Frank Bruni chimes in on—and for the most part, agrees with—the complaints put forth last week by Christopher Hitchens regarding servers topping off wine, unsolicited: "Such pouring has often caught my eye and irked me, too, but less because of its intrusiveness ... than because of the indiscriminate assumptions some servers make ... the goal here isn't simply making sure those of us at the table never want for, or have to reach for, wine. The goal is to drain that first bottle so we move on to a second. This annoys me more than servers' frequent returns and near-constant presence. It's up-selling in the drag of solicitousness." [Diner's Journal, previously]
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