Paying Corkage on Our Anniversary

Last weekend Ryan and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We are officially no longer newlyweds! We celebrated by spending the day soaking our stresses away at Banya 5 before hitting the city for an evening of great food and beverages. Happy hour was a cocktail-lover’s pub crawl. Beginning with martinis at the ZigZag Cafe, continuing with Puerto Rican rum at Place Pigalle, and finishing with pastis at Le Pichet, we were well lubricated on the finest of fine spirits before walking to the charmingly rustic Entre Nous for dinner.

This restaurant was a shear delight and exactly our kind of non-pretentious food-focused dining experience. The space was nothing special (the chairs looked like they came from a teriyaki joint), but it was surprisingly warm and inviting. From glorious fondue to mom’s chocolate cake, their recipes came from the French owner’s family. Rustic, simple, flavorful…yumm!

So Ashley, how was the wine list?

Well, Ryan and I didn’t even look. We paid a corkage fee and brought a bottle of a super premium Malbec we’ve been saving since our trip to Argentina. After decanting, it was a wonderful addition to our meal, and since the bottle was so valuable, the $15 corkage fee was well worth it.

Ryan and I are fans of bringing our own wine when we dine out, and many people ask me why we do it. Doesn’t it seem like a rip off to pay a dude $15-$25 to simply open a bottle of wine – particularly when you can find wine on the menu for $25-$30? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. And it all comes down to arithmetic.

Generally restaurants charge about double the retail price for a bottle of wine (be nice to them. It is hard to make money in that business). See a $24 bottle on the menu? You could find it for $12 at the store. If the restaurant is charging a $15 corkage, you save money by buying the bottle off the menu. If it is a special occasion and you want a fine bottle of wine, corkage makes more sense. A $100 bottle at a restaurant would be $50 at a store. Buy it ahead of time, smack on the $15 corkage, and you have money left for an after dinner drink…or a cab home.

Being in the wine business, Ryan and I receive samples of free and fabulous wine all the time. Sometimes a winery will send us five or six bottles of their wine to see if we like it, and it is always a lot of fun to try one out with our dinner. Since the price to us is nothing, it is always worthwhile to bring it along. Or, if we buy wine, it is something rare that we find during our travels…again worth the corkage. For everyone else, I recommend giving the restaurant a call to learn the corkage fee ($15 is cheap. $20 is average. $50 is out there…and stupid), think about what you want to drink that night, see what wine you have sitting around the house, and do the math. (There is one caveat, sometimes restaurants go to great lengths to put together a fun, exciting, and reasonably priced wine list. If this is the case, give it a shot, you may find something you like!).

Never be afraid to bring your own wine. But a word of caution. You can bring 3 buck chuck, but the staff will be laughing at you in the kitchen. If you’re laughing with them, then go for it!