Corkage and Opening Fees

[BvBPL]

By (a potentially poor) analogy, should a restaurant charge an appetizer fee or a dessert fee if you do not order that course, since you are occupying a place in their restaurant but since you are not consuming one of the products that a restaurant owner may expect you to consume, the owner isn't making as much profit on your dining experience?

The analogy fails because bringing a bottle of wine into a restaurant is bringing a competing product in which is fundementally different from choosing not to purchase food from the restaurant. I can see how your argument follows mine though.

I've never taken my own bottle to a restaurant, but I know a couple people who have a particular favorite type of white wine, and for birthdays they bring their favorite bottle if the restaurant they picked does not have it on hand.

Or they want to celebrate w/ champange and not want to pay $150 / bottle when they can get it for $50 plus corkage fee.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I don't think I've ever byob to a restaurant. Wouldn't pay a fee to do it.

I've only done it with new restaurants that don't have their liquor license yet. Those restaurants typically encourage you to bring your own alcohol and gladly give you the glasses at no extra charge.

Restaurants make a great deal of their profit from alcohol sales. It shouldn't be surprising in the least that they would want to be compensated for BYOB. It would also surprise me if you could save any money by doing so.

 

[sophie]

Is that a common practice in some places? I have never heard of a person bringing in a cake to a restaurant - seems a rather odd thing to do.

If you want a special type of cake not served at the restaurant - like an ice-cream cake or a Cake Boss-esque novelty cake it would absolutely make sense to bring your own cake to the restaurant, particularly if the restaurant does not offer any cake alternatives of its own. You'd also want to bring your own cake if you want a personalized message on the cake, which the restaurant is obviously not going to do.

 

[warpus]

Oh yeah, that scenario makes sense to me now - I just have really never seen it. Usually people will go to a restaurant that can accommodate their birthday cake needs - and most people don't really care what's written on the cake anyway.

Either way though, the practice seems like it'd be so uncommon that restaurants wouldn't have a standard fee associated with the practice. I guess maybe it's far more common in some parts of the world over others?

 

[sophie]

Profit in restaurants come from 3 things: Appetizers, alcohol, and desserts. They often operate at a loss on entrees with the expectation that they'll make up for it in the other three areas. Therefore it makes sense to me why they'd want to charge fees for BYO alcohol or dessert - your actions are directly cutting into their profit margin while your ordering of entrees is possibly hurting them further.

Still doesn't make it any less of a douchey move.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The problem is that cakeage fees are occasionally completely unreasonable:

A $10 “Cakeage” fee per guest is a little excessive

And restaurants that charge far more than they should for appetizers, alcohol, and desserts while intentionally under-pricing entrees are ripoffs. It is really just another form of dishonest advertising.

 

[Darkflight]

Who goes to a resturant and brings their own drinks.....

If I owned the resturant I would throw them out.

 

[dutchfire]

I know of parties in bars organized by student organizations where give an entree drink for every visitor, which they usually don't buy at the bar I think. But they're still bringing in lots of people, so the bar is okay with that.

I've never heard of anyone bringing their own booze into a bar. I know some people who bring their own tea bags, but they still pay the usual amount for the hot water.

I think if you allow this, corkage fees are reasonable if they're roughly (price if bought in restaurant) - (price if bought in shop). I certainly don't think it should be cheaper to bring your own booze, that's silly.

 

[AlpsStranger]

As my idea of a restaurant is McDonald's or the toxic waste dump class Chinese place near my house I really don't have an opinion either way

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Who goes to a resturant and brings their own drinks.....

If I owned the resturant I would throw them out.

For the 50th time, not all restaurants everywhere serve alcohol.

It's completely common in this neck of the woods.

 

[bhsup]

But then wouldn't the solution to simply go to the restaurant that does serve alcohol?

 

[dutchfire]

For the 50th time, not all restaurants everywhere serve alcohol.

It's completely common in this neck of the woods.

It makes as much sense as having to bring your own wheels to a car dealer, since he does sell cars, he just doesn't sell wheels.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

But then wouldn't the solution to simply go to the restaurant that does serve alcohol?

It is the cultural norm in Australia that one can bring their own booze to a meal at a restaurant. To bring a good bottle of wine is considered a fine thing to do. People have preferred drops that the establishment may not have available. Restaurants know they charge top dollar and accept that not everybody will cop it, so no one is "kicking people out" if they bring their own drinks.

Restaurants don't mind as this is common practice. Patrons don't mind paying corkage as it is common practice.

The only hitch is restaurants that have elected not pay for a liquor license yet still want to charge corkage. They can't serve booze yet want you to pay to bring yours?? But this is rare.

 

[bhsup]

If it is the norm for you guys, more power to you From all I've read in the thread, though, I think I am going to vote for the "Hell yeah! People gotta pay to play, yo." option. That seems to fit best, I suppose, with what I've read here about how it works.

 

[warpus]

In the end you go to a restaurant not only for the food, but also for the atmosphere and ambiance. Every minute you spend there is a minute that somebody else could be there, buying and eating food, consuming wine, or whatever. So when you bring in a bottle of wine, they ought to be able to charge you for that - since you will spend more time at the place. That reasoning makes sense to me. Same with the cake, although unless it's more than a couple bucks, that's just a blatant ripoff.

I wonder how a restaurant would feel if you brought in your entire meal, and elected to eat it there?

 

[History_Buff]

In the end you go to a restaurant not only for the food, but also for the atmosphere and ambiance. Every minute you spend there is a minute that somebody else could be there, buying and eating food, consuming wine, or whatever.

Exactly. That's why I like to tip based on how long I was actually at a restaurant.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

If it is the norm for you guys, more power to you From all I've read in the thread, though, I think I am going to vote for the "Hell yeah! People gotta pay to play, yo." option. That seems to fit best, I suppose, with what I've read here about how it works.

Exactly. So if you want to bring your own booze to a licensed restaurant you pay to play and don't whinge. Thus corkage is no problem in such a venue.

 

[Silurian]

I wonder how a restaurant would feel if you brought in your entire meal, and elected to eat it there?

I have done that in a Pub that did food.
But it was on a very very quiet night.

 

[Perfection]

more like "dorkage" amirte?

 

[Antilogic]

ur so rite.