New wine list is up Mike…
http://annasbythesea.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/1_Wine_List_Binder_.83133345.pdf
Agreed. Even $55 corkage seems reasonable these days in NYC.
From my experience, the best mark-ups are atrestaurants that switch buyers/sommeliers and aren’t quite sure how to price the stuff the previous guy bought. Like, say, Lamb’s Club in NYC - some of their cheaper stuff is ludicrously overpriced, while the Fourrier 2010 Clos St. Jacques is $525, which is less than 33% markup over retail. That won’t last though.
Juliette Kitchen in Newport Beach is one of the best new restaurants in Orange County. I’d describe it as a slightly more genteel version of The Playground – similar menu and pricing, but a little less hipster-foodie vibe.
The wine list is small, but good and entirely reasonable. Plus, every wine is available in 3 oz, 6 oz or whole bottle.
Some examples:
Ramey 2010 chardonnay, russian river valley – 7/13/37
Turley 2011 Old Vines Zin 9/16/49
Failla 2012 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 8/15/47
Fiddlehead 2009 seven-twenty-eight fiddlestix vineyard pinot noir, santa rita hills- 8/15/44
Shea 2010 block 33 pinot noir, willamette valley, or – 11/21/65
Very refreshing. Though they also have $15 corkage and I usually just bring my own.
So what constitutes a “reasonable” restaurant markup? 50%? Anything less than 100%?
Not a restaurant, but most restaurants in downtown Livermore offer free corkage on the 1st bottle from 1st Street Wine Shop, so you can do a tasting at the wine shop and walk over to a restaurant with a reasonably marked up bottle in hand. They’re California-centric with some fairly geeky choices including Wind Gap, Carlisle, Denner, and McPrice Meyers.
Reasonable is in the eye of the beholder. I probably tend to consider 150% or less of retail to be very reasonable. 151-200% is acceptable. More than 200% is high.
Those change a bit depending on the price of the bottle (I’m more okay with a $15 bottle on the list for $40, but less okay with a $220 bottle on the list for $410).
Restaurants with crazy mark-ups are just bad all around. And they really punish the wine lover. I do the best I can to have reasonable prices. Wish others did the same.
We had a bottle of William Hill Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 yesterday at Chart House for $60.00. I saw the same bottle today at my local grocery store for $13.99.
A much higher markup than I can recall on any other wine I have ever purchased at Chart House.
i think rutherford grill is tough to beat. they used to pour araujo altagracia btg for below 20 dollars (before araujo’s sale obviously)
If you’re in Atlanta- the restaurants owned by Star Provisions were typically at or below a 2x markup with some fantastic wines- Bacchanalia, Abattoir and Floataway Cafe. Bacchanalia is one of the top restaurants in the city.
Dave’s Italian Kitchen in Evanston, IL. Had an amazing birthday dinner there! http://www.davesik.com/
For special occasion dining/an aged cellar, I think The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, VA is tough to beat. The big-name regions can have the usual big markups, but lots of good values in the Alsace, Germany sections, and a lot of wines with some age on them that can be difficult to find according to wine searcher. They also pushed for corkage to be allowed in VA, and have a nice buy one off the list–>waived one corkage policy.
A second sampling… $295.00 was spent yesterday on 2010 Opus One at the same Chart House referenced above. I went online today and determined that $295.00 is not a huge markup at all. I saw prices online from $193.75 to $259.00 with most in the $235.00 range.
Interesting…
Yea, that’s pretty offensive.
My favorite sushi place in town - Kabooki, really amazing cuisine - carries a relatively simple but decent Murphy Goode Fume Blanc for $23. I order that all day long, and happy not to get gouged.
Hard to beat the following examples at Vic’s in Minneapolis. Wine list and the view are great. Food could be better. Still, in the summer, a great place to be.
2003 Dom Perignon, $126.25
2005 Roederer Cristal, $199.33
Krug Grand Cuvee, $142.08
Louis Roederer Brut Premier, $43.00
2009 Opus One, $156.83
2011 Dominus, $116.00
2010 Chappellet Signature Cab, $35.00
2010 Grgich Hills Chardonnay, $29.00
2007 Palazzo BdM Riserva, $40.00
http://vicsminneapolis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/vics-wine.pdf
Wow, I could just drink the bubbles there are day long.
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Sorta-thread-drift: We brought a 1991 Riojanas Monte Real Riserva to a really fantastic local restaurant on Saturday. I think I paid ~$40 or $50 for it from Rare Wine last year some time.
They had the 1987 on their list for $245.
don’t forget that retail itself is already a markup from the price at which the restaurant bought the wine, making a 2-3 x retail price even more egregious. I am happy to live in California (with respect to wine) for the chance to bring my own wine to a restaurant.
Stephen Gelber has a very reasonably priced list at Smoke Oil Salt. More importantly, the food is great, too.