Prosecco-No-No, Part 2

The restaurant I work in prides itself on locally sourced food, e.g. meat from local farms, local dairies, seafood directly from fishermen down the coast, and we grow all of our own veg. Because of this, we also have sourced a British sparkling wine to serve rather than prosecco.

One afternoon, a lady walks up to the bar where I am serving and asks for a glass of prosecco.

Me: “I’m sorry, we don’t actually sell prosecco, but we do have a locally sourced, British sparkling wine that’s very similar! I actually prefer it to prosecco. Would you like to try that, instead?”

Customer: *Stares at me blankly* “No, I’ll have prosecco, thanks.”

Me: “I understand, ma’am, but we don’t sell prosecco. We have this British sparkling wine, instead!”

I take the bottle out of the fridge to show her in the hope that she’ll understand. She looks back and forth between me and the bottle for a moment before saying anything.

Customer: “So, you don’t have any prosecco?”

Me: “No, unfortunately not, ma’am. Just this. Unless you would prefer champagne—”

She cuts me off before I can finish the question.

Customer: “What’s the difference?”

Our training for working in the restaurant enforces a high level of product knowledge on everything we sell, including its history, so I explain that prosecco is an Italian sparkling wine, whereas this is a British sparkling wine so the grapes are grown in the UK and the wine is made and bottled here, too. I emphasize the importance of locally sourced products and why we’re excited to sell it.

The customer, however, begins to look more and more confused and just sighs in exasperation.

Customer: *Whines* “I just want prosecco! Why is that so difficult to understand?”

She turns to her boyfriend.

Customer: “Can you believe this? Does she not know what prosecco is?!”

At this point, my manager, who has been watching the whole thing, intervenes.

Manager: “Don’t worry, miss. I’ll sort you out a glass of prosecco. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll bring it over to you?”

She beams at him and sits down with her boyfriend at the table closest to the bar. My manager turns around so his back is to her, takes the bottle of sparkling wine off me, gets a glass, and pours it. He walks over to her and waits for her to take a sip to make sure she’s happy with it before leaving them.

Customer: “Oh, that’s perfect! Just what I wanted! And it’s not that British s***, is it?”

Manager: *Knowing that it’s illegal to mis-sell alcohol* “It is, in fact, our house sparkling wine; it’s made right here in the UK, just outside of London!”

Customer: “Wow! I didn’t know England made wine!”

You could probably hear how hard I rolled my eyes. 

Related:
Prosecco-No-No