"Restaurants mark up wine by a lot more than you might expect."

Lucky you in the States if the mark-up on wines is "only" 2.5 times the price they bought it!

In France, Germany and the Benelux countries, this would almost be a bargain, as 3 is the standard (the French call it "la triplette") and 4 is not uncommon.

Yves

How does one spell G - R - E - E - D ?

Godzilla

And how about a little sympathy for those in places with state-monopoly distribution, where the exact disparity between price-at-retail and price-in-restaurant is completely blatant and exasperating?

cheers,

Henry

"Henry" skrev i melding news:1jolyod.19i1ihv14ma7auN% snipped-for-privacy@eircom.net...

Uh? It is mostly 3x in Sweden and in Norway... The mark-up pays for storage (facilities, capital cost), glasses, music, dish-washing, service, tables, interior maintenance, advertisements and so on. Furthermore, service is included in the prices here whereas in the US I understand you are expected to tip 15-20%? Anders

In the US it's customary to tip on the total food bill minus any taxes. Do waiters/waitresses in high priced restaurants work any harder than waiters/waitresses in hamburger joints? I think not. For good service on a $10 meal I'll leave a 25% tip.

JMHO Dick in the USA

"dickr2" skrev i melding news:ZiQio.92844$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe08.iad...

Hmm, a US wine-mark-up of 2.5x..., then 20-25%tip means a total of 3 to

3.2x, equal to the usual European mark-up... Ah, well, you don't drink wine in US hamburger places, do you? No, not in Scandinavia either, but I've had burgers with wine in Switzerland :-)

Anders

In Seattle it's routine three to four times.

About two years ago I had occasion to dine at Crush, a fairly new restaurant housed in an older two-story bungalow in Seattle's Madison Park area. The chef had recently won some big awards, was getting lots of media and apparently started taking himself too seriously.

I went online several days earlier to check out the wine list. I was horrified by the prices, easily approaching a 4x mark-up. So, I decided to raid my cellar and bring along a bottle of '96 Pesquera. I also inquired, via their web site, what they charge for corkage. I never got a response.

But boy, did I get a shock when the bill came. The corkage fee was $30! Maybe that's not much by New York standards, but by Seattle standards it's highway robbery. I once paid $35, but that was for bringing a special bottle to dinner at Canlis, long regarded as Seattle's #1 restaurant. Plus, Canlis has a 13,000-bottle wine cellar. I bought from that, too, and if you're going to maintain that kind of cellar for your clientele you're entitled to charge $35 for an outside bottle. I didn't complain.

But at Crush? Ridiculous. It cost as much to open the bottle as one of the entrees! If their wines hadn't been so outrageously overpriced to being with, I would have bought from their list. But I can tell you without equivocation -- I'm never going back to that place again.

Tell you where I am going, though, every chance I get. A wonderfully unpretentious Italian place called Angelo's in Bellevue, WA (across the lake from Seattle). The food is superb and moderately priced, but when I found a bottle of Amarone on the list for $30 I was certain it was a misprint. Nope, I was told. "Our owner doesn't believe in gouging people for wine." Chaa! I guess not!

After dinner I had a chance to chat with said owner. He flat out told me, "Wine is meant to go with food. If you don't buy it because it's too 'expensive,' you're missing a critical part of the dining experience. So, I decided long ago that I wasn't going to do what every other restaurant does. I'm not in business to make money off wine."

Give that man a gold star! (Depending which online reviews you read, he always gets at least four, and often five.)

I had dinner at Angelo's recently, and when Richard (the owner) found out it was my birthday he presented me with a bottle of 2003 Chianti Riserva as a gift. You think he appreciates my business? You think I appreciate his?

Some restauranteurs get it, some don't. I tend to patronize the latter.

JJ