Do you buy wine in restaurants?

I found these two pargraphs interesting in the article concerning Antonio Galloni leaving The Wine Advocate:

Mr. Galloni said that he had been considering the move for several years but that it began to crystallize last June, when, at the Food and Wine Classic held in Aspen, Colo., he ate at a wine-oriented restaurant and was struck by how few people were drinking wine. It occurred to him that consumers were simply overwhelmed by the number of wine choices.

“It was so stark, you should have seen people with great wines, and instead you saw them deferring to beer,’’ he recalled. “I have this vision of going to a restaurant and seeing a bottle of wine on every table. Everything I want to do is centered on how do I make that happen, how can I help people make these choices.’’

I don’t believe the lack of wine being consumed has anything to do with lack of knowledge or confusion related to the wine list choices, I believe it is perceived value. With the rise of craft beers and imports it is possible to get really great beer that pairs well with food for usually for a fraction of the price of wine in most restaurants. Combine that with the fact that you can get the beer on tap which the majority of the time makes the beer taste better there is added value. If you order wine, they will open it for you give you glases which often times don’t match the type of wine being consumed and charge you 3 to 4 times their price for the effort. I don’t mind anyone making a profit, but no one likes to feel like they are
being ripped off.

I’m SO in agreement with this comment:
“With the rise of craft beers and imports it is possible to get really great beer that pairs well with food for usually for a fraction of the price of wine in most restaurants. Combine that with the fact that you can get the beer on tap which the majority of the time makes the beer taste better there is added value. If you order wine, they will open it for you give you glases which often times don’t match the type of wine being consumed and charge you 3 to 4 times their price for the effort. I don’t mind anyone making a profit, but no one likes to feel like they ate being ripped off.”

I frequently feel I’m being victimized when ordering wine in restaurants. Of course I do. Frequently. But when the mark-ups are obscene, I’ll go for beer instead. Yes.

Alex R.

This is discussed a litte in the other thread on Galloni, but is buried under a pile of vitriol.

I don’t generally buy wine in restaurants because of the pricing. My non-geek friends say the same. With the access to craft beer and the cocktail revival there is no need to pay what restaurants are asking for good wine.

What they ask for bad wine isn’t any more appealing. [berserker.gif]

Absolutely AGREE!

Rarely do I buy wine by the bottle in a restaurant. I have a hard time being charged $80 for a bottle when it only retails for $20. I have no issues with them making a profit, but when they overcharge that much it’s no longer making a profit, it’s robbery.

Exactly. Ridge zins for $90 on a list are an easy pass.

No for many reasons of course the most obvious of the huge markups for average or below average wine. My favorite story was the $300 bottle of 2001 Insignia at Morton’s years ago. Add tax and tip and it is over $400. I stole eight bottles of it for $70 at Sam’s Club back when they actually carried fine wine.

The other thing is I like to decant and prep my wines prior to drinking them and no one in Minneapolis offers that service on fine wine. Finding a decanter in our restaurant scene is rare. I Nonni is the best at service and I always tip them well when I bring in my own wine.

What’s the typical restaurant markup on beer? Cocktails? Iced tea, for that matter?

Yes, I do.
But not often.
And generally in restaurants with great lists.

Almost always BYO if I know I’ll have wine. We’re lucky in CA that BYO is very friendly. Even with a hefty corkage of $35-50, still a better value than buying off the list and most likely a better wine. Price is the only reason I don’t buy off lists. If the markup was more reasonable, I would buy off the list more often .

Yes of course, though not in the UAE.

When the final tab for an icd tea is $2 I have a hard time caring what the markup is.

Almost never. Here on Long Island the issue is poor selection in addition to ridiculous pricing.

There was a time when Babbo in NYC did 1.5-1.75x retail markup. Not sure if they still do since it’s been 5-8 years since I last I visited. It was a great business model because one usually gets a more expensive bottle or end up springing for another. In the end they made more money.

Now I feel 2.5-3x is the norm which sucks because you are straight up getting gouged. Wish restsurants could just mark it up a reasonable 20-30% like they do in Italy or France.

I still do order wine at restaurants and try to pick out relative bargains. If the wine list is just miserable or if the markup is above 2.5x retail, I also go beer. If I BYO I try to bring one/buy one.

I just started the thread on a wine list from Oceanaire in Orlando, with a terrible selection and very high mark-ups. Regardless, if I make the decision to eat out, which we do often, I am not going to pass on wine just because of the cost. I just tend to make wise selections, and other than going to Oceanaire, choosing restaurants that I know have decent selections and pricing. One local place has the 2010 Baudry Domaine for $30. Another always carries Ridge. I’ll take that any day of the week. If we eat out with couples, I always BYOB. When it’s just the two of us, I order off the menu as she prefers whites while I tend to order red.

Happily let the corkage be their profit. And if the sevice is good great tip as a thank you to the server. Everyone wins (restaurant, server, customer).

Rarely but I do bring my own a lot!

I know this is sacrilege, but I not only buy wine in restaurants – I frequently order BTG! For a normal weeknight meal, my wife will drink between zero and one glasses, and I’ll drink one or maybe two. And often we don’t want the same thing. So BTG it is. No, the cost-per-ounce isn’t competitive. And no, these aren’t the best wines in the world. But for a casual meal, it’s more than fine. In the big picture, a few bucks extra for a glass of wine vs. a beer (which I do also sometimes drink, I admit) isn’t a big deal.

On the occasions when I do want a bottle or something better than is available BTG, I more often order off the list than bring something. A big part of it is laziness - I don’t always want to have to think ahead enough to figure out what I’m going to want to drink. What I choose to eat plays into it, and I rarely decide that before I’m sitting at the table. For me, BYO is typically reserved for special occasions where I have a specific bottle I know I want to drink. Or if I know the place we’re going doesn’t have a very good wine list.

I’d say 90% of the time I drink wine at a restaurant, I’m buying it from them (and 95% of my own wine collection is consumed at home or at a friend’s house, not a restaurant).

Feel free to revoke my Berserker credentials now.

lucky that corkage is allowed in CA. won’t
buy overpriced young restaurant wines, preferring iced tea or beer.
alan