Raskin on Raskin on Not Drinking Any Wine at RN74

Hanna Raskin follows up her recent shocking confession with a bombshell of such epic proportions that it just couldn't wait 'til tomorrow's review roundup (warning: this post contains exaggeration). It seems La Raskin completed her enthusiastic review of RN74 (a wine bar) without ever sampling the venue's signature offering (the wine).

This confession comes by way of some inside baseball on Raskin's review budget. She has a fixed monthly budget for food, but her expense account won't cover alcohol. And while she's game to shell out for a cocktail or two before dinner at most places, the 36-page wine list is a different sort of beast:

As I wrote in my review, there are $34 wines on RN74's list, a fee I surely could have swung. But in order to adequately gauge the sommeliers' skills, I felt like I would have had to put forth twice that much.

Raskin's not the first person to walk through RN74's doors on a budget; one could argue that she could just order a wine by the glass. Or salute her for her fiscal sensibilities. Either way it's an ironic situation: "Food critics eat like kings, but we still earn like journalists."

· Reviewing the Review: A Food Critic's Whine [Seattle Weekly]
· All Hanna Raskin Coverage on Eater Seattle [-ESEA-]