What’s with absurd markups at restaurants?!

[Victor_Hong]

The biggest rip-off is cakeage.

It is much cheaper to bring your own cake. f*ck pastry chefs! Just bring in a Ding Dong and pay the cakeage fee.

My shop draws the line at Bring Your Own Ramen.

[Nathan_Smyth]

What’s with absurd markups at restaurants?!

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[Chris_Seiber]

There are a few wine places where I live that do a mix of mark ups.

For example for their house red bourgogne, they’ll charge a >4x mark up, but on higher end wines from Tremblay or Liger Belair, they’re often very reasonable and charge below the ‘market price’, but still a 2x mark up on their allocation price. There’s also a place that does EP or close to EP pricing for various back vintages of bordeaux 1st, 2nd and 3rd growths

I find that this tends to be quite fair since it encourages wine lovers to go for the harder to find and better wines at a price below the ‘market price’ but where the restaurant/bar still makes a sensible absolute $ margin on the wine. The restaurant/bar can then make the bulk of their fatter margins from the normal person that just wants a glass of house red

So, rip off the other guys and pass the savings on to you?





[just joking around — your idea seems pretty reasonable to me]

[Craig_G]

Last year, someone lost his shit because people suggested $40 was reasonable corkage at a very high end restaurant and then claimed people forced him to buy off the list (it was odd).

Obsess much? I recall a very different conversation, but, hey it’s your reality!

Agreed, Greg has really twisted the facts here. It was $35.

[Andrew_K]

Hey look. All the usual suspects are back. Like a bad roach infestation.

[NED_VALOIS]

Very simple; If they gouge, DON’T GO !!

[Arv_R]

So I was born with an over developed cheap bone on both arms. That’s the caveat. But I generally know what wines wholesale for due to my time as a volunteer shop employee, and I find the restaurant markups embarrassing.

A restaurant I really like, Bresca, has a silly list with 400% markups of rather typical en Vogue wines. They have recently raised corkage to $45…

We have an extremely generous friend who has offered to treat us at the Inn at Little Washington. I browsed all 90 pages of the wine list and had a hard time finding wines even near the 400% threshold?! The absolutely silly $95 corkage is enough to dissuade most I’m sure. But seriously…can’t you even sneak in a couple at 300% markup just for the “in the know” crowd?

Broader point is that I want to be a good paying customer, but it’s tough for a wine guy to buy wine st the restaurant he loves due to these extreme markups.

I listened to this podcast the other day, which included healthy discussion on markups on wine lists

https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/podcasts/b/guild_podcasts/posts/wine-program-management

If the topic is really interesting, it’s not a wasted hour. I enjoyed it, learned something, and will keep an open mind when presented with a list.

[Alan_Rath]

That wine list is indeed expensive, I’d have a hard time finding something I wanted to buy. But I assume the food prices are equally high, so it’s all part of the territory. If you’re at all into Riesling, the 2013 Brundlmayer Lyra is outstanding. Otherwise I’d probably go with the 2016 Barthod Bourgogne.

[Greg_K]

Last year, someone lost his shit because people suggested $40 was reasonable corkage at a very high end restaurant and then claimed people forced him to buy off the list (it was odd).

Obsess much? I recall a very different conversation, but, hey it’s your reality!

Agreed, Greg has really twisted the facts here. It was $35.

Mea culpa - my memory isn’t what it used to be in old age. It’s all downhill at 40.

Hadn’t realized Andrew was on this thread - ignore is such a wonderful feature. I’d pay $35 - no, $40 for it.

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

The biggest rip-off is cakeage.

You are just upset because the customary Chinese Restaurant POS (Point of Sale, not Piece of Shit) software calls it cockage.

[MChang]

“Deals” at IALW:

63 RC
17 Mugneret Gibourg ruchotttes
12 Dureuil-Janthial Maizières

[JulianD]

You can buy a pork chop for $5 so why pay the ridiculous mark up of 10 x at a restaurant?

Is someone else going to cook it for me at the grocery store too? Season it? Include sides?

C’mon… this is an absurd argument.

[Mel_Knox]

The pandemic has screwed the restaurants but when you see wines at three times retail the impulse to give them biz fades away.

[J_Schenck]

restaurants make a significant portion of their profit (as they operate on razor-thin margins) on booze. the same as a shot of Jack and some fountain Coke is immensely marked up compared to the $25 750mL bottle – of course it is. no profit, no restaurant. you have the option to opt out of this by paying the corkage fee or by drinking water.

[Kent_Comley]

You can buy a pork chop for $5 so why pay the ridiculous mark up of 10 x at a restaurant?

Is someone else going to cook it for me at the grocery store too? Season it? Include sides?

C’mon… this is an absurd argument.

Mate, I run a restaurant.
Just being ironic.
Pardon my warped sense of humour.

[Kent_Comley]

restaurants make a significant portion of their profit (as they operate on razor-thin margins) on booze. the same as a shot of Jack and some fountain Coke is immensely marked up compared to the $25 750mL bottle – of course it is. no profit, no restaurant. you have the option to opt out of this by paying the corkage fee or by drinking water.

I think this is a bit of an urban myth. Only 30% of our turnover is derived from beverages and in Australia this is quite typical. The Gross Margin for food is higher than for booze in general.

[Karl_K]

It appears the wine list at TIALW has just two reds from the Loire, both
Sancerre rouge.

Interesting.

[Dan_Sch]

“Deals” at IALW:

63 RC
17 Mugneret Gibourg ruchotttes
12 Dureuil-Janthial Maizières

I did note the Janthial

[Dan_Sch]

The lack of aged wines confused me quite a bit too.

However, in the end will go with a Huet Clos du Bourg at $120 (wholesale $28…so pretty close to 300% yay!) and one “steal” from a favorite of mine, the 2004 Marc Sorrel Hermitage for $280. Happy to pay for them aging it.

Anyway, I get it, I am paying corkage to bring a nice champagne. Just wish there was a bit of a middle ground on these things.

[Stan_Y]

“Deals” at IALW:
63 RC
17 Mugneret Gibourg ruchotttes
12 Dureuil-Janthial Maizières

I am too cheap, instead of Ruchottes I’d probably get Mugneret Gibourg VR selling there at the normal wine-searcher price these days.