EATING OUT:Even London Michelin-starred restaurants now offer no-corkage deals, but be sure to turn up with the right bottle, writes FIONA REDDAN
IF THE PHRASE “bring your own bottle” (BYOB) conjures up an image of getting plastered in a shabby ethnic restaurant on a cheap bottle of plonk, then it’s time to become re-acquainted with the term.
Traditionally, BYOB was more associated with the likes of cheap Indian restaurants which didn’t have their own license. Now, however, the practice has become much more widespread as restaurants try and bring in the punters, and high-end restaurants facilitate customers who want to drink their own special bottle of wine.
In London, the practice has been extended to Michelin-starred restaurants, such as Tom Aikens in Chelsea, and the Ledbury in Notting Hill, which offer no-corkage deals from time to time.
Generally, the price of corkage varies, with the keenest deals available for those who choose to eat in restaurants which don’t charge anything. For example, diners at La Trattoria in Roscommon, or Seagrass in Dublin’s Portobello, can save money by paying no corkage on wine that can be bought in a supermarket or off-licence. So, rather than forking out €16 to €20 for a bottle of average house wine, you can pay half for something you would rather drink.
Other venues, such as Kahn’s Balti House in Donnybrook, charge a small corkage fee, while a growing trend is for restaurants that operate beside wine shops to allow you to buy your wine in the shop and drink it with your meal for a set corkage fee.
Lar Veale of Irish wine blog sourgrapes.ie recommends you try to negotiate on the corkage. “If you’re in the store, you can ask ‘will you waive corkage if I spend an extra €5 in the shop?’” he suggests.
And apart from BYOB, watch out for other special offers aimed at the discerning wine drinker. At The Gables in Foxrock, an “early bird” wine menu is available which allows diners to drink discounted wine from 5–7pm. For example, you can order a bottle of Pouilly-Fuissé, down from €40 to €27, Fleurie, down to €14 from €25, and a bottle of Pinot Grigio for just €9 instead of the usual €20. And in Harvey Nichols’s first-floor restaurant at the Dundrum Town Centre in south Dublin, you can get half price on bottles over €35 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Moreover, if you have been gifted with a special bottle of wine or champagne, and would like to drink it in a high-end restaurant, it may be possible. “Some advertise, a lot don’t,” points out Veale. Nigel Donnan, proprietor of Dublin Wine School, typically brings his own wine when eating out. He recommends that if you ring up and ask a restaurant whether or not they do corkage, you might be pleasantly surprised.
However, some etiquette is required when you bring your own wine to a high-end restaurant, so a €6 bottle of wine from a discount supermarket might not cut it. Pearl Brasserie specifies that it offers corkage on “special” bottles of wine and, as Donnan points out, “certain restaurants might frown on you for bringing in cheap, new world wine. They prefer to see a good bottle of wine on the table.”
But is it worth it at this end? Michelin-starred Thornton’s for example, charges €35 corkage on both wine and sparkling wine, while Pearl Brasserie has a €20 charge.
However, given that a restaurant of this calibre would typically have a €20 to €25 mark-up on its cheapest bottle of house wine, by bringing in anything of better quality than this, you should be saving money. “The better the wine, the more you save,” says Donnan.
But remember that you might not always be met with the answer you would like. Donnan asked a waiter in a Dublin restaurant whether or not it would allow corkage, only to receive the response: “Do you want to bring your own food as well?”
SELECTED CORKERS: Where to go
The Stone Grill, Stepaside, Co Dublin
Corkage: €0 (Wednesday, Thursday)
The Hole in the Wall, Phoenix Park, Dublin
Corkage: €0
Chez Max, Dublin
Corkage: €15
Andersons Food Hall Cafe, Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Corkage: €6 for wine bought in wine shop
Fallon Byrne, Dublin 2
Corkage: €1 on wine purchased and consumed in cellar on Mondays; €10 every other night
Keshk Café, Upper Leeson Street , Dublin 2
Corkage: €0
Seagrass, Portobello, Dublin 2
Corkage: €0
Brownes, Sandymount, Dublin 4
Corkage: €10
Little Jerusalem, Rathmines
Corkage: €0
Noodles at Night, Drumcondra Road, Dublin
Corkage: €4
La Trattoria, Roscommon
Corkage: €0
Odessa, Dublin 2
Corkage: €10 for wine/€12.50 for sparkling
The French Paradox, Ballsbridge
Corkage: €10 for wine bought in its shop
The Gables, Foxrock, Co Dublin
Corkage: €10 for wine bought in its shop
La Cuvée Bistro Winebar, IFSC, Dublin 1
Corkage: €10 for wine bought in its shop
Khan's Balti House, Donnybrook
Corkage: €2.90
Footlights by the River, Kilkenny
Corkage: €0
Cafe Gusto, Cork
Corkage: €4
AT THE HIGH END
Pearl Brasserie, Dublin 2
Corkage: €20
Dax, Pembroke Street, Dublin 2
Corkage: €20 for wine and sparkling wine
Thorntons, Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin 2
Corkage: €35 for wine and sparkling wine
READERS' RECOMMENDATIONS
Fables Restaurant, Unicorn Bar, Limerick
Corkage: €0
Bistro Spice, Monkstown, Co Dublin
Corkage: €0
Cathedral Cafe, Patrick Street, Dublin 8
When: Thursday-Sunday evenings Corkage: €0
Aglio Italian Restaurant, Enfield, Co Meath
Corkage: €0
Enowine Cafe, Monkstown, Dublin
Corkage: €0 for wine bought in its shop
Seasons, Skerries, Co Dublin
When: Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights
Corkage: €8
