This is small potatoes by comparison to some, but it was the best AND most expensive meal I've ever had: $1020 at the French Laundry for four people. It would have been significantly more if we'd paid the restaurant's price for the bottle of '91 Chateau Margaux we enjoyed with our meat courses. The wine had been our wedding present to the other couple ten years previous; the sommelier opened it for us in exchange for the restaurant's $50 corkage fee.

I still can't believe we paid fifty bucks to have them pour our own bottle of wine for us. Sheesh. What a bunch of maroons.