An accepted way of dining in most larger cities, the habit—and allowance—of bringing your own wine to a restaurant is still finding its coaster in Halifax. A good number of bars don’t allow it, but we searched around for which venues give you some of the best deals on corkage fees the city has to offer. –Holly Gordon
Onyx
Normally, the Onyx’s corking fee is one of the more expensive: At $30 a bottle, you’re better off bringing a significantly expensive bottle of wine and making that fee worth it. But on Wednesdays, corkage is free as part of a promotion for the Wednesday live acts. This week you can listen to musician Geordie Haley while sipping your own wine—at no extra charge. 5680 Spring Garden Road, 428-5680
Brooklyn Warehouse
This local spot bordering the north and west end charges only a dollar if you bring a Nova Scotia wine in (any day of the week), while other bottles get a $10 fee, each. It also boasts a Wednesday special: $1 a bottle, no matter what the make.2795 Windsor Street, 446-8181
Cafe Istanbul
While Cafe Istanbul doesn’t have a special day-of-the-week pricing for corkage, it has the cheapest regular corking fee we could find: $7.50 a bottle, no matter the bottle or day. We’ll clink glasses to that. 5986 Spring Garden Road, 405-4028
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.
Montreal is famous for their bring your own wine. It is great and no fee. None whatsoever. I think the restaurant owners understand that a full restaurant is better than an empty one. Yes ,the Halifax restaurants make a lot of money on wine , but this is also a deterent for someone that doesn’t want to spend $30 on a $9 bottle from the liquor store. The end result, they stay home.
The restaurant business is a very hard business to be in right now. I’ve been there. If I was still in the business, I would follow Montreal’s logic and have no corking fees–zero. Try it, it works in other cities. The restaurant owners might be pleasantly surprised.
Anything over $10 for corkage is a rip-off. Really what kind of an insult to customers is it to charge $30? It goes along with $7 draft and so on… no wonder so many people stay home for social events. Screw you Onyx and other rip-off places with your ludicrous corkage fees – I’ll stay home or go elsewhere with my credit card and my 20% tipping habits.
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/byow-a-year…
My article on this from Feb 09
Not much has changed, I bet. Hardly anyone uses this service. Why? laziness? embarrassment? High corkage?