Here in Jersey, I think that the BYO laws are technically only for beer and wine, but I sometimes mix myself a Manhattan at home and bring that in a shaker with me and it has never been an issue, but of course I only do that in 100% BYO restaurants…
I think you’re right, but there is or was a Mexican restaurant in a dry town that provided mixers for tequila.
What kind of cocktails do you pair with food?
Somewhat common here in Chicago too. Also sangria starters where you just add your wine.
I recently went to a new trendy Miami restaurant for a friend’s bday called Casadona. I ordered two regular gin and tonics for my wife and I at the bar. The total bill came out to $85 for two drinks inclusive of the 20% automatic added gratuity. My jaw dropped, the dinner bill was even more obnoxious.
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Ouch . . .
No such thing as regular G&T when you’re dealing with a mixologist.
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That would have me walking out before dinner. It seems so outrageous that I went to look at their cocktail menu online, and they have a number of cocktails listed for $20-25 each, so I wonder if they made a mistake. A standard G&T should be less than those. Two $25 cocktails plus 10%? sales tax plus 20% service charge would be $65. Did you ask the bartender?
WBers —> “The only wine that could possibly go with that meal is Lambrusco”
also WBers —> “or any beer or cocktail would work great.”
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Other than sometimes G&Ts with Indian food, I don’t try and pair cocktails. I have a cocktail before dinner, or overlapping with appetizers sometimes, then drink water during dinner.
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These Miami places change their prices depending on the time of year or events taking place. This was during Art Basel weekend, so everything was jacked up in price and they had special menus for the weekend.
I’ve lived in Miami long enough to know that when theres only women who are 10/10 at the restaurant/bar then it’s going to cost you a pretty penny to be surrounded by this type of clientele.
Unfortunately, a $30 glass of reg Chablis or an old fashioned cocktail is the new normal down here. We just stay away from these places.
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I am, to some degree, a Monday to Saturday restaurant patron here in NYC. Ordering mainly by the glass, averaging 3 during a meal and finishing up the remainder of the 1 glass order by the wife who had almost completely veered away from alcoholic drinks in the last several years.
My resolution starting 2025 is to limit going to restaurants with lists that are full of mostly young wines and with corkage fees that are designed to discourage byob and, either, patronize more of the restaurants that allow reasonable corkage or just simply cook more at home given that we have more time to put more effort to do it these days. I clearly need to start sniping away at my wine collection, many of which has started to mature at a stage that I prefer.
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I think this is really true. It seems like there’s more and more competition in the “fine dining” segment of restaurants and they’re all chasing the same diners. A lot (most?) of these restaurants are using the business model where alcohol sales are subsidizing food and labor costs. That’s fine when the tables are full and people are willing to spend 300-400% markups on wine. It’s not so good when wine drinking is on the decline overall.
It’s very much like new wineries. For every new winery that comes along whose wines I buy, there’s likely someone else’s wines that I’m buying less of. I would love to support every winery, but it’s just not feasible.
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Really interesting article.
I have a question for the ITB and board in general. Back in the Late 80’s when I was in school I worked for a chain liquor store and was able to see the wholesaler’s catalogs. I would often see notations that some wines would be on sale to restaurants for big discounts if they bought 3-5 cases and have the wine be part of their BTG menu. Almost all the restaurants prices were two times retail so they were already making more than 2X retail as they purchased at wholesale. Has this changed? It seems so as I often see 3X retail on wine lists.
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Some of this will depend individual state regulations. For example, at wholesale in NY quantity discounts can be offered but must be applied equally to all customers, whether store or restaurant. Can make it tough for a small player with limited funds and storage to compete with those able to buy deeper so it may look to the consumer like the little guy is marking up higher. Some distributors will also find ways to offer special pricing on BTG wines even though it isn’t legal. Again the little restaurant is disadvantaged here because they won’t really move enough quantity to get the distributor interested in ongoing volume discounts. In Oregon all wholesale pricing is by the bottle. No discounts. (there may be something available in OR to legally promote product and offer some discount/rebate but I am not sure how that works.) California is relatively lawless in terms of discounting. I believe there is something in place that says preferential pricing may not be given but seemed to me that it’s pretty close to the “wild west.”
But those are just some legal examples. Some large national distributors learn how to work around these restrictions. A buyer at a NY resto that had sister location in Vegas explained to me how a national distributor just applied extra discounts/cases to their Vegas orders in order to get the NY BTG placement.
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I have not had much luck here in Philadelphia. Some, but not much. The truly artisianal restaurants are at least willing to talk. My offer is that I will not bring anything from their wine list and that I will sahre my wine with the staff. Some success as we all know that these folks are not very likely to taste fine wine working as waitstaff. But on the whole, you are right. All the more so with the snooty bunch.
I should also add that some retailers are able to get preferential pricing by buying in relatively large quantities in the order of 300-600 bottles at a time. Big players with cash and ability to store quantity. Often times these prices will not show up in the published wholesale catalogs or even if they do, they’re for such large quantity that almost no one else can take them, even most restaurants with high volume BTG programs. If these stores work on low margin, they can make it look like a resto or other smaller retailer is jacking prices.
Yeah, the snooty ones who tout their “carefully curated wine lists” I am happy to dismiss. Almost all of the others that usually don’t allow it do make exceptions once you get to know them and ask nicely. It’s changing slowly.
Even Vernick now has a corkage policy. One famously stubborn place now lets us bring wine as long as we email in advance, and agree not to do it every time. That’s fine with us as the food is truly worth it, and we’re happy to come sometimes for food and cocktails at the bar.
The best one I have been able to arrange is with LeVirtu. They have a very reasonable corkage policy and an interesting selection of Abruzzi wines. In PA not so easy to do. Where in Philadelphia do you live?
We’re in Northern Liberties. To be clear, I have no objection to corkage fees that are commensurate with service and glassware level. I don’t expect places to be zero corkage if they have a liquor license, though it’s nice when they are. I am talking about the places which refuse for any reason at any price.