Nothing earth shattering here but an article by Esther Mobley in the SF Chronicle:
Cheers
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I would purchase more bottles of wine in restaurants if the markup was 2-2.5x of retail rather than the 4x I routinely see now.
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The fact that restaurant wine sales are down is not at all surprising to me……one reason is that people are just getting tired of spending $300 on a bottle of Napa Cabernet that they know they can purchase at a retail shop for $100……We are really lucky that here in NJ, there are literally hundreds of really nice restaurants that are totally BYO. When we go out to dinner these days, we rarely go to a non-BYO restaurant, and when we do, we usually each get a cocktail before dinner, and each of us has a glass of wine with dinner. Some of the NJ non-BYO restaurants are getting creative with their wine lists to lure people like me in the door. For example, Cree Wine Company (owned by Master Sommelier Chris Cree) has a really cool restaurant in a very old Inn that he totally renovated, and he has an online retail shop as well. He has one of the best wine lists you will find anywhere, and on Wednesday nights, he offers any bottle on his list for the retail price, with zero markup! And every other night, the wine list price is just the retail price plus a modest corkage fee (no 200%+ markups there!). It’s just too bad his place is 90 minutes away from us, or I would go there twice a week for sure!..…
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I suppose if you are eating at a 2 star Michelin restaurant you aren’t too concerned with price/value, but red wines BTG on the Acquerello list appears to start at $26. (To the point the article makes about the upward creep of BTG prices.)
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I don’t think it helps that checks there also now tend to feature new non tax line items
Healthcare Responsibility Surcharge
Kitchen Appreciation Fee
Credit Card Fee
etc.
And the whole process of booking tables on weird one off apps (does anyone have a phone line anymore?) or looking at a menu (how social! gaze at your phone more) also feel like they deter free spending.
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Price always matters.
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SF restaurants as a whole have to worry about a lot more than wine sales.
It is a rarity if I eat out more than twice a month now. This type of reduction is becoming very common with both my friends and professional colleagues. It’s a combination of rapidly increasing costs, ever increasing fees (which many increased after the exemption from the junk fee ban passed 
), and declining service quality.
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Actually, for many of us, it’s the exact opposite. If I am eating at such an establishment, I’m already spending a large sum on the food. My price sensitivity on additions like wine will be far greater.
The wine director from Saison directly alludes to this.
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Yea, I hear you. I think I was just needlessly qualifying my initial reaction of: wow, these BTG prices stink.
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Apropos of nothing, the best sushi restaurant in the wine region (Oregon), Syun Izakaya, has a decent sake list which is beyond fairly priced but they also allow wine to be brought in and I have never gotten the sense that there is a bottle limit (we had our harvest dinner there and brought in at least 8 bottles). They only have so many decent wine glasses but if you wanted I am sure you could bring those in as well.
Corkage is $7.
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Why not have the markup on wines above a certain cost be more like 1.5x instead of 3x? I can understand marking up a bottle of Prisoner from 50 to 150, especially when people are spending 300 a head on Wagyu. But you’ve got to be a special type of clueless to spend 600 on a bottle of great Cab when a half hour of planning means you can pick it up at K&L for 200, pay the 70 corkage, and come out 330 ahead. (And it’s not like you’re even getting the benefit of aging… older vintages on wine lists are much rarer these days, and are usually off vintages or if not priced up more like 10x).
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I have asked this so many times. Part of the “reason“ given for the extreme markups is service. It costs money to pay somebody to buy, stock, and serve it, glassware (and glass breakage) costs money, etc. But those costs don’t depend on the value of the individual bottle.
So, The only plausible reason that they charge that much is that they can, because they have always done it.
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No man of woman born can walk into K&L (or Costco) and only spend $200. Have you not seen the ‘Two Bottle Minimum’ signage?
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I’m always happy to see situations like this pointed out. Sometimes there is more to it than meets the eye like the owner inherited the property or something like that which allows them to operate more profitably than others (not saying that is the case here) but I suspect there is a way for restos to survive or even thrive without gouging people on alcohol.
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Thanks for the idea! looks like that’s were I’ll be heading for dinner tomorrow
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Move to Durham, NC and @Nathan_V will have the pricing you like (or at least he did). Pricing is 4x retail in PA at restaurants. Luckily lots of corkage options.
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I think generally when the bottle prices gets up to a certain point the markups do decrease except for at places like TFL.
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Have you been before? It’s top notch! Incredible fish quality. Their nigiri/sushi game is spot on and they bring in some high end stuff. Love it there. Would eat there all the time if that was reasonable.
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I have not. I moved up here in june from palo alto. We had great sushi in the bay area, but for some reason I havent had it here yet. gonna go tomorrow. now just gotta find a wine to bring! sparkling, pinot blanc or dry riesling, I can’t decide
The reason why wine prices are the way they they are is because huge margins on alcohol are the only things keeping the majority of restaurants in business (because the restaurant business model is terrible).
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