Rip-off artists and their winelists

[stevebody]

Been embroiled in this debate for weeks on another forum and I'll say it here:

Most restauranteurs try to use wine to make up for their inability to make sufficient profits from their food. They mark up wine that way because there is always a ready crowd of pigeons who think you're supposd to automatically pay a lot of money for your wine in a restaurant and they cough it up without a murmur. If they marked their food up to that extreme, nobody would ever eat there.

I've been having a two-year wrangle with my partners about markup and corkage and I've finally worn them down. Starting Jan. 1, we no longer charge corkage unless the SAME bottle shows up that we have on the list - same wine, same vintage. We will also sell at the high average 38% markup over wholesale that most grocery stores and wine shops use here. We're making money on our food because people like it and they LOVE the service. IF YOU CAN'T OPERATE YOUR RESTAURANT AS A PROFITABLE ENTERPRISE ON FOOD ALONE, WINE WILL NOT SAVE YOU. Guaranteed. There's a little Italian place here in Kirkland where I take Judye for Valentine's Day. They have one of our fave wines on the list, La Carraia Fobiano. They want $98 for it. Problem is, I know they paid $21.79 wholesale. I called the owner on it. He said that, if he didn't sell it at $98, he'd lose money. LOSE MONEY. I still go there because the food is great but I don't buy wine from him and he knows it. I pay his $15 corkage and come out waaaay ahead and he complains every time. But he'll never get that markup from me and, as I come to know his other regulars, I urge them to do the same. He's now LOSING BUSINESS but won't budge off his pricing. THAT'S the mentality of most restaurant owners today.

Mos restaurant owners see these usurious prices as their God-given right. They'll keep doing it until people stop paying it.

[This message has been edited by stevebody (edited 09-14-2003).]