This is a somewhat extreme example, but we met some parents at the bar at Morton’s for 90 minutes or so before a high school game. (Hey, it’s Catholic school, drinking before HS games is perfectly fine.)
They actually had some good Italian wines on the menu for fair prices. One was the Bruno Giacosa Barbera for maybe $68 or something; the other was a Langhe Rosso from a good producer that I don’t remember, around the same price. Far more interesting for us to split a bottle of that than to spend a similar amount on their mediocre BTG options or on cocktails, right?
But we get there, everyone orders, I ask for the wine list. Time passes, and it arrives, I wait until the next time the server is by and order one of the two, then time passes, and she comes back and says we’re out of that one. I ask for the list again, eventually she brings it back. I order the other one. More time passes, while everyone else is on their second drink at least, and she brings it.
After a little time with the first glass, the wine reveals itself to be mildly corked. By this point, we have to leave in the next 30 minutes. Not only is there not really time to get a replacement bottle (if they even have one), but I frankly have already looked fairly stupid having this whole process play out while others are relaxing have 2-3 drinks. So I drink a couple of glasses of corked wine.
In this scenario, BYO wouldn’t really have been an option, but that process is just slow and frustrating.
Sorry about your luck. hopefully you had a 97 backup. I will say that they should never charge you corkage on a flawed bottle you don’t drink and I can’t imagine any place ever would.
My point was essentially that folks that spend a ton of dough on wines really shouldn’t complain that much about the corkage amount, within reason. Do I think $100/bottle is within reason? Hell no!!! That’s an amount that says “don’t bring your wine”. But I’m generally ok with corkage up to $50 if the restaurant is of commensurate quality that I’m going to bring a wine that’s worth $250 and up.
Using wine to recoup cost is price discrimination.
Clearly, if it’s more economical to pay corkage at “a restaurant that cares” there’s a disparity between markup and corkage. It’s probably that the markup is too high. When raising corkage to disincentivize what the restaurant perceives as a loophole the result is customers stop coming, they’ve misidentified the problem.
The Spruce/Village Pub increase is rational. They correctly identified their customers have more discretionary spending money and are indifferent to their price increase.
Trying to squeeze extra money out of a customer base who can’t afford it will cost you revenue. Correctly identifying something has changed and your customers will pay more for something, and adjusting your prices accordingly, is part of maximizing profit. You don’t not maximize profit when your costs are lower.
I am shocked this article doesn’t have a link to the $18 for a 4oz pour article from a few weeks ago. That to me is the bigger issue in the SF Dining scene.
Spruce charging $65 corkage doesn’t bug me. They do have a good wine list to choose from and always had a high corkage fee for the area. Given the rise in prices and other costs, I have a hard time getting upset over the increase.
The real story, which is missed by the Chronicle, are that the little neighborhood restaurants are also increasing to the $40-50 price point SF. And these are not the places with Zaltos and Somms.
But this thread/article is making me want to head over to Spruce for lunch tomorrow
The article surveys a range of restaurants. That’s generally not those particular restaurants serve. “A restaurant that cares” about a well curated list of food friendly wines isn’t serving big, boring, over-priced, not-ready-to-drink prestige wines. If you want a generalization of San Francisco and Oakland lists, it’s hipster wines. That sort of restaurant caters to regular local customers. Look at what the owner of Great China says: “I just want to see wine on the table.” He gets it. That’s a lot more revenue than high markup wine on just a few tables. He increased corkage from $20 to $30 to keep it reasonable, and he cites that at level he has options that are a better deal with much higher quality than what some people bring.
Poulet Bleu has a $35 corkage fee IIRC. Just ate there a couple of months ago. Lawrenceville has a great restaurant neighborhood vibe. Still need to make it to Apteka. The NYT needs to stop writing about that place!
I picked the Piccolo Forno example of how a nice neighborhood place does not need to drag wine lovers over the coals in order to exist. Their stemware is primitive, but I have no problem bringing my traveling Reidels with me so they need not even clean my wine glass. It is an interesting model…tying together a retail shop with a restaurant to provide the kinds of wines they feel match the food, and make a profit on sales at the same time. No need to maintain a “cellar” that is dead weight. And if you like the wine you bought for dinner, you can always grab an extra bottle to drink at home. It’s hard to believe in Pennsylvania we are actually more friendly than the more “sophisticated” states of New York and Cali.
In Philly I remember a restaurant with a similar retail outlet across the street offering a comparable deal.
Plan on cracking a Bouchard Clos de Ursles magnum if the Eagles prevail!!!
A friend chef was telling me everything was way up; he gave an example that the plastic containers he used for doggie bags had gone up from 33 cents to 72.
hopefully you had a 97 backup. I will say that they should never charge you corkage on a flawed bottle you don’t drink and I can’t imagine any place ever would.
