Might not be the right attitude, but I don’t want to share my wine with the staff. Feel like I would t share my food so why share my wine? Would rather spend the $30 than give up a glass. Maybe a sip!!
But you aren’t bringing food in to the restaurant so it is a bit different. The choice is yours to pay the $30.00 so that is perfectly fine.
JD
I don’t consider it an obligation to share, and I don’t think the staff should do anything for me in the way of fee reductions because I share. I just like to share. Particularly if the staff members seem interested in wine, it makes me happy to give them a taste. And when I have a relationship with the restaurant, they are probably friends to some extent anyway. Sharing helps to build that relationship, of course (don’t mean to be totally disingenuous), and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Similarly, if I’m having dinner at the bar and order a bottle for myself, if I strike up a conversation with the person next to me, I probably will share with them as well if they are nice. I’ve met a lot of really nice people that way, both diners and staff.
So who’s policy is that?
It’s Amali in NYC. The place others were discussing above. I’ve only been once and it was perfectly fine - generally good food, though nothing outstanding, and very friendly, competent service. I didn’t notice any pomposity.
That’s my feeling. It sounds good in theory, but it leaves open a broad spectrum of what it’s like in practice. If they’re chill about it, and manage to be reasonably consistent from night to night and customer to customer about how it’s applied, then I like it. But if it comes off as sort of “velvet rope” scrutiny when you arrive, and you have the potential to be embarrassed or sneered at for not bringing a good enough wine or for being the right person to get favorable consideration, then I wouldn’t like it.
Like many others in the thread, I kind of like paying a fair corkage fee. I like that it’s all above board, I’m not asking for a favor or feeling obliged to do something in return, and nobody should be looking at me as though I’m a lesser customer or like I’ve done anything wrong, since the restaurant has voluntarily set their corkage policy. It’s great when a restaurant doesn’t charge corkage or waives it, too, but I’m perfectly happy paying my $15 or $20, or more depending on the restaurant and where it is.
[I feel similarly about tasting rooms. I’d kind of rather pay $10 or whatever, and not feel as though I have some unspecified and unknowable obligation to buy something or join something I may not want as a quid pro quo for having been poured tastes of the wines.]