Clinton, with the allowance of corkage comes an ironic twist. Restaurants can’t technically buy wine from a private retailer, however, a guest heading to a restaurant can stop at a private wine shop on their way, buy a bottle off the shelf and bring it to me, where I can open it for them and charge them a corkage fee. Figure that one out. I’m sure that will be the next change we’ll see.

Shea, I agree that the sub $40 restaurant selections in BC is lackluster. If I were running a wine program in a more casual dining room, I would relish in creating a list that provided gems in this zone. For our vision, we’ve stuck above $40 and it’s been working great. To be perfectly honest, during the early days, I had some great value bottles in the $35 range, but no one ordered them. There seems to be a strange stigma or psychological deterrent associated with ordering the least expensive wines on a list. But thanks for bringing it up, and I’ll consider working some gems in there again.

Wine Lover, as I’ve mentioned above, I’m very fortunate to work in a restaurant that is fully booked nearly every night. In our particular case, it’s not a matter of using corkage as a draw to put more bums in seats, yet as a service to provide diners with more flexibility. I do believe that it can be used as a marketing tool to set prices that attract diners on certain nights that may be slower and I’m sure many other smart restauranteurs will do so.

When it comes down to it, you’re probably right, it really doesn’t matter what wines people are bringing in, as long as they are enjoying them. As a fellow wine lover, I’ve spent two years curating the small list at L’Abattoir so that my staff and I have utter faith in every bottle sold in the dining room, so I’m sure you can understand a level of pride that comes along with wanting to see good wine consumed with good food.

1. I’m most excited about bringing good wine to ethnic restaurants with no beverage program

2. As you know, I would never bring anything to L’Abattoir or a restaurant like it unless it were a special bottle. There is no advantage to allowing plonk into a restaurant.

However, my biggest concern is that it is very very difficult to go into any restaurant in B.C. and get excellent wine for under $40 a bottle. $25 corkage negates that. I admit that I think that price is entirely fair for L’Abattoir where the beverage program at all levels is fantastic.

However, there are very few places in the city that offer good sub $40 wines. And that is not because it is not possible to do so. I think so many restaurants go for the generic. I don’t buy the argument that these restaurants have beverage programs worth salvaging. Many of these places, however, do make good food. So why not either (a) step up the sub $40 or sub $50 beverage program or (b) lower corkage to $15-$20.

But as someone told me on twitter Fray on Fraser has set their Corkage at $5 that seems like an amazing place for wine and dinner to me.

And this isnt to say a restaurant cant do what tribeca in NYC does, where they have free corkage Mondays, and wine lovers come in bring in nerdy wines and do a big tasty and dinner and the Sommeliers love it, get to taste all these treats from people cellars

Now to find a Sushi restaurant with $5-10 corkage nice wine glasses so I can bring in my champage mmmm Sushi n Champage!

Weston

PS. Doesnt matter what people do good/bad people will always complain its in us ha
Cheers Jake