What Price Corkage?

It was almost enough to drive a man to drink. And to add to the frustration it was all because I wanted to drink some non-alcoholic  wine in some unfamiliar American restaurants. On a recent trip to Los Angeles and New York I took along a few bottles of my trusty Edenvale sparkling cuvee and Shiraz.
 
I’d been lucky on the flight from Melbourne to LA in Business Class on the stunning new V Australia Boeing 777. The airport manager kindly cleared a couple of bottles through the catering system and they were waiting for me when I boarded.
 
And for the trip home the V Australia LA manager actually scoured the supermarkets for some bottles of an American non-alcoholic brand and got them on the plane for the downhill run home. That’s customer service for you.
 
But it was in restaurants in California and New York where I ran into expensive trouble. Some, at first, flatly refused to serve anything BYO until I explained that this was non-alcoholic and they had nothing remotely like it on their menu and please give me the wine list because my wife will be ordering some real stuff anyway.
 
What nearly drove me to drink after that initial bottle battle was that misnomer of a word: ‘corkage’. It ranged from zero to $50. I kid you not. Fifty bucks for a drink that costs me less than $10 in Coles or Safeway.
 
Now, I will accept that some corkage is fair. A restaurateur can justifiably argue that he/she still has to provide a glass, it has to be washed, the waiter has to pull the cork and serve the drink, and while all this is happening you’re not spending money on anything off the price-inflated wine list.
 
I’ve paid it in Australia when I’ve taken a bottle of real wine to a restaurant. Like the $25 corkage it cost when I took a bottle of Grange Hermitage to Radii on my wedding night. In retrospect, that’s fair because they have vintage Grange on their wine list. They don’t charge me anything now for my non-alcoholic Edenvale.
 
But back to America. At the famous Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel  they wanted $50 a bottle and I had two bottles with me. When I protested, the wine waiter pointed out a bottle of Californian non-alcoholic cab sav for $40. I went down that route.
 
At the new trendy Japanese restaurant called Geisha House on Hollywood Boulevard they apologetically charged $30.  House policy for BYO wine. The fact that it wasn’t real wine cut no ice.
 
In New York the policy varied. At a little Italian restaurant the corkage was zilch one visit, then $30 the next and then zero again. Go figure, as they say in Manhattan.
 
At Le Coloniel, a fascinating Vietnamese restaurant with décor and menu straight out of old Saigon, there were no ifs or buts. Corkage $35.
 
The biggest surprise was at the Waldorf Astoria. There’s a famous bar and supper lounge called Peacock Alley just off the high-ceilinged, gilt and marble lobby.
 
It’s a great place to listen to the grand piano player and songstress while watching the passing parade of mink coats and tuxes as they head to the ballroom or bathroom.
 
With the Beverly Hills experience behind me I was braced for another fifty dollar slug. Not so. They charged not a cent for my bottle of non-alcoholic wine to go with the biggest and best crab cakes you’ll ever eat.
 
My biggest problem was not the inconsistent corkage policies  but having to call for the manager after failing to convince a sceptical waiter  in a non-BYO environment, that even though the bottle and the label looked like wine… it really wasn’t.
 
To be honest, in an increasingly health-conscious New York, I was surprised that so few places had even heard of non-alcoholic wine let alone had any on their menu. But I guess that goes for Sydney and Melbourne too.
 
One encouraging thing at Peacock Alley. They did stock a terrific non-alcoholic beer called O’Doull’s. Enjoyed that.

Monday, 8th March 2010