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Originally posted by Renquist:
As a waiter while attending graduate school, I found it humorous that people would often pay a $20 corkage fee for a bottle of wine that was in that same price range.

I also never cared to "comp" the corkage fee, and declined the offer to taste the cheap/semi-cheap wines in the customers' effort to initiate the "comp".

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Originally posted by Renquist:
As a waiter while attending graduate school, I found it humorous that people would often pay a $20 corkage fee for a bottle of wine that was in that same price range.

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Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:

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Originally posted by pape du neuf:
The meal was great, the wine was fabulous, but when the check came, the corkage was in the hundreds! The managers explanation was that the fee was based on the value of the wine and the "lost" mark-up if we had ordered similar wines from the list (there were none, of course).

What do you mean by "hundreds"? That would seem to suggest at least two if not three--or more.

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Originally posted by pape du neuf:

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Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:

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Originally posted by pape du neuf:
The meal was great, the wine was fabulous, but when the check came, the corkage was in the hundreds! The managers explanation was that the fee was based on the value of the wine and the "lost" mark-up if we had ordered similar wines from the list (there were none, of course).

What do you mean by "hundreds"? That would seem to suggest at least two if not three--or more.

Yes, over two hundred.

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Originally posted by Healdsburg Gal:

Wow that is pathetic, I would have slammed that restaurant online on every board. That is disrespectful to the guest and just plain crazy. Talk about losing a customer. I dislike corkage; I also dislike restaurants that mark up the wine 3 times. We rarely bring in our own wine because in Healdsburg most restaurants do not mark up too much since they need local business for the winter months and some like Dry Creek Kitchen do not charge corkage if you bring in a Sonama wine.

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Originally posted by 1badbird:

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Originally posted by Healdsburg Gal:

Wow that is pathetic, I would have slammed that restaurant online on every board. That is disrespectful to the guest and just plain crazy. Talk about losing a customer. I dislike corkage; I also dislike restaurants that mark up the wine 3 times. We rarely bring in our own wine because in Healdsburg most restaurants do not mark up too much since they need local business for the winter months and some like Dry Creek Kitchen do not charge corkage if you bring in a Sonama wine.

I personally have a large problem with this train of thought...I have worked in semi fine dining to Fine dining for 5 years. Our food cost is astronomical, and the way we pay for the beautiful building, the food, wages, is marking up wine. We also keep a 3-400,000 dollars in wine inventory. Also I fully believe in corkage, our cost for corkage is the cost of the most inexpensive bottle on our wine list. Thats the sales we lose out on, and is also a sales lost on the check that MOST people don't take into consideration when its time for the tip.

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Originally posted by Sticky2:

What do you do if people don't order wine? Give them a what we think you should have ordered fee? Your inventory and costs are YOUR problem.

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Originally posted by StarV100:

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Originally posted by pape du neuf:

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Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:

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Originally posted by pape du neuf:
The meal was great, the wine was fabulous, but when the check came, the corkage was in the hundreds! The managers explanation was that the fee was based on the value of the wine and the "lost" mark-up if we had ordered similar wines from the list (there were none, of course).

What do you mean by "hundreds"? That would seem to suggest at least two if not three--or more.

Yes, over two hundred.

Unless that policy had been clearly communicated prior to the meal, I would have absolutely refused to pay that. Full stop.

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Originally posted by 1badbird:

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Originally posted by Sticky2:

What do you do if people don't order wine? Give them a what we think you should have ordered fee? Your inventory and costs are YOUR problem.

if you are going to drink wine, you are either going to bring it in, or order off our list. Otherwise I will assume that you do not need wine with your meal, some people prefer water, some prefer diet coke, thats their preferance and I am fine with that, but what if I didn't like the alchohol selection at a restaurant? Do you believe it would be acceptable for me to bring in my own bottle of scotch?

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I personally have a large problem with this train of thought...I have worked in semi fine dining to Fine dining for 5 years. Our food cost is astronomical, and the way we pay for the beautiful building, the food, wages, is marking up wine. We also keep a 3-400,000 dollars in wine inventory. Also I fully believe in corkage, our cost for corkage is the cost of the most inexpensive bottle on our wine list. Thats the sales we lose out on, and is also a sales lost on the check that MOST people don't take into consideration when its time for the tip.

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Originally posted by Healdsburg Gal:

Where do you work?

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Originally posted by 1badbird:

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Originally posted by Sticky2:

What do you do if people don't order wine? Give them a what we think you should have ordered fee? Your inventory and costs are YOUR problem.

if you are going to drink wine, you are either going to bring it in, or order off our list. Otherwise I will assume that you do not need wine with your meal, some people prefer water, some prefer diet coke, thats their preferance and I am fine with that, but what if I didn't like the alchohol selection at a restaurant? Do you believe it would be acceptable for me to bring in my own bottle of scotch?

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Originally posted by Gigond Ass:

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Originally posted by 1badbird:

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Originally posted by Sticky2:

What do you do if people don't order wine? Give them a what we think you should have ordered fee? Your inventory and costs are YOUR problem.

if you are going to drink wine, you are either going to bring it in, or order off our list. Otherwise I will assume that you do not need wine with your meal, some people prefer water, some prefer diet coke, thats their preferance and I am fine with that, but what if I didn't like the alchohol selection at a restaurant? Do you believe it would be acceptable for me to bring in my own bottle of scotch?

You forgot the real option. I'm going somewhere else.

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Originally posted by flwino:
A quiet question.

If the fee is $ 15/bottle, would they charge 1/2 price for a 375 cc bottle?

Seldom do I BYOB, except in NJ where we have family, and the fee there is FREE. If its free its for me

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Originally posted by mneeley490:

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Originally posted by flwino:
A quiet question.

If the fee is $ 15/bottle, would they charge 1/2 price for a 375 cc bottle?

Seldom do I BYOB, except in NJ where we have family, and the fee there is FREE. If its free its for me

Of course not. But be assured, they WOULD double the fee if you brought a magnum.

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Originally posted by mneeley490:
Then your restaurant is an exception.

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i would also say the wait staff waves the fee about 70 percent of the time.
waiters unwritten rule's of corkage
1.) If the table is cool, the fee is usually waved
2.) If they let me taste what they brought it, Ill wave it automatically
3.) If I find it to be something cool, exciting or different.
4.) I automatically charge corkage if the wine is like a KJ cab or something equally commercial or if it is something that is rather obviously on our list.