Grrrrr.....calling about the corkage policy only to be told.....

So I joined some friends for dinner last night to celebrate one of their birthdays. I decided I would bring some Champagne, so I called about their corkage policy (no
wine list on the website or corkage policy listed). The person who answered the phone said the corkage was $15/bottle. Seemed reasonable to me.

We get to the restaurant and our server immediately sees my wine bag and says he “I needs to inform you” that their corkage charge is $25 a bottle. It wasn’t that critical
to me, but I politely mention that I called the restaurant a few days earlier and was told $15. He then got very upset with me: “We just changed the corkage at the beginning
of the year from $20 to $25!!! When did you call to ask?” I calmly responded, and again he was just incredulous. Note that we didn’t get a wine list with our menus, and there
was nothing listed on the regular menu re: corkage charge.

He left the table in a bit of a huff, only to return later to magnanimously offer us a $20 charge. My friends weren’t really interested in Champagne anyway, so we declined and just
ordered some cocktails instead. The rest of the service was marginal, from my perspective.

But I just hate this crap. If you’re going to have a corkage policy–allow, not allow, $ per bottle, whatever–put it on your *&^%$# website. Don’t do this crap where I call and am told one
thing, and then get told something else when I get there. Needless to say, the attitude from the waiter was completely uncalled for.

Rant over,
Bruce

LPT: whenever confirming something over the phone with any business, always get a name.

Normally in the corkage wars, I tend to side with restaurants. That is because I think of corkage as a privilege rather than a right, and restaurants can set whatever policy they want.

In this case, the restaurant was of course completely out of order. Everything Bruce said was correct, and the restaurant could so easily have corrected it by honoring the $15 corkage, and mentioning for future reference it is $25. Easy. Now, they have several really unhappy customers, a meal that could never have succeeded, and wait staff that is now adversarial. Over $10?!!!

It probably came out of your server’s own pocket when tips were calculated.

We went live to a great lunch place a few weeks ago and it had an adjacent deli/shop. Restaurant list solid but imports were all recent vintage stuff. Told in a face-to-face conversation corkage was $15 so I went back to the car.

Once seated it was detailed that $15 applied only to wines bought retail from the adjacent deli, wine from my car would be $25.

It was a terrific lunch and we paid to open a 97 Joly CDS. My biggest complaint at the meal was stems quite pedestrian for $25 corkage but now after a few weeks I must say the customer service behavior related to the uptick was poorly done.

I’d not seen corkage itemised on a wine list before someone posted such a list here recently. Seems utterly sensible, and helps avoid this nonsense.

Two years ago, four of us dined at Jar and had an identically-sounding experience, though made even worse as all of the “attitude” came from a manager. None of us has returned, since, so Jar lost four good customers because of their short-sighted, authoritarian-righteousness that night.

Here in Oregon, corkage is nearly universal. I see it listed on the wine list about a third of the time.
I would like to see it listed on the restaurant website and on Yelp and Trip Advisof.
I would also like to be 27 years old and buff.
The misunderstandings described above are unfortunate, but it is difficult to determine who is right and who is wrong without having been there. The tone in one’s voice often makes a big difference. On both sides.
Phil Jones

Virtually all of the restaurants in the DC area allow corkage, but virtually none of them acknowledge such a policy on their websites. Leaves one to do this orally, which is just asking for miscommunications.

I’m mostly with Mark about the subject of corkage policies. Do whatever you want as a restaurant, but make sure the policy is well-known to your staff. BTW, we are just now talking about someplace to go for dinner, and we both very much would like to go to an Italian spot (Sfoligna) – first rate food, but it is pricey and they have no corkage. We’ll go someplace else (Centrolina) that welcomes it and also has great food.

It’s not a question of who is right or wrong but, as you say, Phil, one of communication. I have no problem with restaurants having whatever policies they wish regarding corkage prices and bottle-maximums, as it’s simply my choice as to whether I then patronize the restaurant. In Bruce’s case and in my case, we were each told one thing on the phone, before choosing to go to a restaurant, and a contradictory thing upon arriving at the restaurant. Additionally, it sounds like we were each confronted by an adversarial attitude accompanying an unnecessary need to justify their position. Sometimes, one party is belligerent even before the conversation begins.

How anyone can even imply, let alone make it explicit, that Bruce, et al., have any shred of responsibility to shoulder here absolutely mystifies me.

I think places don’t want to put it on their wine lists because they think it’ll cannibalize the wine sales.

Yet, it could also draw in more patrons, with a clear and coherent policy.

I just booked a family birthday dinner an local higher end place, since they’re waiving corkage on certain night, and they’ve stated that up front on their website. (I still called to confirm all the details though)

Maybe corkage is a “privelege” being extended to guests, but I rarely will patronize places that are hostile to BYO. I always laugh when I observe at all the places that go out of business, which were NFW to BYO all the way up to bitter end.

I don’t mind restaurants setting their own corkage policy; I just want it to be as clear as possible for both staff and customers. As the customer, I can always decide if it’s important, and if so,
whether it works for me or doesn’t.

But there’s no reason to have to go through this song and dance just to find out what the friggin’ corkage policy is. And, of course, to get the attitude we got from the waiter compounded the problem.

Oh well.

Bruce

Well, that can make a difference, except that if I confirm it with “Bob” and Bob isn’t there the night we come in, then it’s my word against the
non-present Bob’s versus the waiter’s.

I just think it’s kind of silly that we even have to do this dance in the first place. Put the corkage charge on your menu and website, and then it’s
incredibly clear and you shouldn’t have any misunderstanding. Same thing with any limitations on the number of bottles you bring in. I’ve had other
dining experiences where there was a maximum # of bottles allowed, but it’s not stated on the menu or on the website. So you’re stuck with hoping
that the person answering the phones knows what they’re talking about.

“Corkage: $X per bottle, with a maximum of Y bottles per table.” How hard is that?

Bruce

But what percentage of the public isn’t even aware that you can bring wine from home? I’d imagine openly advertising a corkage fee would cut into your alcohol sales.

Should you be able to bring in your own food if a restaurant isn’t serving what you want to eat that night?

A very effective argument against a point no one is making

What utter nonsense.

Almost never have a problem with corkage. Only problem I can recall was when a waiter told me it was illegal wen I brought in a wine. I, of course, corrected him about the legality and told him you could say your place does not have to offer it, but don’t tell me a blatant, ignorant lie.

The pricing issue wouldn’t have bothered me, but the waiters attitude would have. I tip based on service, and when I pay corkage, I tend to tip much healthier as the server probably figures they lost something on the bill, which this guy probably jumped the gun and assumed, or figured you for just being cheap, neither of which is good service behavior.

Whole-heartedly agree with Brian. Whether Bruce was patient or assertive with the waiter makes no difference to the appropriate decision in this instance; the establishment told him in advance of the meal what the charge would be. They have the right to change the fee but Bruce relied on the information he received and made his plans accordingly. The establishment should honor the fee they told him when Bruce called.