Corkage Fees, How Much Is Too Much?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 6th 2006 at 3:09PM

The San Francisco Chronicle asked people an interesting question this week: What's the most you'd pay for restaurant corkage fee? Most people seemed to find that $25 was the highest price they would be willing to pay for the privilege of drinking their own wine at a restaurant. Some restaurants set the corkage fee deliberately high to strongly discourage bringing your own (the famed French Laundry has a $50 corkage fee). After all, creating a wine list for a restaurant is an art all its own.

If you are planning to bring your own wine to a restaurant it makes sense to call in advance as the prices for corkage vary wildly depending on a variety of factors including the fanciness of the restaurant, whether or not they have their own sommelier and/or carefully crafted wine list and to some extent, how nice you are about it. If you have a reason for bringing a specific wine and explain it to the staff and if it is clear that you plan to spend a lot of money on the food and other cocktails corkage fees are sometimes waived (but don't ask for that specifically). An article in Food and Wine has some decent rules for bringing your own wine including perhaps the ultimate rule: don't bring cheap wine. I've searched in vain for a U.S. database of corkage fees but there doesn't seem to be one (although there is a Canadian list). Slashfood's own Sarah Gim has a list of Los Angeles corkage fees on her blog The Delicious Life but we need a nationwide list.

Tags: corkage, fine dining, food and wine, restaurant etiquette, restaurants, wine

Filed under: Dining, Wine

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Rick Dobbs Apr 6th 2006 4:17PM

Easiest way to get out of the corkage fee? If you're bringing a good bottle, let your waiter/waitress have a glass. They appreciate that stuff more than the few bucks extra tip they'd get on the corkage fee.

Michael Castino Apr 6th 2006 5:43PM

Corkage fees are a must for every restaurant, but quite frankly as a Restauranteur I would like to do away with them entirely, and say you cannot bring your own wine. Restaurants are in the business of selling food and BEVERAGE. You can't bring your own beer to a ball game. This business is a tough one and we hand select all of our products including our wines, we mark them up, sell them, make some profit, pay our staff, pay our rent and the rest of our bills, and with any luck pay ourselves.

Robert Buterbaugh / Robert The Concierge Apr 6th 2006 6:11PM

In Colorado it is against the law to bring your own wine into a restaurant with a liquor license. But just last year it became legal to take home any unfinished bottle of opened wine.

Frank Wilden Apr 8th 2006 10:33PM

As a fellow restaurateur albeit in a place far far away (Melbourne Australia), I would like to respond to Michael's comment.

Michael, I suggest you consider that essentially we are in the same business as airlines; that is filling seats. Until the seat is occupied we have a cost center. Once occupied we have potential profit. The key to corkage is to manage it to work for the customer and you; make it available on certain nights only, use it as a promotional tool, make it part of a "wine friendly" program etc. But most of all, if you are going to do it at all, do it with grace, hospitality and generosity. An "open arms" policy will set you apart from your competitors.