When you're at a dinner party and there's only wine, no other drinks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve returned sodas because no one drinks them. Both traditional sodas like coke, Diet Coke, and the fancy sodas like pellegrino lemon/lime. And of course even when I offered those, I’m sure there was some d-bag like OP that complained that I didn’t offer caffeine free diet sprite.

How cheap are you that you RETURNED them?

And what a waste of time to keep buying them and returning them. If you entertain often enough that you have to keep returning them, you could just buy them and keep them. It's not like they go bad quickly?

I don’t want to serve year old coke. They have date stamps.

And if you came to my parties, you would never assume I was cheap. Quite the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you overweight, OP?

As opposed to people who only drink wine with dinner. That’s like saying “are you an alcoholic?”

The DC area seems to drink a lot of alcohol and just serving wine and water at a formal dinner shows how normalized it is. Some people don’t like alcohol and that is ok. Telling them the only other option is water is pushing alcohol in my opinion which is irresponsible when you have guests that are driving.

We always serve wine, water (sparking and still) and Italian sodas. It truly is no big deal to keep a 6 pack in the house for guests who don’t drink but don’t want to be stuck just drinking water all night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recently I was at a lovely dinner party where the host went to great lengths to provide lots of lovely food and wine.

But it's a huge pet peeve of mine when the host just has wine on the table and does not offer any other beverage for dinner (not even water). There were both wine and water glasses out but no water or other drink was ever offered.

I don't drink alcohol and had to ask the host for some water. But I wish there had been iced tea, lemonade or something other than boring water offered. I don't enjoy eating food when I have to wash it down with boring water. I do drink plenty of water but with meals I like something with some taste like iced tea. If I was eating dinner at a restaurant I would order iced tea or soda.

Everyone else just drank wine with no other beverage but even if you do drink alcohol I don't see how you can eat an entire meal and not have your thirst quenched. I need lots of liquid to wash down my food, water at least.

Anyone else have this same pet peeve? This happens nearly every time I'm invited to a dinner party. There is plenty of wine but non alcoholic beverages are always an afterthought and rarely, if ever, offered.

When I host a dinner party I provide wine but always have lemonade, cranberry juice, iced tea, water and sodas out as well on a separate table.

As whiny as you are, I’m amazed you’re ever invited to dinner parties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just do the host a favor and decline the invite next time.

Amen! I don’t use the term insufferable very often, but OP fits the bill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a related question, but we don't drink alcohol or coffee/tea, and when I have dinner parties I offer water, sparkling water, wine coolers, juice, and lemonade. We don't offer coffee or tea with dessert because we never have any. No one has ever complained but I wonder if they find this odd?

You don’t drink alcohol but have wine coolers. (Hello 1992). Interesting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a related question, but we don't drink alcohol or coffee/tea, and when I have dinner parties I offer water, sparkling water, wine coolers, juice, and lemonade. We don't offer coffee or tea with dessert because we never have any. No one has ever complained but I wonder if they find this odd?

You don’t drink alcohol but have wine coolers. (Hello 1992). Interesting

Why wine coolers and not wine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you overweight, OP?

As opposed to people who only drink wine with dinner. That’s like saying “are you an alcoholic?”

The DC area seems to drink a lot of alcohol and just serving wine and water at a formal dinner shows how normalized it is. Some people don’t like alcohol and that is ok. Telling them the only other option is water is pushing alcohol in my opinion which is irresponsible when you have guests that are driving.

We always serve wine, water (sparking and still) and Italian sodas. It truly is no big deal to keep a 6 pack in the house for guests who don’t drink but don’t want to be stuck just drinking water all night.

WTF. Irresponsible? Stuck drinking water? This is bizarre. Water is not a form of alcoholic shaming!! Water is so healthy and refreshing. You must be OP, who thinks water is “dry.” Actually, this whole thing seems trolling to me. jeff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you overweight, OP?

As opposed to people who only drink wine with dinner. That’s like saying “are you an alcoholic?”

The DC area seems to drink a lot of alcohol and just serving wine and water at a formal dinner shows how normalized it is. Some people don’t like alcohol and that is ok. Telling them the only other option is water is pushing alcohol in my opinion which is irresponsible when you have guests that are driving.

