I’ve been charged as much as $25 recently to bring my own bottle of wine into a restaurant. I understand you make a ton of money off of people ordering wine off the menu, but does it really cost the restaurant $25 to open my bottle? I was charged $15 recently in Big Bear and I had to open the bottle myself!
What is a corkage fee anyway? What exactly are you paying for? Does it make sense to bring in a $10 bottle from Trader Joes and pay a $20 corkage? Probably not.
With the upcoming Open That Bottle Night on Feb 23rd, Eater LA has called on local restaurants to offer free corkage that night. But the question remains for the other 364 days a year, where you can go for little or no corkage? I’ve come up with this list below compiled from various sources. Please call restaurants to verify prices.
Downtown
Colori Kitchen (free)
Pitfire Pizza (free, multiple locations)
Hollywood/Wilshire
Cafe Du Village (free)
Doughboys (free)
Girasole (free)
Cube (free)
25 Degrees (free?)
Melrose Bar & Grill (free with one bottle purchase)
Angelini Osteria (free with one bottle purchase)
Providence (free on Monday)
Cobras & Matadors (free if you buy the wine from next door, otherwise $15)
Musso & Frank Grill ($3.50 per person)
Food Court LA ($5)
The Kitchen ($5)
Santa Monica/West LA
Cafe Brazil (free)
Mao’s Kitchen (free, also includes Melrose location)
Indo Cafe (free)
Houston’s Restaurants (free, multiple locations)
Bread and Porridge (free)
Gaby’s Mediterranean (free)
Bandera (free)
Gulfstream (free)
Frito Misto ($4)
Bella Roma SPQR ($4)
Soleil ($5)
The Valley/Pasadena
Bistro K (free)
Boneyard Bistro (free on Thursday)
Bistro Verdu ($5)
Special thanks to Chowhounders; Obessed, Servorg, JBC, RicRios, sebi, bruinike and afs for help with the list.
Sources:
http://thedeliciouslife.blogspot.com/2005/07/screw-you-how-much-it-costs-to-byob.html
http://www.yelp.com/list_details?list_id=JZL0w_c_97T2hFyx03F48g
http://www.moesfinewines.com/pdf/LAWestsideRestaurantCorkages.pdf
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/393139
Comments? Additions? Corrections? Leave a comment below!
January 30th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Here are a few more provided by Colorado Wine
http://www.cowineco.com/content415.html
January 30th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Buona Vita is a great little Italian restaurant in Hermosa Beach (on upper Pier Ave.). It’s known as the place to go to bring your own wine. It’s atmospheric, the wait staff is friendly and the food is consistently good.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:21 am
Colori Kitchen knows how to do it right.
January 31st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Cobras and Matadors (both locations) offers free corkage - whether you buy wine from their store next door or not.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
How awesome would it be to relax with some wine and then go to a spa in the area? I’ve been hearing about Spa Luce which is about to open at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel (so close to plenty of places you mentioned that cork wine). I just read somewhere that if you get a treatment there you can hang out at the hotels pool for the rest of the day! Sounds like the perfect day to me