Thank you and apologies if it came across as a bit harsh. Restaurants and their workers are struggling beyond what you could possibly imagine. A line cook in a top restaurant in NYC probably makes $40k a year for a 90-100 hour week and was living on the edge before the pandemic.
I listened to a podcast by David Chang with Wylie Dufresne. Wylie had to close his current restaurant in March (it is a casual place focused on doughnuts but still) after not being their for 30 or so days he decided to stop in and check on things. When he arrived he saw one of his kitchen workers. He asked what he was doing sitting in front of the restaurant. He said he had no money, his checking account was overdrawn and he just want to watch over the restaurant in the hopes it will be able to reopen again.
My personal opinion, if you have the means to go to a restaurant with a sommelier you should pay whatever corkage is, buy a bottle from the list and leave a big tip.
No, I don’t think so. I think Robert’s point is that it’s ridiculous to, on the one hand, brag about buying cases of grand cru Burgundy, but on the other hand complain that a restaurant is doing a “money grab” by charging a little bit more for corkage during the worst economic time for restaurants in time immemorial. They’re trying to survive.
I suspect take a slightly different view on corkage than Robert, but ultimately it’s completely up to the restaurant what they want to charge. And these days, I’d be happy to pay it.
No different from pre-Covid, they set their policy and I make my decision. For me it’s as much the attitude as the cost (within reason, but I don’t find $35/50 unreasonable for a formal restaurant) . It does factor into my decision but that usually refers to how many times I go, not whether I go at all.
Thanks for the clarification . I felt the OP was just asking a question and not asking to be judged/attacked/called insane . Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett don’t look to overspend either .
I know I’m just the young(ish) guy who mostly GIF comments, but I’m very much… unamused that a thread about Corkage can become filled with name-calling and shame-spiraling in under 30 posts.
Andrew, or anybody who asks a reasonable question, deserves to have either a reasonable reply in return or silence. No one starts a thread to get called a name, and I believe he deserves more protection than has been given thus far. My opinion, of course. Hopefully not an uncommon one.
I think you’re on to something. They are also doing mandatory tasting menu. So it very much might be that they have more than enough business and this is part of the way they are trying to increase average ticket size to offset the fewer tables they can accommodate given the spacing restrictions.
While there does seem to be a lot of groupthink and prepubescent angst floating around here lately, if I had to guess, most of the verve seen in this thread is predicated on my last thread. Nobody likes to hear “rich” people complain about money!
Uhh, I don’t think characterizing a restaurant increasing their corkage to $35 during a time like this as a “money grab” is a reasonable way to ask a question.
If OP is going to name call, why the hell can’t we do that right back?
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