Bring your own wine to the restaurant?

[woodywoodford]

Do people do this around here? I've heard you're allowed to bring your own bottles and just pay an uncorking fee. Would be a lot better than spending $200/bottle.

[Xtrema]

corkage fee, every restaurant has them but some are pretty steep so make sure the quality of your wine justify the fee.

[ercchry]

i've done it before, gaucho's has/had free corkage mondays

some others:

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/Restaur...-Free-Corkage/

[mr2mike]

$200/bottle...

[flipstah]

Originally posted by woodywoodford
Do people do this around here? I've heard you're allowed to bring your own bottles and just pay an uncorking fee. Would be a lot better than spending $200/bottle.

Damn, what wine do you buy?

Corkage fees are ridiculous that it makes sense to buy at the restaurant.

Unless you have some baller-ass wine that you must have at your special event, it's better to buy the wine at the restaurant. Then again if you have baller-ass wine, corkage fees should be nothing.

[ercchry]

more info on when its okay, and when its not... and when its a good deal

http://calgaryisawesome.com/2012/07/...orkage-primer/

pizza bob's is pretty hilarious to do it at... messy night

[sneek]

I've done it a few times. My tastes aren't good enough to justify doing it for myself though. I usually end up bringing my own wine if I know somebody loves a certain wine and it isn't on the wine list. I think most places charge around $20 for corkage fees.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by ercchry
more info on when its okay, and when its not... and when its a good deal

http://calgaryisawesome.com/2012/07/...orkage-primer/

pizza bob's is pretty hilarious to do it at... messy night

5.Offer your server/sommelier (and, if it’s a great/rare/special bottle, the chef) the chance to pour themselves a small taste of what you’ve brought in. Wine is for sharing, and there’s no better way to build a rapport around the table than giving someone the opportunity to experience a bottle that excites or intrigues you.

Interesting.

[AzNxHyDrA]

I prefer bringing my own wine and paying a corkage fee. Wines from certain regions are ridiculously overpriced at restaurants.

You should definitely call the restaurant ahead of time to check if they allow it.

Corkage fee varies by restaurant and some places won't allow it (Caesars, Divino, Anju, etc).

[woodywoodford]

^^ interesting, Caesars is exactly the one that sparked my curiosity on this (bottles start in the low/mid $100). At those prices we'd pay a corkage just so we could have a bottle, no way would I pay $200 anywhere like some people have interpreted my post lol (unless the company's reimbursing...)

[Mitsu3000gt]

Common wine markup is anywhere from 100-500%, and I've seen it even higher. I would imagine in many cases, you're better off paying corkage, even at $20-30. Lots of $10-12 bottles of wine are $45-60 at restaurants. The only time I would think it isn't any better is if the corkage fee was absolutely ridiculous, like $50+, and even then, if you had a $50-$100 bottle of wine you wanted to bring, it would still be the way to go, because that bottle would likely be $200-300+ at the restaurant.

All that being said, I think it is extremely uncommon. Most people just get the restaurant wine.

[ExtraSlow]

Earls in Bankers hall does this for sure. I was there with a wine snob buddy of mine, and he would pop out to the wine store in bankers hall, come back with the bottle, and have the waitress open it for him. He's super picky about wine, I believe he was paying $60/bottle in that store.

Not sure what the corkage fee was, waitress had no issues.

[AzNxHyDrA]

Originally posted by woodywoodford
^^ interesting, Caesars is exactly the one that sparked my curiosity on this (bottles start in the low/mid $100). At those prices we'd pay a corkage just so we could have a bottle, no way would I pay $200 anywhere like some people have interpreted my post lol (unless the company's reimbursing...)

Last time I went to Caesars was almost a year ago so my information could be out of date.

You should definitely give them a call and report back

[Christian@IE]

A group of us were at Belvedere last month and as we were leaving, there was about 1/2 a bottle left. My friend asked if we could take it with us and the server said "sure," put a cork in it, and bumped it with the heel of his hand.

I didn't know you could take an unfinished bottle with you, but upon clicking the Avenue link I see that Belvedere is on the list with corkage 7 days/week so that must be why they did it.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by Christian@IE
A group of us were at Belvedere last month and as we were leaving, there was about 1/2 a bottle left. My friend asked if we could take it with us and the server said "sure," put a cork in it, and bumped it with the heel of his hand.

I didn't know you could take an unfinished bottle with you, but upon clicking the Avenue link I see that Belvedere is on the list with corkage 7 days/week so that must be why they did it.

no, thats very common and as long as the cork is all the way in its all good for transporting

[roopi]

Originally posted by Christian@IE
A group of us were at Belvedere last month and as we were leaving, there was about 1/2 a bottle left. My friend asked if we could take it with us and the server said "sure," put a cork in it, and bumped it with the heel of his hand.

I didn't know you could take an unfinished bottle with you, but upon clicking the Avenue link I see that Belvedere is on the list with corkage 7 days/week so that must be why they did it.

You can take an unfinished bottle from any restaurant. I asked the first couple of times and after that I just stopped asking so I'm assuming its ok to do.

The cork is on the table. Pop it back in and walk out.