This missive was posted a couple of days ago under the comments for the “Corkage is a no-no…but not so fast” article we ran last month. It was so interesting that we decided to push it front and center to give you some more Food For Thought.
From Prof. Restaurant to ELV (August 24, 2008):
I do not and will not allow anyone to bring their own bottle(s) into my restaurant. Why? Because of all of the hassles associated with it…if you don’t charge a corkage…sales suffer and the server feels slighted. If you charge a corkage…it always seems like someone “expects” to get that fee waived…plus I have had people on numerous occasions call ahead and ask if they can bring a bottle, the hostess says “sure, as long as it is not a bottle from our list” and they showed up with 3 magnums of the cheapest wine imaginable..it was embarrassing that people around them thought I served that stuff!!
Finally, the very last straw came the other evening when one of my long time professional servers came to me with the dilemma that one of her tables was being drunk and rowdy. I run a fun and warm place where everyone gets treated with respect. I went to see the situation and realized that the table had brought in 3 bottles of their own wine (in the $85 to $100 range) for a party of 5. They were on the last bottle (maybe half full) They all seemed pretty intoxicated and LEGALLY it is up to me to cut them off of any further alcohol use. How do I take the bottle? I am responsible for my place and I send all of my bartenders and servers to alcohol awareness training. I mentioned that I was sorry, but that they could not drink the rest of the bottle and that I would re-cork it and they could come back the next night to finish it. I cannot legally give them an open bottle to take on the road…lawyers live for this kind of thing. They started yelling at me and booing when I took the bottle and the guy kept telling me that “I can’t take HIS bottle” This is in my own place and people are trying to dictate my business to me. They wanted me to pay for the bottle!! They ended up leaving mad and stiffing the poor waitress on a $500 check!!!
Corkage fee…BYOB forget it. Why not bring your own menu items? I don’t serve lamb, so if you want to bring some in with your own wine…that is great…we can turn my place into your living room hangout, bring your own music….
I have been in this business 25 years and I remember a time when people went out…ordered from the menu provided (without 20 substitutions) had a great meal, great wine and great service and went home happy. Nowadays, people want their own clubhouse, where someone else pays the bills and takes the insurance risk.
If you want YOUR bottle of wine—drink it in YOUR own home.
For the record: ELV intends to continue in the politically courageous mode for which he and his staff are known, by continuing to see (and take) all sides in this corkage controversy.
To Prof. Restaurant:
I fail to see how the example of the rowdy table would be any different if that wine was bought off the list. They would still have claimed it was THEIR wine since THEY paid for it, and would certainly have made the same demand of not paying for it.
And if a restaurant cannot stand up to their own clientele for a corkage fee without being negotiated out of it, how can they do it for mandatory gratuities for large parties or other charges?
If you want to refuse people from bringing their own bottle in, do it. But please save the lecturing as if this is the most onerous thing your clients can ask of you.
I ran a restaurant for a well known East coast company that did not allow BYOB in any of their restaurants. However, I learned quickly that it was just a guideline. By making it more of an exclusive event for my more distinguished and frequent guests they were appreciative and grateful. We never charged a corkage fee and they always shared a tasting with who ever served them (very thoughtful). If someone called and asked we always said that it wasn’t our policy to allow outside bottles as sort of “if you have to ask, then No.” Most times these were people that would bring out one of their very rare bottle from their own cellar to show off for a special guest of theirs and then buy a second bottle from the restaurant.
Handling a rowdy guest is a delicate situation, no doubt. In this instance they guest clearly took advantage of a situation and that does happen. If you have a BYOB policy, their should be limits on the amount per guest they can bring to alleviate yourself of any legal issues.
I think this also goes back to the previous debate of what is the appropriate mark up for wine. If guests didn’t feel ripped off then they would be less likely to bring in wine. Also, the most recent WS has a relevant article on wine service and a survey of wine drinkers on these topics. It’s definitely worth a look.
Daniel Boulud also ranted about BYOB, corkage, and wine mark-up on his show “After Hours with Daniel Boulud,” during the Commander’s Palace episode this season. If you like ELV, you’d probably enjoy his show, which is on the unfortunately-named Mojo Network. Actually, if Boulud ever comes to town for the show, JC ought to be a guest (John Curtas, not Jesus Christ, though he could be a guest, too). Anyway, Boulud was pretty passionate on the subject, and it was interesting to hear about it from his point of view.
