How dare you, Morton's?

I never thought I'd be one of those bloggers who talks about the news, but this one pissed me off enough that I had to say something.


This has got to be the biggest crock of shit I've heard in a while. No, I'm not saying it's a crock of shit that a restaurant would have the nerve to charge for ice, I'm saying it's a crock that news reporters would run with a story and not even bother to investigate it. I've waited tables, my dad is a bartender, and my sister has waited tables, bartended, and managed a restaurant, and we can all assure you that a drink on the rocks does indeed contain about 50% more alcohol, and that's what you're being charged for.

I also can't figure out why Morton's is being singled out when virtually every restaurant and bar on earth does the same. The person who made a big stink out of being charged the extra $2.50 was financial writer and investigative reporter Dan Dorfman. That's some pretty fucking good investigating there, especially since this entire story could be disproven by ordering a normal cocktail and a cocktail on the rocks and just fucking looking at them. Furthermore, how is it that this is the first time the 77-year old Dorfman has ever encountered a rocks charge? He's been legally old enough to drink at a bar for 56 years and this is the first fucking time he's ever noticed it?

I also love the righteous indignation in the reporter's voice when she says that Morton's charges $107 for a porterhouse steak, like they're a group of evil extortion artists who spring $107 bills ($109.50 if you count the rocks charge) on poor blue collar workers who just wanted a decent dinner. The customer base at Morton's is comprised of rich people who are perfectly okay with paying over $100 for a steak, you dipshits. The price of the steak is even printed on the goddamned menu. It's not like it's a dirty secret they're trying to hide. And it's all capped off with her smug dismissal of the restaurant's claims that they've charged for rocks for 12 years with a tone and look on her face that just screams, "These extortion artists are so full of shit that I won't even bother to see if they're telling the truth." Don't fucking go through the trouble of confirming if what they said was true or not, that's something a journalist might do.

I know it seems like I'm making way too big of a deal out of what is essentially a lazily assembled fluff piece, but think about it. Drinks on the rocks costing more because they have more alcohol is common knowledge to millions of people and has been standard practice at bars for years. If nobody at the news station can fucking get something that simple and well-known right, how can you trust anything they have to say?