If you ever ordered a banquet at a restaurant (for example, for a wedding or for another large-scale celebration), you might come across a concept such as “cork collection”. The proposed article will tell you what it is, where it came from and what to do with this phenomenon.
Meaning and Origin
In English, this fee is called a corkage fee. It means a fee for uncorking and serving to the table a bottle of wine that a restaurant visitor brought with him. This practice is widespread among high-income people who have a home-made wine cellar and from time to time feel like having dinner outside the house while drinking professionally prepared food with their favorite drink. You can do this very culturally: for you, the bottle will be rubbed to a shine, uncorked and served at the table, and then they will include the fee for such service in your account. That's what cork collecting means. This fee may vary in different restaurants ranging from 15 to 85 dollars.
And now we will consider features of this restaurant policy on the example of various countries and individual institutions.
In Europe and the USA
Abroad it is considered a good form to comply with several rules if you bring your wine. Firstly, you need to call the restaurant in advance and warn about your desire. This is usually done at the same time as booking a table. At the same time, you can clarify which cork collection system is used in this institution: what it will include and how much it will cost.
In some restaurants, the fee for one open bottle is equal to the cost of the cheapest drink presented on the wine list. In other places it is higher, but you can count on a discount if you also get local alcohol in addition to what you brought with you. In especially pathos restaurants, the size of the corkage fee depends on the brand of wine: the more elite, the more expensive.
Absolutely bad taste is the purchase of cheap wine in order to drink it in a restaurant. They don’t save on such things, especially if they want to visit this place again in the future.
At popular resorts
Now we find out if there is cork in restaurants in Turkey, Egypt and other favorite tourist places. Judging by the reviews of visitors to restaurants and bars located at hotels, this system is absent in resorts. Tourists bring their drinks: champagne, wine, whiskey, etc. You can safely drink a bottle alone or in someone else's company. Waiters do not include additional fees in your account, and at the request of (sometimes without waiting for one) bring glasses and a bucket of ice.
True, such a democratic practice does not apply to banquets. If you are organizing a large-scale event with your own alcohol, you will have to pay for the service at the established rate.
In Moscow and Petersburg
For Russian restaurants, this practice was recently considered exotic, but since 2013 it began to be introduced in all large and popular places. The first to charge such a fee were restaurants in luxury hotels, and then the phenomenon began to spread more widely. Now you can encounter it more and more often, so you should find out what a cork collection is in restaurants in Moscow, for example.
So, in “Wasabi” closed factory bottles of wine, champagne and all kinds of strong alcohol are accepted for service. But low alcohol, cooked at home or purchased for bottling drinks in the restaurant is forbidden to bring. Prices range from 150 to 400 rubles for each open bottle, depending on its volume and alcohol strength. Often you can bring your own alcohol only if you order food from the menu for a certain amount.
In general, restaurants in the two capitals do not always support the corkage fee system, since it is much more profitable to sell alcohol from one's own reserves. The exception is elite places where visitors sometimes bring rare collectible brands of wines and other spirits.
A completely different situation when it comes to organizing weddings, corporate events and other such events. In this case, the restaurant is very profitable to establish its own rules, because the cork collection is not yet regulated by law.
The following fee systems are practiced:
- how many bottles are brought, the same must be bought at the institution;
- a certain amount of alcohol is bought at a local bar, after which you can freely drink what you bring with you;
- each bottle brought (or only open) is charged.
The price varies from 300 to 1000 rubles for wine and champagne and from 700 to 3000 rubles for strong alcohol.
In other cities
And what is cork collection in a restaurant far beyond St. Petersburg and Moscow? Its essence is the same: a payment for the right to drink alcohol brought with you. This system is also practiced when organizing banquets in the restaurant hall. Naturally, the cost will be lower compared to metropolitan institutions: the lower limit is 50 rubles per bottle, the upper - 300.
Tips for saving
If you can’t find a place without “traffic jam” fees, you can think of an effective action strategy.
- Arrange mutually beneficial conditions with the restaurant. Since there is no single, legislatively regulated price, you can safely discuss this issue with the administration. The result of negotiations may be a certain price or an agreement to purchase a certain amount of alcohol in the restaurant itself in exchange for the opportunity to bring your own drinks as well.
- Buy drinks in large bottles if cork collection in this institution is considered regardless of this parameter.
- If cork collection still far exceeds the cost of alcohol that you plan to purchase for the holiday, then it makes sense to think about the appropriateness of drinking your drinks. Sometimes it can be more profitable and easier to order them in the restaurant itself.
Now you know what cork collecting is, how popular it is in Russia and abroad, in what forms it is expressed and, most importantly, what is the price of this issue. And ordering a banquet, you will already be savvy in this and will not make a mistake.