wine waiter

plural wine waiters

1. The member of staff at a restaurant who keeps the wine cellar, advises guests on the choice of wines and serves them; a waiter who is also in charge of the wine cellar and other duties normally assigned to sommeliers.

   […] she listened admiringly while Cass, who knew nothing whatever about the subject, held a symposium on sauternes with the wine-waiter.

   1945, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 23, in Cass Timberlaine, New York: Random House

   2 more examples

   Waiters paused in their hurrying to and fro, and stood with dishes in their hands, watching the curiously circling birds. A wine waiter, who had been serving some priceless Burgundy, went on pouring it until the wine was trickling in a little stream across the table-cloth on to the floor.

   1932, E. Phillips Oppenheim, “The Ghosts of Suicide Corner”, in Crooks in the Sunshine, London: Hodder & Stoughton

   Sometimes I hear people asking “Can you recommend a wine to go with the salmon (or whatever)?” To which the wine waiter’s first response should surely be—though I have never heard a wine waiter ask it—“How much do you want to spend exactly?”

   2006 July 25, Winston Fletcher, “Too much wine, too many waiters”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: sommelier, wine steward