To bring a bottle to the restaurant, or not
Recently my wife and I went to dinner with another couple. I had purchased a wine on line that I wanted my friend to try. I called the restaurant and asked if they had a corkage policy. They did. They charged $10 per bottle. Of course this is a great deal because we usually spend $70 - $80 on a bottle at a restaurant. The wine I brought cost me $30, but it was much better than what we most often get at the restaurant.
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When I told my sister about our experience at the restaurant, including the fact that we had brought our own wine, she said that she thought it was bad taste to bring wine. She used to work in a restaurant, and felt that the restaurant owner spends much time in selecting wines for their list that compliment their food, and that choosing to bring another wine is an insult to the owner/manager. She also pointed out that restaurants depend on the revenue they get from their wine sales to remain profitable.
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I disagree with her. The restaurant made $10 on the wine, with no investment. Yes, they usually make $30 or more on the $50 bottle we purchase, but maybe that is part of the problem. Most wine lists are pretty pedestrian, offering the same assortment of wines that are popular in the retail stores, or offering wines that they can buy for a great price, and markup three to four times over their cost. Additionally, if they did not want us to bring a bottle with us, they could simply have a policy against doing so.
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The best way to try a new wine is when it is served with an excellent meal. I go to a restaurant for the food, and of course, I choose a wine from the list that matches that meal. If I can enhance my dining experience by bringing a new wine with me, why shouldn’t I? I’m not talking about going to the local retailer and buying a bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay to try. I’m talking about bringing wines that I haven’t had before, and that most likely are not available in the local market.
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One provisio however. When determining the tip for the waitstaff, assume that you had purchased a bottle of wine from the list, and then tip accordingly. Your wait person shouldn’t be penalized because you chose to bring in your own wine.
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February 5th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I have no problem bringing a bottle of wine to a restaurant. That being said, I do my best to look over the restaurant’s wine list and find something appropriate whenever possible. Spread the Thunder! http://tv.winelibrary.com
February 6th, 2008 at 12:36 am
When I bring wine to restaurant I will often also order a wine off the list, especially if there are 4 or more of us. Many places will waive the corkage if you do that, at least in my experience.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
If the restaurant charges only $10 for corkage, they’re not too worried about people bringing their own bottles. When corkage starts creeping into the $25 range, you then start to feel that the restaurant is discouraging bringing rather than buying.
February 12th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Having worked for over a decade in the service industry in the states, as long as customers followed your suggestion of tipping the server as if you’ve ordered a bottle, restaurants were more than happy to accommodate you. One in particular went so far to encourage the patron to bring their own wine, that they would have personal pairing night. On Thursdays, they would feature one dish, which was announced on the website. Customers were then asked to bring in their favorite wine, or wines, to pair with the dish. Waiters would then pass by near the end of the meal and conduct a quick survey. If it paired well, restaurant management would use it as a suggestion for their wine menu. Those wines chosen to be featured in the menu would have the patron’s name and dish listed alongside the wine. The campaign was incredible because it allowed customers to feel like sommeliers, and restaurant management to feel like they were creating loyalty among customers.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:30 am
My husband and I always bring our own wines to restaurants, but we call ahead to make sure it’s okay to do so. We have never encountered a restaurant yet that said no. We make it a point to bring wines that are not on their list.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
From a server and manager point of view, I would say bring the bottle. I have been enlightened many times from patrons bringing their own wine, fom rare vintages to the newest release, and I found it enjoyable to have the chance to sample and talk about these wines. As a server I would use the chance to warm up the guest, make them a repeat customer, if offered a taste or glass, I would ask the manager to waive the corkage fee and use that to develop a lasting service
relationship, and that generally meant better tip percentage. As a manager, I would use the experience to bolster my wine list if the selection was good, and met the needs of the restaurant. I would use this opportunity to have a one on one conversation, develop a repeat customer, and spread word of mouth business, this is the cheapest and most effective form of marketing dollars you can spend. The percieved loss of revenue is regained through repeat business and guest satisfaction. Now I am no longer in the business, and I bring my own wine frequently, not to be a snob or try to get around the obvious mark-up in price, but because I like to collect and try new and rare wines, those often not found on many lists. I can tell you that restaurants that treat this as a positive experience ALWAYS get my repeat business no matter what!
February 27th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
“the restaurant owner spends much time in selecting wines for their list that compliment their food”? If only that were true. I can think of maybe a handful of places where that’s the case - a very good example being the Slanted Door in San Francisco, which has a massive range of Rieslings to compliment their Vietnamese/Asian Fusion cuisine.
Most restaurants seem to just slap together a list based on what their local distributor carries. Rather than matching the food it’s a case of “We’ll have a couple of cabs, merlots, pinots…” and leave it up to the customer to decide what works with what. They add insult to injury with a 3X markup. And tough luck if you like your cabernets with some age; assuming that they even have any, the price will be through the roof.
Good restaurants don’t need huge wine mark-ups to survive, they need loyal repeat customers. Look at Passion Fish in Monterey - they mark up their wines $16 over the (wholesale) price that they paid. Last time I was there I chose an August West Pinot that was priced at less than retail. The place is alway packed.
So my philosophy is to buy whites or sparkling wines from the list and to bring my own reds and Sauternes.