For many years our go-to restuarant in the Dayton area was the Winds Cafe in Yellow Springs. They had $10 corkage for years. When one off the owners started Meadowlark, in Dayton proper, they maintained the same policy. At one time there were half a dozen restaurants in Dayton with corkage from $10-$20. Most have changed ownership or are out of business. But The Winds and Meadowlark are stil going strong. Last night at Meadowlark I was told that the State of Ohio notfied them that they could no longer offer corkage.
I have heard that it’s never been sanctioned, but enforcemnt has been lax. Or maybe they just don’t want to do it any more and they gave that reason as an excuse. If what they said is true, then corkage in the whole state of Ohio is dead.
"Businesses with a liquor permit are strictly prohibited from allowing an open container of an alcoholic beverage on their premises that was not purchased from them.
Charging corking, cup, storage, or any other additional fees related to BYOB and the consumption of that alcohol on the business permit premises, may constitute the illegal sale of alcohol and result in citations for the permit holder."
I’ve been to OH and more specifically Cincinnati 20-30 times over the last 25 years and it’s always been fine everywhere. Not just work wine. Just bringing stuff in. Tons of places. Wonder if this is a crackdown across the state or a more specific situation.
There are also some times you’ll go to a restaurant and a server will say they don’t allow corkage because the city prohibits it, even though the city actually doesn’t.
You’re never sure if it’s genuine ignorance or just a convenient fiction to make it easier to say no — probably sometimes one and sometimes the other.
The question is really, why have corkage at all? Restaurants make their money on alcohol. If they allow corkage, they are foregoing profit. I guess the benefit is retaining a loyal customer base. It certainly worked that way in Dayton. If restaurants charge a fee to capture some of that lost margin, like $25, that should be fair. If owners decide it is not worth offering that service, that’s a business decision. I can’t see any legal rationale for forbiding corkage. The Winds in Yellow Springs has a wine store. You buy your wine and take it next door to the restaurant. The state gets their tax money whether you buy it from the store or the restaurant. If under age drinking is the rationale, the restaurant can ask for ID just like they would if a youngish person ordered off their wine list.
It’s a good question Mark. There are lots of different answers
If there’s no interest in stocking wine, and it’s easy for people to buy alcoholic drinks within easy walking distance (as well as us lot that already have loads), then unlicenced BYO makes great sense. Charge to cover glasses and glass cleaning / occasional breakages, plus a modest profit, and it’s going to be very cheap. Australia, with a strong local wine scene, was historically brilliant for BYO. In a very different context, Birmingham (UK) has loads of ‘Balti houses’ often in poorer areas of the city and with prices that used to be daftly cheap. Stocking alcohol would probably be problematic for Pakistani/Bangladeshi owners, but they applied admirable pragmatism in freely allowing alcohol to be brought in (for free back in the day) by their patrons. i.e. my religious constraints don’t need to be your constraints.
If a restaurant feels price competition is strong, invariably it’s on the food, not the wine and other non-food stuff. Hence wine lists see a heavy markup, and corkage charged to ensure it loses nothing on the anticipated profit. If the wine list is fancy, a very steep corkage (or no corkage at all) helps protect high end profit.
If a restaurant wants to run a very tight wine list (say a dozen different wines), then corkage can be a useful way to give flex. Running a tight wine list helps turnover vs. stock, as stock levels are much lower. If someone is put off by the limited choice, then corkage at the profit margin of the cheapest bottle can work perfectly.
A restaurant that sees itself as a marriage of wine and food, may have a strong wine list, but ironically these places can be more open to corkage, attracting wine groups / wine enthusiasts, and wanting it to be a place where wines are appreciated
As for why a state / nation might choose to ban corkage? The US has seen its fair share of prohibition thinking, and not all of it is rational. Maybe if it has a problem with excessive drinking (or back in the day - Moonshine), but the reality is that’s always going to be cheaper at home, not in a restaurant. Much more likely, is that banning corkage helps protect commercial interests. Such protectionism happens in a few countries, and I’ve read plenty here about the 3 tier system.
One of my favorite Cleveland restaurants lets you bring wine and charges $5/person for those drinking the bottle, as long as this restaurant doesn’t sell the same wine. I probably shouldn’t bring attention to the restaurant by naming them here, but feel free to message me for the name.
