October 30, 2015
There is nothing I like better than a deal! Well, actually that’s not true. The one thing I like better than a deal is food. Oh, and wine!
So when I stumbled (I wasn’t drunk, my Nyquil hadn’t worn off yet) into The Public House on 41st and Lexington, I had no idea all my dreams were about to come true.
I first found The Public House on OpenTable when a friend and I were trying to find a place to eat dinner that was affordable, centrally located, and had nachos on the menu. Upon sitting down, the hostess gave us the regular menu and then a second menu for the “Prix-Fixe Wine Dinner.”
I was intrigued.
I saw that with this special – FOR ONLY $35 – I could get an appetizer, entrée, dessert and unlimited wine. Yes, you read that correctly. Unlimited. Wine. All the wine. For $35. I was sold.
For my appetizer, I started off with the eggplant rollatini and a glass of pinot noir. I then informed my waitress that if she walked by and saw my glass half empty (ugh, I mean half full) to bring me over a refill. She gave me a wink and I knew, suddenly, that we would be best friends.
There were three options for the entrée, and two of them were fish – so I ended up ordering the New York Strip Steak with asparagus and mashed potatoes. And for dessert I got some Nutella wonton crap thing. I was too buzzed off of red wine to care about my dessert.
When the waitress dropped off our check, she gave us two comment cards and said that if we fill them out, they are entered in a drawing for a chance to win a Free Wine Dinner. So we both grabbed the pens, quickly filled out the card and went on our merry way.
Until I threw up in Grand Central Station.
Two days later, I got an email alerting me that I had WON the Free Wine Dinner! “I never win anything!” I screamed to no one. I texted my friend to brag about me winning and he quickly replied, “I won, too!”
Uh, what? Apparently ANYONE who fills out the comment card wins a free wine dinner at this place. So I basically felt special for about 35 seconds.
But there were 2 stipulations: You only had two weeks to claim your free dinner and you could not use both free wine dinners at the same time – but hey, we each got a free dinner and a whole lot more wine, so who’s complaining?!
I won’t bore you with the details of the other two meals, but I can confidently say that while it was amazing to receive a free dinner and a total of 11 bottles of wine, I don’t think I ever want to go back to The Public House. Not that the food was terrible – because it wasn’t – but there are SO many other restaurants in New York City, so it’s stupid to go to the same ones every week.
Unless it’s an Outback Steakhouse.