Here’s the $11.99 bottle of wine I would have brought to the Stock and Barrel. Don’t you love the label?
One evening last month, Alan and I were meeting another downtown couple for dinner. I recommended we go to Stock and Barrel, the hamburger place located on Market Square. It had become a new favorite place of mine because you could substitute a chicken breast for any burger, and I liked the casual vibe.
Alan and I got there before our friends and were told there was a 20-minute wait. No problem, we said. We’d wait at the bar.
We found seats and looked at the wine list. There was one pinot grigio listed and I ordered a glass. “We’re out of pinot grigio,” the bartender said. “We have chardonnay.” “I don’t like chardonnay,” I replied. Then I thought of a solution. “Can I just go to Downtown Wine + Spirits around the block and buy a bottle of pinot grigio to bring in?”
I was stunned when the bartender said bluntly, “That’s not allowed.” “You’re kidding!” I said to her. “But you are out of the only pinot grigio on your menu!” A male coworker overheard our conversation and suggested to the bartender loudly enough for me to hear: “Tell her she can bring it in if she pays a $20 corkage fee.” (A bottle of my favorite pinot grigio only costs $11.99, by the way.)
“Forget it,” I said. We left and have not been back.
But it got me thinking, “What’s the deal with corkage fees, anyway?” A few weeks previously, we had been to Knox Mason on the 100 block of Gay Street with another friend (who is admittedly a wine snob, unlike me), and he wasn’t charged anything to bring in his own bottle of fine red French wine.
I decided to see what a few of my other favorite restaurants are doing in this regard. And, let me tell you, it runs the gamut. Some don’t allow any customers to bring their own wine. Some have no fees, while others charge up to $20 per bottle. An attorney for the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission told me the ABC is not involved and really doesn’t care what restaurants charge customers who bring their own wine.
UT’s Carol Costello teaching a noncredit course
Darrell DeBusk, the public information officer for the Knoxville Police Department, said the only city law affecting so-called “brown bagging,” which is the practice of allowing customers to bring their own alcohol, merely prohibits the practice from 1 to 6 a.m.
But here’s the bottom line: It’s a philosophy thing. Obviously, if a restaurant allows customers to bring their own wine, the business loses the markup on the wine they offer for sale. But, on the other hand, if they value the customer and want him or her to have a great experience at the restaurant, they will try to accommodate diners and drinkers.
Carol Costello, a professor in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Retail, Hospitality and Tourism Management and an expert in wine and beer service, says each restaurant has to decide what the best policy is for its business model and customers. “From a restaurant’s standpoint, corkage fees are pure profit. There’s very little labor cost in opening a bottle,” she said. She also said that, from a customer’s perspective, paying a corkage fee is generally very economical since eateries normally mark up wine 2-1/2 to 3 times the cost they paid for it.
Chef Matt Gallaher at Knox Mason
Matt Gallaher, the chef owner of Knox Mason, said he allows customers to bring in their own wine and normally does not charge a corkage fee. “We have a limited wine list because we have a small space,” he noted. “I’m building a community here. I’m the owner and the chef. I see the people who come in here. If they want to bring a bottle of wine and linger over a meal, I’m OK with that.” He says that, at the most, he will charge a $5 corkage fee, but usually doesn’t even do that.
I like the way my friend Joan Marshall of Cru on Gay Street put it. “We don’t have a policy. We decide at the moment. We try not to say no to a customer. If it’s a special bottle or it’s a special occasion and you want a particular thing, we say OK and don’t charge you anything. But we don’t want you to bring in a bottle that we have on our menu.”
At the Bistro on Gay Street, the corkage fee is a modest $5 per bottle, said Heather Kostic.
At tony Bistro by the Tracks in Bearden, Aaron Darnell said the fee is $10 per bottle.
At the Stir Fry Cafe, also in Bearden, the charge is $5 per bottle, according to Erika Jolly.
Joan Marshall at Cru
At the swanky Orangery, which has an extensive wine list, it’s $20 per bottle, said Jane Kendrick, which, to me, wasn’t as surprising as the hamburger place charging that much.
At Nama on Gay Street, Claire Young said customers aren’t allowed to bring their own wine.
At Naples, owner Bob Luper also said the policy is not to allow customers to bring in their own wine. “We have an extensive wine list,” Luper said. “There is no reason for anyone to bring in their own wine.” But, he added, “If you are a regular customer and you call me and say you want to bring a special bottle of wine for a special occasion, I’ll let you do it and I won’t charge you a corkage fee. But our policy is not to allow it.”
At Chesapeake’s, manager Rodney Marchand said the corkage fee is $10 to bring in a bottle of wine “whether we have the wine on our wine list or not.” I said I was surprised that restaurants allow customers to bring in wine even if the restaurant sells that particular bottle. “There’s a reason we call it the hospitality industry,” he smiled.
The Chesapeake’s philosophy. I like it!
I also noticed that if you sit in a booth in the bar at Chesapeake’s, you can see the computer screen where servers type orders. Here’s what pops up on the screen when servers aren’t using it: “How Do We Benefit By Saying NO to A guest … The Answer Is YES What’s The Question?”
I mentioned this to my friend Joan Marshall of Cru. “And that right there is why Mike Chase’s restaurants have been in business for 35 years!” she said, referring to the owner of Chesapeake’s and the other Copper Cellar family of restaurants.
So, there you have it. It’s a wine jungle out there. Call the restaurant and ask about the policy before you bring a bottle. Unfortunately for me at the Stock and Barrel, I didn’t know I was going to need one.
Cheers!
What do you think the policy should be?
