F*ck Corkage Fees

^{(photo courtesy of paul goyette)}

We’ve all been there. You go to some great BYOB restaurant and are all the more satisfied because of the $75 you saved on alcohol by bringing your own bottle(s). You get the bill, and there’s an extra charge. That’s called a corkage fee. A fee the restaurant is charging you for letting you bring a bottle to your meal and opening it for you. It’s wack and extremely NOT Good for Party and all the BYOB places in the city that do it need to stop.

This is what a corkage fee is supposed to be, according to WiseGeek.com:  “A corkage fee is charged by a restaurant to patrons bringing their own bottles to a meal. The corkage fee is usually minimal and is considered a convenience charge to the restaurant for opening and serving wines, beers, or liquors from outside their bar or cellar.”

So the true purpose of a corkage fee is for restaurants that do serve alcohol to recoup some lost revenue for diners who choose not to order from the restaurant’s drink menu and instead bring in their own. That I understand. Those restaurants went through the time and cost of getting a liquor license, they bear the expense of maintaining a bar and/or cellar and keeping an inventory of alcoholic beverages, so patrons should have to pay a small charge if they choose to bring their own alcohol.  

But for places that don’t have a license and can’t serve alcohol, having a corkage fee is completely uncouth. Unlike restaurants that can serve alcohol, it doesn’t cost BYOB restaurants anything when patrons bring in their alcohol. They didn’t go through the trouble of getting a license, they don’t maintain a bar or cellar, and don’t incur any of the expenses associated with serving alcohol at a restaurant. Plenty of BYOB spots realize this and  do not charge a corkage fee. The ones that do are simply trying to make extra money for doing nothing. Its greedy and stupid and the next time you get charged a corkage fee at a BYOB place, I encourage you to let the manager know it's bullshit and completely lacking in class.