The Wine List

love the glassware, the ambience and the wine service at Checkers, and I've dined there often. But I've noticed few tables have wine on them. The reason, I suspect, is the prices--twice retail for currently available wines, at a time when just about every retail shop is discounting deeply.

Examples: 1988 Piper-Sonoma Brut sparkling wine, available at shops for around $15, is $29 here; 1990 Silverado Chardonnay, $15 retail, is $32 here; 1990 Kunde Reserve Chardonnay, found in one discount store at $19.99, is $49 here.

Perhaps if Checkers were still the only game downtown, this policy might work. But now with excellent, well-priced wine lists just blocks away at McCormick and Schmick's and the Water Grill, one suspects that Checkers' wine sales will come mostly from well-heeled suckers.