D.L. Bergmeier, left, and Travis Copen at Downtown Wine + Spirits
I like the computer screen message at Chesapeake’s.
Great post, Cynthia. I understand a corkage fee if the restaurant has a good wine selection, but, if it doesn’t — or doesn’t have a license — it smacks of gouging. Especially if it’s $20! It would be better to have a policy against brown bagging than to drive away customers by charging them $20 to uncork their own bottle.
I rarely take my own wine if the place serves wine, but when I do, I appreciate no charge or a modest charge. I would pay $5 or $10. I definitely wouldn’t go higher than that. I saw the message on Chesapeake’s screen–easily viewed when you sit in the back booth in the bar area–and I remembered Kreis Beall telling a Leadership Knoxville group that at Blackberry Farm, “The answer is yes. What’s the question?” Pretty good philosophy if you’re in a hospitality industry.
I think this is a good example of how some restaurants try to nickle and dime their customers. Someclients are just going to be more needy than other clients. It’s like that across every industry.
The difference is how the business responds.
(on a side note, I’d love for non-drinkers to be charged a fee for not ordering alcohol. The restuarant is obviously missing out on potenial revenue from them taking up space. Maybe it could go to subsidize the corkage fee from my fresh-from-the-liquor store cabernet)
Great informative article! The true journalist in you shines! Look, I got to go with the stores on this. It is kind of like if I come to your Public Relations firm and I buy 95% of your service, but I don’t buy aa very crucial part and I bring in another company…
Here is the deal. Many great chefs pair their wines with certain meals. They literally create a menu with the wine list in mind. If one person brings in a bottle of wine…OK cool…but if everyone starts to do it. Well then what is the good chef going to think?
How will he or she pair a perfect meal. So then what if the outside wine is not perfect?
Great so now you have a problem. One of the goals of a restaurant is to create the perfect balance of the chemestry between food and drink.
I have heard of a few other “issues” people are having at Stock & Barrel. It’s true that just because you own a restaurant you are not ipso facto a restaurateur. Behavior such as I have heard, and seen in your story above, confirms that. We took business associates to Knox Mason and will surely go back!
You can tell that Chesapeake’s is very customer focused, Alan. That message is really taken to heart, I think.
Melinda: I totally agree. I was willing – even eager – to pay the marked up per glass wine cost at Stock and Barrel. I didn’t go in with the intention of bringing in a bottle. But due to a mistake on the restaurant’s part (someone at the hostess stand said the bartender had forgotten to order pinot grigio), no pinot grigio was available for purchase. I thought I had a reasonable solution. Instead, they lost four customers that night, three of whom would have purchased drinks from them as well as dinner.
Gay: I heard Kreis Beall say that, too! That philosophy sure hasn’t hurt Blackberry!
Benjamin: Ha! Now, there’s a concept!
Daniel: don’t you think the fact that they had NO pinot grigio available for purchase plays in to the matter? I mean, if I don’t offer a service, I wouldn’t blame someone for purchasing it elsewhere.
Dave: I had not heard of other issues there. But you definitely won’t go wrong at Knox Mason!
In the course of taking your own wine, please don’t forget your server, whose ability to pay the rent may rest on how much you are spending, and thereby, tipping! If you take your own bottle, be generous. If you split an entree, tip as if you didn’t! It’s important to think about how your actions affect those who are there to make a living.
I would only take my own if it was a special occasion, or as Cynthia desired, when the restauranteur was out of something I preferred. It is really annoying to me when I ask for something in a restaurant and they say, “We can’t do that.” Wrong answer. Why can’t you go ahead and put one dessert on two plates, for example?
However, I am abundantly aware that these are first world problems, and it is important to chill about stuff at times. On the other hand, that is where we live! (First world.)
Good points, Annette. As a former server, I totally agree with you about the tips.
Benjamin — As someone who rarely orders alcohol at restaurants, I have to say that if your suggestion was implemented it would likely backfire. I typically don’t order alcohol because I am 100% okay being the designated driver. When I eat out with my husband or friends, they are able to order more alcohol than if they had to drive themselves home. Therefore, I think the restaurants that don’t charge me for my soda/tea when I’m at a table of drinkers have the right idea.
Thanks for your comment, Kathryn. Excellent point. I was assuming Benjamin was kidding with his suggestion.
One wonders why Stock and Barrel didn’t send their own employee around the corner to fetch a few bottles of pinot grigio. Particularly since the bartender knew (s)he was out before you ordered.
Amy: What a good idea.
A very insightful post. I had no idea there was such variation in fees charged for uncorking. But now that you’ve written this, I’m more aware and will be the next time we order wine. Good research. And right here in my own hometown. One can only surmise what this would be like in other cities.
One should consider the minimum lost revenue of the restaurant and remember the restaurant still has the expense of glassware and the wait staff still has to serve you when judging the fair amount of a corkage fee. So as a baseline we will assume the least expensive bottle of wine on the list is $15 and let’s assume that it cost the restaurant $5. This equates to a minimum loss of $10 gross profit. Therefore to make up for the difference one could infer that a $10 corkage fee is fair. So in a more expensive restaurant a higher corkage fee could be in order to be fair to the restaurant and vice versa in a less expensive dining establishment.
Please remember to compensate the wait staff for the difference when tipping as your bill went up by $10 and not $15, although they still provided you with the same service.
On many occasions especially when dining out with several people, I have brought a bottle and purchased one or two. In most cases I have had the corkage fee waived on the bottle I brought. I think that an attentive management will do this as typically a “brown bagger” is a regular patron.
Thanks, Rusha. Let us know what you find is typical as you travel around this year.
Stephen: Good points. Especially about the tipping.
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