canadian wine geek » corkage

Corkage fees dropping as EI claims rising

sandy — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:55:07 +0000

Many restaurants across Toronto are slashing their corkage fees to get ‘bums in the seats’. During economic times like this, people need more of an excuse to leave the house. ‘Free, Cheaper or lowered’ corkage fees can definately help get people out.

During my time in San Francisco, I went through the dotcom crash. SF’s vacancy rate went from 0.1% to %10 in about 4 months…people were leaving down at an amazing rate. Restaruants were empty every night but a reduction in corkage fees helped get people out. Q Restaraunt, one of my favorites, had the lowest corkage in San Francisco at $8 and was packed every night. The best thing they did was offer $5 glasses of bubby to everyone while their wine was being open…who can turn down $5 bubbly!

In Toronto, we are lucky to have lots of restaurants offers ‘Free’ or ‘$1′ corkage on many nights of the week. Table 17, in Queen Est, was one of the first to have free corkage on Sundays, they have recently added Monday as well.

Now Toronto has bunch more:

• Table 17: No corkage fee Sunday and Monday

• Paese: No corkage fee Sun to Fri for first bottle; regular charge $25.

• Cava: No corkage fee Sunday, regular charge $30.

• Centro: No corkage fee Mon to Wed; regular charge $35.

• Nota Bene: No corkage fee after 9 p.m.; regular charge $40.

• Crush Wine Bar: Corkage $1 on Mondays; regular charge $25.

• Lee: Corkage $1 Mon to Wed; regular charge $30.

• Madeline’s: Corkage $1 Mon to Wed; regular charge $30.

Some additions to the list:

Pangea, free corkage on VGA wines

Thanks to Toronto Life for the list…

This change in prices is a huge shift from 2005 when restaurant thought BYOW was going to bankrupt them…now they are using it to say afloat in a tough economy. This recession isn’t helping many people… but it is certainly helping people “Bring Your Own Wine’.

East end restaurant, Table 17, offers $1 corkage on Sunday

sandy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:05:52 +0000

It is great to see another restaurant offering $1 corkage (see Crush offers $1). The restaurant is Table 17, at 728 Queen St East, and the $1 corkage is on Sunday nights. Unfortunately, they don’t offer BYOW the rest of the week but if they Sunday night offer is popular they might extend it.

Table 17 is a great ‘neighbourhood’ restaurant. Their winter salad, beetroot, was amazing and the steak frites was delicious and paried perfect with a french bordeaux.

If you go to Table 17 let me know what you think!

Globe Bistro offering Free Corkage in January 2009

sandy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:41:10 +0000

Globe Bistro is the first restaurant I have seen offering free corkage for the month of January. This is a great idea because many consumers need an excuse for a night out. The food and services at Globe has been fantastic each time I have been there. Give it a try, hopefully I can find more ‘Free Corkage’ restaurants this month.