Budonoki is one of them
Baranâs 2239 in Hermosa Beach, Michelin Bib Gourmand. Not a great wine list, but they offer corkage. $25 I believe.
Quick 36 hours in LA.
Had a really great meal at Robertaâs in Culver City. So good we did not even get pizza as we were too full. Chef Carlo was in the house and took great care of us. If you are into aged meat he has been experimenting with aging Pork and Waygu. It is usually not my thing but I will eat anything he cooks so I tried both and they were excellent.
Also hit Kistmet for brunch. The lemony chicken was as great as always.
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Had a banginâ meal at RVR in Venice. Might be a new favorite. Packed to the gills. Parked at the bar, which gives you kitchen views. Service was fun, lots of chatty staff. Chef was spinning discs. Buzzy vibe. Persimmon salad, duck meatball, Japanese sweet potato, roasted turnips, Pork belly ramen. Not a single dud with the persimmon and sweet potato stellar. The ramen comes sm or lrg-nice touch. Great beverage program. Bummer the corkage is $60.
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Great to hear that. I had a F&F resy which got postponed. The somm used to work at Anajak. And my friend Carlos Nino curates the music.
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This is my favorite South Bay restaurant. Playa Provisions, in Playa del Rey, is pretty good, too.
$100 corkage is just abusive.
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I kind of agree, but on the other hand, itâs better than just flat out prohibiting outside bottles. Unfortunately, I feel like $75 is the norm for hip, upscale places and $100 is what you can expect from most fine dining places in LA.
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Good to see you back John!
yep 100%. Everyone has to make money from alcohol and these small spots where they want to do 2 turns, they canât have people taking up a table for 5 hours
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Four of us had dinner at Damian tonight and loved it. Iâm not that versed in high-end Mexican, but if this is typical, Iâm thrilled to explore more places like it. My wife and I donât eat anything cuter or smarter than ourselves (basically pork, lamb and octopus) and it turned out all the chorizo on the menu was duck, which is in our wheelhouse. I think we ordered about 1/2 the menu and every dish was banging. We each had two cocktails and managed to get out at $150 a person, all-in. Are there other places in L.A. in a similar vein?
Love Damian. Especially their duck. I was really bummed when they stopped lunch on Sundays.
If you ever make it to NYC go to Cosme their sister restaurant in the U.S. it is even better.
And of course they are children of Pujol in Mexico City all under the Casamata group.
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Pshaw. You donât need to charge $100/bottle, or actually have a two bottle limit to make money from alcohol.
Btw, I donât really care too much about Selina as itâs a small, ultra-riche spot. At $300 + exorbitant bev policy theyâll still find enough takers, though most will be one and done. I think charging $75-100 with 1 or 2 bottle limits (regardless of party size) doesnât help bottom lines for 98% of L.A. restaurants.
Thanks for this rec! I went to FWD and holy smokes, it was amazing!
Definitely will be back. Had a few dozen oysters, the scallop crudos were amazing, as was the hamachi sashimi.
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sure you do if your food cost and labor costs are super high. At multi Michelin styling restaurants, most of the profit is made off alcohol. Food margins are razor thin. Limiting bottles is to encourage people to buy off lists.
we may hate it. but I get it
We may just disagree on some of this, and while you know restaurants well, my wifeâs been selling wine to restaurants in L.A. for 30 years now so we know operations and restaurateurs well. You have more a point for Silene, but it really is more complex than just looking at profit %. One can make the case that alc & food pricing dynamic should be adjusted so that the % shifts.
Regardless, corkage at $75 or even $50 for lower than 2-star types still generates a good profit. It also ignores the fact that, for any place, that is not full all the time, which is most L.A. places after 6 mos. corkage draws diners. I actually object to 1 or 2 bottle limits even more. We most often dine as 4 or more winos. A 1 bottle limit is just a no-go, and even 2 is sometimes a no and most often so with 5+.
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Iâve said it before, and now Iâll say it again:
If restaurants need alcohol sales to turn a profit, then theyâre nothing more than bars that use food to draw customers.
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Even if they need alcohol sales to profit (not always), a good corkage policy doesnât kill them. Of course we all know that some people donât drink at all, in increasing numbers. The obvious answer is to just increase food prices, but theyâre afraid of the ramifications.
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Theoretically, I agree. But weâve had enough comments from restaurant owners in the super long wine talk corkage thread that most wine collectors spend more time at the table and demand more service and resources. And Iâve talked to a number of restaurant owners that have a lot of the same beliefs. I know a few wine directors that have talked in detail with me about how attention heavy a lot of wine groups are.
To me, I figure a $75-100 corkage and let me bring as many as we want makes more money than youâd make at most tables makes money sense to me, but I get their POV.
And in the end, most places if they know youâre respectful theyâll let you bring what you want anyways generally.