Years ago I realized that I don’t like the hand-feel of stemmed glasses, particularly wine, martini, and champagne glasses. The stem just doesn’t provide me with the grip I want to secure the glass, and its top-heavy nature makes them more likely to tip over. Martini glasses are particularly prone to liquid sloshing out.
Fortunately, I found a workaround when ordering a mixed drink that typically comes in a stemmed glass: Order it on the rocks. There’s some rule of bartending that says that ice can’t be served in a stemmed glass. I did this just this past weekend: Near the end of the meal I ordered an espresso martini on the rocks, and it came in a solid stemless glass.
The slight downside to this method is that I prefer drinks without ice (though I’d rather have ice than a stem). So my favorite option is when a restaurant simply doesn’t have stemmed glasses; hence today’s pet please. I love stemless glasses. Plus, I know firsthand after working at a restaurant that carrying a stemmed glass on a tray is much more precarious than a stemless glass, so I feel better for the server too.
All glasses I use at home are stemless, including wine glasses.
Do you have a preference between the two, or is this just me?
Not just you!! No stems in my house and I’d just order up my drink to be served in a low-ball or rocks-glass.
Low-ball! I’ve heard that term but didn’t know what it meant.
I saw on an episode of Columbo they were holding the wine glass by the base. I think the glass is strong enough. While I like stemmed glasses, I don’t have the cabinet space. We use Bodum and Godinger glassware instead for our everyday use. I think my dad used to use short stem wine glasses for coffee.
You can always order your drinks “down” which means served in a rocks or old fashioned glass, but without the ice. Where a drink served “up” is in a stemmed glass.
That’s perfect!