This tickled me:
Professional wine buyer Kate Janacek, who sets corkage policies for restaurants, said even the ultra wealthy try to save money.
"Many will buy a bottle of wine when its relatively cheap – say £40 – keep it at home, wait for its value to go up to, for example, £250, and then take it to restaurant for a special occasion.
"They know even with corkage fee, they've got a better deal than if they simply went to the restaurant and ordered a £250 bottle of wine from its list."
by quills11
13 Comments
All of us with dedicated wine storage and wine fridges running 24/7 should take comfort in the fact we’re just being frugal.
Excuse me where do you acquire these 40 GBP bottles that turn into 250 after some time?
I think the usual mark up for London restaurants is around 3x retail. So paying the corkage charge can still be good value depending on where you go- but £100 corkage or 50% of the wine value still seems pretty crazy.
“Typically restaurants make more money on the wine they serve than the food they cook.”
Doesn’t that seem backwards? Is it any wonder, then, that people are more interested in bringing their own wine? It’s not like there’s much effort in having a bottle of wine on hand.
In the immortal words of Rocket J. Squirrel, “What, again? But that trick never works…”
I lowered margins and ended up boosting profits because this economy is dog shit. The writing is on the wall for those who can’t adapt.
Who is buying bottles and then sitting on them for that long so they appreciate in value just to be opened in 5yrs, 10yrs, 25yrs for potential dinner? You could end up in the hospital before you get to drink that bottle…
I feel like restaurants are missing a good opportunity here. There are maybe only a handful of places that don’t mark up the bottle price or glass price, and instead treat it more like retail pricing. I hope this becomes more commonplace because then you might attract people who a) want to enjoy more wine with their meals – more $$ for the restaurant, b) attract wine people if you create a diverse and rotating list (so a cultural factor to your establishment) – again more $$ for the restaurant, which could c) lead into wine/drink/food focused events, meetups, etc. Obviously this is an ideal situation but could be something to work towards for certain establishments. I think this might be a better model to help save the restaurant industry overall, while keeping people employed, potentially creating new jobs, or even reintroducing the sommelier for certain establishments.
This isn’t a new idea but the restaurants value should be in what they make and services provided, not recouped using wine/beer as a work around for making more profits. I don’t disagree with charging a minimal corkage fee (£5) if customers are bringing multiple bottles to drink at your establishment and then ordering the minimal amount of food – but they’ll likely order more food since they are drinking – or if the staff needs to chill your bottle (bucket on table), open the bottle, and pour the first glass, but £100 seems excessive.
I’m also kind of tired of the enormous prices paid at restaurants for bottles that I know don’t cost what is listed. And when I see glass prices that start at $16, I usually go for the pint of beer ($8-9).
Fine, i’ll pay your 3x markup for wine, but i’ll be bringing my own food!
Scammers
When I see corkage policies that are excessive like this, it’s in very high-end restaurants and I regard it as a “fuck you, we don’t want to accept corkage.” Which is understandable when it’s a very small restaurant with a robust beverage program, inexpensive corkage could utterly crater their revenue. And while they could simply say that they do not accept corkage, I would imagine they have at least a few customers for whom money is no object, and who possess some exceptionally special bottles. For everybody else, just order cocktails or order from the wine list. It’s just not the place for corkage.
The only policy I absolutely can’t tolerate is that “50% of market value” bullshit. It’s gratuitous and utterly disconnected from the nominal idea that the corkage cost is to make up for time, average revenue loss, clean up etc.
Actually one of the only cool things about NJs shitty liquor laws left over from prohibition is that nobody can get a liquor license including luxury restaurants pretty commonly. This means they can’t sell alcohol so they let you bring any bottle of wine or alcohol free of charge.
Going to nice restaurants is awesome since there’s no corkage fee. Not saying it should be free but many places in our very HCOL area survive with no liquor so maybe the issue isn’t the liquor costs.
“”Many will buy a bottle of wine when it’s relatively cheap – say £40 – keep it at home, wait for its value to go up to . . .”
WTH? We’re not waiting for the value to go up so we get a good deal at a restaurant, we’re purchasing when the wine is actually available and then waiting for it to hit the desired drinking window. Does she really think wine collectors are driven by deals???
‘Sets corkage policies for restaurants.’ That sounds a bit uncompetitive.