We always serve wine, water (sparking and still) and Italian sodas. It truly is no big deal to keep a 6 pack in the house for guests who don’t drink but don’t want to be stuck just drinking water all night.

This. Alcoholic drinks are really pushed here, and there are many people who can't drink for health reasons. It doesn't take too much time to have some mineral water, or some Italian sodaa / sparkling water available. And it seems much nicer for a dinner party than tap water.

I have a poor reaction to wine, my heart starts pounding after I drink it. So I have to drink something else.

[Anonymous]

Just want to say thanks to those that offer still water as well as sparkling. I can't stand sparkling water (and I happen to not drink wine).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you overweight, OP?

As opposed to people who only drink wine with dinner. That’s like saying “are you an alcoholic?”

The DC area seems to drink a lot of alcohol and just serving wine and water at a formal dinner shows how normalized it is. Some people don’t like alcohol and that is ok. Telling them the only other option is water is pushing alcohol in my opinion which is irresponsible when you have guests that are driving.

We always serve wine, water (sparking and still) and Italian sodas. It truly is no big deal to keep a 6 pack in the house for guests who don’t drink but don’t want to be stuck just drinking water all night.

WTF. Irresponsible? Stuck drinking water? This is bizarre. Water is not a form of alcoholic shaming!! Water is so healthy and refreshing. You must be OP, who thinks water is “dry.” Actually, this whole thing seems trolling to me. jeff?

No, i’m a NP who loves my daily glass of wine. That said, this thread turned into mocking everyone who isn’t a wine drinker. I do agree with op that water is boring and when i’m driving I prefer an alternative. Fortunately, all the dinner parties we go to have a nonalcoholic alternative to just water. Yeah for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you overweight, OP?

As opposed to people who only drink wine with dinner. That’s like saying “are you an alcoholic?”

The DC area seems to drink a lot of alcohol and just serving wine and water at a formal dinner shows how normalized it is. Some people don’t like alcohol and that is ok. Telling them the only other option is water is pushing alcohol in my opinion which is irresponsible when you have guests that are driving.

We always serve wine, water (sparking and still) and Italian sodas. It truly is no big deal to keep a 6 pack in the house for guests who don’t drink but don’t want to be stuck just drinking water all night.

WTF. Irresponsible? Stuck drinking water? This is bizarre. Water is not a form of alcoholic shaming!! Water is so healthy and refreshing. You must be OP, who thinks water is “dry.” Actually, this whole thing seems trolling to me. jeff?

No, i’m a NP who loves my daily glass of wine. That said, this thread turned into mocking everyone who isn’t a wine drinker. I do agree with op that water is boring and when i’m driving I prefer an alternative. Fortunately, all the dinner parties we go to have a nonalcoholic alternative to just water. Yeah for me.

I don’t see anyone mocking non wine drinkers. Just OP and others who get offended when there aren’t numerous mocktails prepared. I would never, ever shame someone for not drinking alcohol! But to expect soda is kind of weird. I am a Diet Coke addict but I don’t offer it on the table because people are more judge if you drink soda than wine nowadays!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just want to say thanks to those that offer still water as well as sparkling. I can't stand sparkling water (and I happen to not drink wine).

If you don’t want sparkling, walk to the sink and fill up your glass. You people are so helpless. Why dirty a pitcher for tap water!?!

[Anonymous]

Many of the posts are saying that anything other than water or wine at dinner is unacceptable. It’s ridiculous. It is perfectly fine and acceptable to offer other kinds of beverages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just want to say thanks to those that offer still water as well as sparkling. I can't stand sparkling water (and I happen to not drink wine).

If you don’t want sparkling, walk to the sink and fill up your glass. You people are so helpless. Why dirty a pitcher for tap water!?!

I know plenty of hosts who would be horrified by someone leaving the table and helping themselves from the kitchen. Besides which,

I don't have a problem with a nice picture of iced water on the table with some lemon slices or something. I don't think there needs to be more than that. But the idea that the host should spend lots of money on wine, but shouldn't be asked to run a pitcher through the dishwasher for the someone who doesn't or can't drink is a little strange.

I also think fat shaming someone for a glass of juice, when wine has twice the calories of orange juice, is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Oh my why did I just read all 9 pages of this?

And only to find out water is dry?