That’s hilarious. If a restaurant is paying MORE for wine than the average consumer they DESERVE to go out of business. If a restaurant needs to make most of their money selling wine, they should open a wine shop.

And don’t call me a cheapskate. This past Sunday despite having a couple of cases of wine in the car, I paid $60 for a bottle of wine in a restaurant in the Napa Valley. Why? Because I knew that that was the ONLY place that I was going to find that particular wine and that the restaurant was smart enough to have it on their list.

And while I’ll normally take a $20-$30 wine with me, if we’re just going out for a quick bite for dinner I’ll grab whatever’s handy. Like the other night, I grabbed a $10 wine to take because I knew I liked it and didn’t want to risk paying $25 or $30 on something I didn’t particularly like on an evening that wasn’t particularly special. In fact, I offered the waiter a glass of it after he opened it and he said that while he’d like to, he couldn’t. But guess what, he waived the corkage!

Before opening mine, I’ll always check their list. If I see something I really like, I’ll order from their list instead. It often comes down to making sure that I’m going to like what I’m drinking.

I just wish that more restrateurs would figure out that they would come out ahead by lowering their wine prices. They’d sell more wine and their restaurant would be more popular. One of the best examples I know is Passionfish restaurant in Pacific Grove, CA. They offer fine dining (Zagat rated 25 for food!) and a huge wine list that is priced at RETAIL. You can buy a bottle of wine there for anywhere between $11 and $250. It’s packed every night and has been that way for many years. How do they stay in business without ripping people off on wine? Check out their website along with their wine list: http://www.passionfish.net