until proven guilty law of the land… OK, but what does your gut say? Innocent or guilty?

Updating my column in Wednesday’s food section, need to clarify that the sangiovese rose that received a rave from “remarkable service” is not Italian, but from Napa Valley. My bad for making that assumption.

Really liked a Spanish rose I had earlier this week (yes, the label states Denomicnacion Origen Rueda)vida Nueva… dry, but with a faint strawberry quality that didn’t wilt with the citrusy grilled chicken.

A blend of merlot, syrah and gewurztraminer… called Menage a Trois (from Folie a Deux… where are those accent marks when you need them??) was more nice than naughty. Probably the sweetest of the batch of pink I’ve sipped. But still not sweet in a sticky white zin way. (Maybe I’m giving white zin an unfair shake?)

Any more rose recommendations?