OK Lucas, share … Was the rant a consumer friendly rant, or the typical rant supporting the huge markups because of the “costs” of a “proper” wine program where the consumer is an ignorant piece of garbage hardly worth the genuis being providedd?
The wife and I had a wonderful dinner at Babbo last year. The restaurant has a pair of prix fix meals with a choice of two levels of wine pairings. I like that concept, normally you just get the interesting, but still nothing special wine. Having multiple levels at a starred restaurant just makes sense.
However, we had heard so much about the lamb’s tongue vinaigrette salad and the sweetbreads looked great, and so on. So when the sommelier came by we told him we were building our own five course menu and asked if he would be willing to supply matched wines at about $90-100 per person. He said he’d love to. We talked quickly about regions I knew and those I didn’t and he said to leave it to him. Over the course of the meal he pulled six bottles, none of them were previously opened, and we pretty much got to drink our fill of each. He told us a little about the region, winemaker and the reason for picking it. It was amazing.
After the meal, we were provided a printed list of what we ate and the wines he matched. When the bill came, it was for $90 for BOTH of us. I later checked the Internet for the retail prices of the wines, and they went from $14 to $50 a bottle. I said amazing earlier. I’ll say it again — amazing. I have no idea if they have corkage. Why would I want to bring anything? The restaurant provided a wine experience I couldn’t match otherwise for a fair price. In this case amazing price. I think that somehow the sommelier needed someone to really appreciate what he could do that night.
Now, the other foot. A local Park City French restaurant, now defunct, had a wine list with 300% markups on all wines. There was nothing graduated where the markup on the $15 bottle was 300% and the markup on the $100 bottle was 75%. No, the $100 bottle went straight to $300. Unlike Babbo, in the earlier post, that has a truly world class wine list with many difficult to obtain wines, this place had nothing what wasn’t purchased at the local wine store the previous week. I was in the wine store one day and saw the owner with a grocery list of wines he had to pick up. He checked of each pedestrian wine as he put it in the cart. So, in the time it takes him to drive from the store to the restaurant, the wine triples in value. That’s hardly allows for any argument that you have to charge so much because of the time value of money. His corkage is $25. Why would I not bring my own wine? His value proposition has nothing to do with unusual, or hard to obtain wines. None of the wines have any additional costs because they were cellared. His actions just say “bend over the table briefly while I have a quickie with you.” “I’ll let you call me Nancy.” Now, would like food with that. I can bring a nice older, quality, bottle from my cellar and pay a corkage fee less than his markup on a bottle of Woodbridge. For that matter, I can buy any number of good bottles at the wine store, drive to the restaurant and, in effect, pay a smaller markup than he charges for that bottle of Woodbridge. He can raise his corkage to the stratospheric levels of $75 a bottle and I come out ahead on any decent bottle by bringing it.
Obviously, these places don’t realize that the value proposition not only has to exist for the food, it has to exist for the wine. As time goes on and the American public becomes a little more knowledgeable about wine — and considers it an integral part of the meal — this type of treatment will not be able to continue.
Everyone is missing the important part of the gentlemans story. Three bottles for five people, and they were all drunk? Bunch of lightweights, or, more likely, two of the guests were drinking most of the wine. I’m sorry but the correct thing to do is to take the GLASSES of the obviously intoxicated people and let the two or three others who were probably drinking lighter continue to sip, explain the situation to the lightweights and diffuse the situation by offering to fully return the cork into the bottle at the end of the meal if there is any left, which is a perfectly legal way to send off a customer. If mister 25 years in the business can’t handle this minor bit of restaurant management then maybe his restaurant shouldn’t allow corkage. But only to keep him from pissing off possible return guests with the cork he has wedged firmly in his… well you know.
RSchiffman is absolutely correct here. Other than the occasional special bottle, almost all us wine enthusiasts bring wine because of usurious markups. I think most of us would agree that a solid wine list at near retail prices would make most of these issues go away.