Why do wine bars charge a corkage fee for bottles of wine purchased and consumed on their premises?
Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at
12:50 pm
msp76 asked:
I was recently at a popular wine bar in San Francisco and they charge a $15 corkage fee for wines bought from their shelves that are not on the actual menu. It makes no sense to me that they can charge a corkage fee for something purchased and consumed on their premises. Is this common practice? Does anyone know the logic/reasoning behind this?
Thanks
I was recently at a popular wine bar in San Francisco and they charge a $15 corkage fee for wines bought from their shelves that are not on the actual menu. It makes no sense to me that they can charge a corkage fee for something purchased and consumed on their premises. Is this common practice? Does anyone know the logic/reasoning behind this?
Thanks
Tagged with: Corkage Fee • Logic • Premises
Filed under: Wine
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The Almighty Dollar.
Interesting. I had never heard of this. Found this explanation but it still seems strange they charge you when you bought it there!!!
What is Corkage?
Corkage is a per bottle fee that a restaurant charges a customer who brings their own wine to be consumed at that restaurant. This isn’t allowed in the majority of restaurants in the country, but it’s very common/normal in Northern California.
Why do restaurants charge Corkage fees?
The corkage fee covers service (but not tips/service charge), wine glass breakage/rental and some of the lost revenue from not selling a wine off the restaurant’s list. Keep in mind that restaurants are in the business to make money and wine is perhaps their biggest profit center; in most circumstances, a $20 corkage fee is not at all unreasonable.
Typical Corkage Fee
Many restaurants charge $10-$20 but the actual range is everywhere from free (sometimes called BYOW restaurants) to $75 (very high end places, like The French Laundry). A high corkage fee is in place to discourage you from bringing wine and/or to make sure the restaurant profits when you do so.
Corkage Fees are Sometimes Waived
Some restaurants have a policy of buy one bottle, get one corkage fee waived. Sometimes there are $0 corkage nights. It is also possible that they’re waived completely, often depending on how friendly you are with the owner/wait staff of the restaurant, or if you really brought a special bottle. That 1962 Haut-Brion is less likely to get a corkage fee than a 1997 Silver Oak. Sharing the wine with one or more members of the restaurant may lead to having the fee waived, too.
Bottle Limits
Some restaurants limit you to bringing two bottles
San Francisco the center of the *** world and far left conspiracy,, sympathizers for Iran and Move On????
fancy boys LIKE to show OFF their money
any establishment can fix their price if you don’t like it leave
read the menu and do not show off and order Dom deloused next time.
I’m not sure, I’ve never heard of this. It might be that some wines are in short supply and are available but aren’t listed on the menu. Possibly they charge the fee because the wine is difficult to get or because they are in short supply of it. Just guesses.
The short answer: Because they can.
Really, they are doing it because even though you bought a bottle from their retail side of the shop (I’m assuming) and drinking while in the bar side of the shop, you didn’t pay what you would have paid on the bar side. A bottle you buy from them retail for say, $30, is going to be at least $60 for the same bottle at the bar. They are just trying to recover some of the lost profit from you buying a retail bottle instead of at the bar, even though it all goes into the same pocket.
Bulls–t I know, but that’s the way it works. I used to go a bar that also had an attached wine shop but the owner was cool and if you found a bottle next door in the shop, he was happy to open if for you (especially if it was a nice bottle he normally wouldn’t carry at the bar). I suggest you find a place that does the same.
After reading the textbook answer by Bluesea, here’s the practical life scoop on that.
Most of the restaurants and wine bars, in California or outside, will charge a corking fee. Basically, corking fee accounts for everything from the service of opening the bottle, serving the wine if they so desire, providing glasswares (which means that they have to clean as well as accounting for the broken glasses that occurs frequently), cleanup cost (spills, laundry, disposal, washing, etc), and licensing – a restaurant has to pay each year for liquor license. A corking fee typically are $5-15, and they are very common in restaurants and wine bars.
In fact, wine bars and restaurants do not have to allow their customers to open their own wines. They are doing it out of courtesy. There is no law saying that they have to let you open your own bottles. So, it is nice for them to do that.
Some restaurant really discourage the BYOW policy by charging extraordinarily high corking fee ($35, $50, etc). The reason is that they make at least double the cost of the wine for each bottle they sell. For example, a bottle that retails $50 can be purchased by the restaurant for $35-40, and they will charge you at least $100-125 per bottle there. So, the margin of profit is high, and they do not like to lose out on all those money.
Look at this other way. If you want to bring a Big Mac or take-out Chinese to a nice fancy French Restaurant and eat there, you will be discouraged to do so. Don’t expect to eat your own food for free at the restaurant. Why would it be different for wines?
They need cover the cost of the glasses, cleaning the glasses, wages of person pouring the wine, rent, utilities, upkeep…
$15 is not to high as I have paid much higher in restaurants.