My wife and I were dining with another couple at a Seattle restaurant that pulled this, and what’s worse, without stating the policy in advance. I never ate there again, and when the wine director opened his own restaurant, I never ate there. I’d love to give the names of the restaurants to add to the collateral damage, but they have both gone out of business.
I agree that a clear message is the best message and while I agree that $75 sends the same message as no corkage allowed, I’d rather just have the restaurant say “no” than have a crazy high charge. Saying no in some ways is less hostile/insulting to someone who wants to bring wine - not a big deal either way - just seems a bit less annoying to me at least when they say no instead of being passive/aggressive about it.
How about this for mixed messages - the last time that I brought wine to the high end Italian restaurant across the street from our building (they permit corkage and charge $30), at the end of the meal the waiter announces to me (and the rest of our guests) that the chef doesn’t want me to bring Italian wine in the future but wine from other countries is still fine. Some times I just don’t get the passive aggressive view that chefs/restaurants have with corkage. Either it is fine or it isn’t but don’t make it a point of contention with guests who like to drink from their cellar. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that we haven’t been back in almost a year and probably won’t bother going back - notwithstanding that the food is excellent - too many terrific alternatives around to deal with this type of attitude.
We spent last week in NYC for spring break, and the opportunity to bring our own wine to dinner was really appreciated as it is illegal here in Ohio, as well.
However, also appreciated were a couple of great wine lists which induced us to buy from the restaurant. Since none were bad experiences, here was our week:
Agreed, that is really out of the norm for Seattle area. I BYO almost exclusively when we eat out, and have never had a restaurant around here give any hassle at all. Plus, it’s rare to find corkage fees over $25.
I don’t think it’s just those with expense accounts that frequent this restaurant. By most account there are many locals who dine there, plus, it is quite popular with visiting out-of-towners.
While it is currently being spanked from all angles by most everyone here, I doubt that the restaurant will miss the businesses of those that are doing the spanking here.
In 2009 I went to eat at Eleven Madison Park. I paid $50 corkage for a bottle, bought a bottle and a few glasses off their list. I was really happy with how it all worked. I’m not going to go someplace that wants to decide the value of a wine I’m bringing…that’s just plain BS.
Complete BS. Just say no - vote with your dollars or lack thereof. Le Cirq, Le Cirq, Le Cirq (for the search engines) ->> bad policy is bad business. It would be good for them to know just how many customers they could lose over time but they probably don’t care.
Show up with your bottle, and if you think the ‘appraisal’ is too high, just whip out a second bottle from your bag or purse and announce loudly: “Sold!”
Judging by the clientele in the photos in this review, I doubt they get a lot of inquries about their corkage policy. It does look like the local Upper East Side, post-Sherry Lehman purchase, post-Bloomingdales-visit crowd.
Since their own list ranges into the four figures, according to the review, I suppose they don’t want to encourage people to bring their own trophy bottles.