Some people equate the notion of pleasant surroundings, comfort, good service and fine food as the symbols of middle-class drudgery. I’d no sooner want to dine in a dive as I would go to an open-air market rife with rats romping around the pumpkin patch.

This doesn’t mean if one opts for a casual dining experience that it must have unkempt, unappealing surroundings dished up by a spaced-out wait staff too cool for anything more than lackluster service. Yet if the food is decent enough, even somewhat compelling, it’s supposed to compensate. That’s hogwash.

For a long time the Portland restaurant scene has been overwhelmed by these little charming joints that are sometimes hard on the eyes--with lighting appropriate for an opium den or kitchens as organized an as embattled mess hall at a training camp. Thank you very much. I’d rather stay home than go to someplace, even if the food is palatable, where I feel I should take a trip to the Board of Health afterwards. Indeed some establishments have their very appeal from the chic of shabby and quaint. That’s OK. Haphazardness isn’t.

Last night’s dinner at Fore Street found us in the company of what seemed like a congenial group of locals and visitors who all looked as though they were enjoying themselves immensely from bountiful offerings of good food and wine.

We sat at a table in the corner of the room that allowed us to survey the entire scene. There were several groups of six or more with lots of bottles of wine on the table and a lot of reaching across to each other’s plates sampling the food. The waiters were quite pleased too because these diners were ordering without reserve, running up very substantial tabs. It’s good to see business thriving.

Buying wine in Portland—or any other town or city in Maine—is not easy if you’re looking for more than just a bottle or two.

The other day I wanted to buy a case of Zinfandel. I didn’t have any particular one in mind. Most Zins offer reliable drinking. They’re made from a grape variety that seems to thwart all the pitfalls that can occur from one vintage to the next.

I stopped into Browne Trading, which generally has an excellent collection of wines. The trouble is, I discovered, that you can’t get—on the spot—more than a couple of bottles at one time.

I found a few Zins that I knew and liked but none were available by the case. The most I could purchase was two or three bottles. I went to almost every wine purveyor in the city to find the same situation.