Last night at busy Becco in Manhattan, I was impressed to find, on the back of their menu, a special full-page Italian wine list, with every bottle priced at $25. Good stuff too, not plonk.
I don't know whether it cannibalizes their traditional list, or just supplants sales by the glass. Our waiter claimed that most tables that order wine do so from the fixed-price list. So did we; a very nice 2005 Rosso Conero "Julius," usually about $15 from my favorite wine merchant. This strikes me as really smart; they're taking a small markup and selling a boatload of wine.
Has anyone seen this in Chicago? Other than half-price nights, is there any Chicago restaurant that has a fixed-price wine list?