Originally Posted by
DJGMaster1
That's all well and good if one is planning to drink a 3-5 year-old bottle of wine of the sort that is normally found on restaurant wine lists. But the OP is bringing a 25 year-old classified growth Bordeaux that certainly is worth in the hundreds of dollars at retail. IMHO, most restaurants should feel honored that the OP considers their cuisine to be worthy of his special wine.
I believe that the reasonable corkage fee ought to be somewhere around the expected profit margin (as opposed to revenue) from beverage service at an average table of the restaurant. And I'd be surprised if that number is greater than $15-20 or so per table on average. It ought to be viewed as a means of compensating them for their opportunity cost that they are sacrificing by not getting to sell the patron some alcohol to accompany their meal.
On top of that, tipping on the corkage IS appropriate, because that compensates the server, whereas the corkage compensates the restaurant for their opportunity cost sacrificed by not selling the patron the sort of wine an average table buys.
Of course, there are quite a few restaurants that have recognized the value in cultivating wine enthusiasts as a client base, because they tend to be among the opinion leaders in matters of trendy restaurants and cuisines, and those restaurants do this by offering very economical (say $10-12 a bottle) corkage fees. This sort of corkage pricing at least covers the cost of providing the wine service, while also tending to encourage more repeat business among the wine enthusiast clientele, as well as positive word of mouth from these customers, who, as I stated above, tend to be opinion leaders in terms of creating buzz in the community folks who appreciate good food and wine.
That being said, it's one thing to offer cheap corkage on special bottles, that are unique, and beyond the typical restaurant's ability to stock in their cellar inventory, but it's quite another to offer cheap corkage on any old $12-20 bottle that's currently on sale at the BevMo, and happens also to be on the restaurant's wine list for $30-50. I can certainly see why a restaurant would feel abused in that scenario - as after all, their value added should include not just the cost of serving the wine with proper stemware and wait-staff time, but also in properly choosing the better values among those widely available bottles, and offering good advice as to what wines pair particularly well with the particular dishes that they serve.
As far as feeling honored, I'm sure the chef (if it's a restaurant with a "chef") would feel honored, but the business only cares about money and probably doesn't care too much if you bring in a Grand Cru Burgundy or Beringer White Zin as far as the profit margin goes.
As to the beverage markup, having seen what my various restaurants pay for the wines (about 10% less than liquor store prices on average, unless it's a large chain who has corporate pricing), I would say $20-$30 per bottle for most restaurants would probably be typical. Hence the $20 corkage makes sense to me. But, if I were running a restaurant, I'd make sure we had quality wine glasses and decanters so people would feel that they're getting a value for that cost.
Having one night a week with no corkage could be a promotion to get the more wine savvy to come to the restaurant. But if I were a restaurant owner, it would only be on a night that I needed to drive some more business, as opposed to always having a cheaper corkage fee, but that's just me.
Chris