Whether you’re headed to a spot without a liquor license or want to indulge in a special bottle, there are many reasons to bring your own wine to a restaurant. Some cities, like Philadelphia and Chicago, have thriving BYOB cultures due to the high price or difficulty of obtaining a liquor license. Other restaurants allow patrons to bring their own wine for a small corkage fee. Whatever the impetus, there are some unwritten rules to follow and things to know before you set out, bottle(s) in hand.
To get the lowdown from someone with experience, we tapped Todd Sawyer, owner of Atlas Bistro & Wine Shop in Scottsdale, Ariz. Diners at Atlas are encouraged to BYOB or pick up a bottle at the shop before sitting down to eat at the bistro. Sawyer even keeps a list of the most exquisite bottles guests have brought with them on his website.
Call Ahead
First off, Sawyer recommends always calling ahead to confirm a restaurant’s BYOB policy. This not only ensures the restaurant is prepared to serve the wine you’ve brought when you arrive, but also that the corkage fee is as listed so there are no surprises when the check comes. Some spots also offer free corkage on slower nights (typically Sundays or Mondays) and may not list that insider information online.
Understand What You’re Paying For
What exactly is that corkage fee for? Sawyer explains that it goes toward multiple things that might otherwise be baked into a wine’s menu price. “It covers the service of the wine, the glassware for the wine, and the polishing of the glassware as well as potential breakage of the glassware, the decanter if applicable and the cleaning and possible breakage of it, and the insurance the restaurant pays to allow people to consume alcohol on premises,” he says. Rates generally range from $25 to $100 per bottle, with some super-high-end spots pushing it to $150 or $200. That might seem like a lot, but when you consider that restaurants often mark up bottles by 300 percent, you might be getting a steal.
What to Expect
Now that you know what to anticipate, you should plan to bring your wine — pre-chilled if necessary — but you don’t need accessories like bottle openers or glassware unless you’ve brought something super old (in which case, why not let the sommelier try a sip? A quarter glass is customary) or think the glasses provided won’t measure up (like $100-plus bottles served from water cups). But don’t pop the corks on your way: Generally, only sealed bottles can be brought into restaurants that allow BYOB.
How Much to Bring
And how much should you bring? If the restaurant also has its own wine list, Sawyer recommends bringing one bottle for every bottle you’re willing to order off the menu. And make sure you’ve got something special, not a run-of-the-mill wine you can pick up at any decent shop or one that’s already on the list as the latter is traditionally viewed as taboo.
From a business perspective, offering BYOB can be a double-edged sword. If it’s the only way diners can drink with their meal, it might draw them in, especially if they’re oenophiles with a stocked cellar. On the other hand, the restaurant loses out on the revenue that alcohol sales can create, and that might not always be outweighed by the cost of a license and inventory. Sawyer notes that since his restaurant is often a special-occasion spot, BYOB “allows guests the chance to enjoy a special bottle of wine from their cellar and allows us to carry fewer wines and reduce the overhead of the restaurant operating cost.”
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