French Laundry: Update...

I don't usually do updates.  But this one's just too juicy to ignore...

You'll recall I pulled back the curtain for you on our Boy Guv's trip to the now infamous French Laundry.  The French Laundry is perhaps our very finest, and most expensive restaurant, and one at which I would dearly liked to have experienced personally.  3 Michelin stars since 2007, it has, and deserves every one of them, we're told.  And California's Governor Gavin Newsom, along with who we now know to be 22 of his very best friends, all lobbyists for the California Medical Association, dined out in splendor and luxury a couple of weeks past.

It was originally reported by his crowd to be only10 guests, but we now know that was also a lie.

But what I found of interest is that the wine ticket for this little dinner party was...wait for it...$15,000!

Now, as a certified lecturer on all things wine, and as someone who has put away far more of this God-given stuff that perhaps any other mortal living, I'd like to tell you it takes a lot of wine to equal $15,000!  Unless, of course, it is ordered up and imbibed at a watering hole of such legendary accomplishments as this.

Newsom was invited to this little soiree by his friends in the CMA to celebrate a lobbyist buddy's birthday.  And we now know, as I reported, that Newsom attended this dinner in direct violation of his own executive orders.  "Okay for me, but not for thee," says Newsom.  But it gets worse.  The per-person average ticket to eat at this pleasure palace is over $1,000.  And that does not include the wine.  Whoa boy, does it ever not include the wine!  Hang on and you'll find out why that's an important line item missing from news that's been so far reported.

Now, whether there were only 10 guests at this Caligula-style, wretched excess feeding or 22, $15 Grand worth of wine divided back through the number of diners is still a whole lot of wine!  That's over $700 per person!  And I don't care what each bottle cost!  (Actually I do, as it was over $850 per bottle!).  And from what we're told, the guests, including Newsom, drove themselves home.  Seems to me a bunch of DUI's was missed by our Boys in Blue.  Who most likely sheparded him home...

And then there's the question of who paid for this wine.  And the dinner.  We know that California law prohibits an elected official from receiving more than $10 per month in gifts.  And no more than $500 in aggregate in any one year (how many sips of $850 per bottle wine does it take to equal $500?).  So if he didn't pay for the dinner, and we're told the CA Med Assn. did, then he's guilty of receiving graft.  And he's therefore proven to be corrupt.  Of course we all knew that, but now we have the proof...

And once again, there were no masks worn.  By anyone.  We know.  We have photos.  And there was no effort to "socially distance."  Each diner was cheek by jowl, laughing it up.  Laughing so loud, we're told, that the restaurant's other guests complained and the management had to close the doors to the private room in which they were dining.  A room.  Indoors.  Not outdoors, as they first told us.  Another lie.  Surprise!

So, fellow Californians, our governor told us all to stay home, to socially-distance, to wear masks, even indoors, and be to damned happy his orders weren't even more draconian.  And he dined out, with his wife, and another 20 guests, indoors, at a restaurant, where the likely $40,000 bill for food and wine was paid for by a lobbyist.  Illegally.

I recall a time when our elected leaders tried to hide their graft and corruption.  No longer, it seems.  We're just that stupid, it seems...