Markup on wine in restaurants

You can pickup dead animals on the side of the road and cook them. Why go to a grocery store and pay for the convenience of having air conditioning, refrigeration, lighting and packaging. The questions that get asked here sometimes...
 
The bartender at my favorite restaurant makes the best old fashioned I've ever had.

Not everyone wants to learn to change their own oil. I don't have the desire to perfect an old fashioned. I'll gladly pay someone for their expertise. If I'm out at dinner, I'm there too enjoy myself, not piss and moan about what they're charging me.

These threads amuse me when people deride the service industry as a scam. People's labor has value. A chef's time has value. Your server's time has value. The experience of dining out has value. If none of that adds value to you, then stay home.

I'm also not sure where you buy your wine or what you like to drink - on average the bottles we enjoy are $20-30 and that price is pretty similar to whole bottles in restaurants. Of course there is markup. They're there to make money.

Instead of complaining about the cost of a glass of wine, buy the bottle and loosen the hell up. Or just stay home and keep your misery there with you.
 
The bartender at my favorite restaurant makes the best old fashioned I've ever had.

Not everyone wants to learn to change their own oil. I don't have the desire to perfect an old fashioned. I'll gladly pay someone for their expertise. If I'm out at dinner, I'm there too enjoy myself, not piss and moan about what they're charging me.

These threads amuse me when people deride the service industry as a scam. People's labor has value. A chef's time has value. Your server's time has value. The experience of dining out has value. If none of that adds value to you, then stay home.

I'm also not sure where you buy your wine or what you like to drink - on average the bottles we enjoy are $20-30 and that price is pretty similar to whole bottles in restaurants. Of course there is markup. They're there to make money.

Instead of complaining about the cost of a glass of wine, buy the bottle and loosen the hell up. Or just stay home and keep your misery there with you.
darn well said. If you can’t afford or just want to whine about alcohol prices when dining out, drink at home or stay home
 
Alcohol is where most restaurants make up for on the food costs. I worked for an upscale dining facility at a retirement home out of high school. The food service director was anal retentive about portion sizes etc. Food can have very thin margins, yet some steakhouses seem to do ok when a $20 steak becomes $60-70.
 
Same reason why a shop would charge you to install parts you supply. You are taking away a source of income for them.
I'm not sure I understand this analogy. I don't drink but I know how to use a corkscrew and/or twist a bottle cap. Shops charge labour to compensate their skilled trade workers for their knowledge and skill plus other business expenses. You can purchase pads, rotors and calipers but may not know how to install them. When I was in the industry, our shop would not install customer supplied parts. Just like I can't bring my steak to a restaurant and have them cook it for me.
 
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The bartender at my favorite restaurant makes the best old fashioned I've ever had.

Not everyone wants to learn to change their own oil. I don't have the desire to perfect an old fashioned. I'll gladly pay someone for their expertise. If I'm out at dinner, I'm there too enjoy myself, not piss and moan about what they're charging me.

These threads amuse me when people deride the service industry as a scam. People's labor has value. A chef's time has value. Your server's time has value. The experience of dining out has value. If none of that adds value to you, then stay home.

I'm also not sure where you buy your wine or what you like to drink - on average the bottles we enjoy are $20-30 and that price is pretty similar to whole bottles in restaurants. Of course there is markup. They're there to make money.

Instead of complaining about the cost of a glass of wine, buy the bottle and loosen the hell up. Or just stay home and keep your misery there with you.
RVW, need to know that place....next time I am through FT Bragg would like to try a old fashion.... never had one. My go to drink is a woodford and diet coke....
 
RVW, need to know that place....next time I am through FT Bragg would like to try a old fashion.... never had one. My go to drink is a woodford and diet coke....
Bar Virgile in Durham. Cocktails and a simple menu executed to perfection.

Try your go-to with Monkey Shoulder in place of Woodford and use a bit less Coke. 😉
 
Alcohol at restaurants is the biggest scam ever, but people do it to look classy or sophisticated so it's an allowed hypocrisy.
I thought people go to restaurants for the food and to bars for drinks. While there is some overlap on both ends, the goals are the same. I also read occasionally about a restaurant that goes out of business if they lose their liquor license. Will people just not go to a restaurant if they can't have alcohol? Isn't the food the main attraction? Or are many people like Raj on the BBT who cant function socially without being liquored up?
 
Some of you miss the point entirely. Many of us go to restaurants just to get out and for food cooked differently than we do at home. It feels good to sit down and be waited on. I know my wife surely appreciates having a day off. We drink a glass of wine now and then simply because we like it. Same way with a glass of tea, or coffee. In these times of the Covid, it is a real pleasure to get out and relax.
 
In many higher end restaurants, the wine is competitively priced vs. the wine shop. $5 for a soda is the real outrage.
seriously? I highly doubt that. How do you know unless you write down their selections and run to the local wine shopto compare? Just asking. The only thing I can figure is, on real high end wines, perhaps the resturant can get their bottles for a huge discount.
 
As a young fatty I worked in a steak and lobster restaurant inside the Chicago city limits. The price they paid for booze was nearly the same or more than what it cost in a liquor store. If it wasn't marked up that would be a going out of business plan.
 
For someone that gets tap water unless the combo comes with a soda, I've always been baffled by how people will pay $6 or $8 for a drink or glass of wine when the food itself is just $8 or $10.
Do you think these people are dumb and don't understand that they could get their alcohol for less at a local liquor store?

Most people are well aware that alcohol costs more at a restaurant, yet they gladly pay it because they don't mind spending the money and that is what they enjoy doing - having a drink or two with their meal while being waited on and socializing with family and friends. Everything can be done cheaper if one wants, but in this case, it is not about doing it cheaper.

When you take a girl out for a nice dinner, and she wants to have a glass of wine with it, what are you going to tell her? "Honey, have a glass of tap water instead, and no ice because it takes up space! On the way back home I'll take you to the liquor store and will buy you a whole bottle."
 
I have come to the conclusion that we at THT do not believe that there should be any mark up at all on any parts, material of labor involved with services provided.
 
When you take a girl out for a nice dinner, and she wants to have a glass of wine with it, what are you going to tell her? "Honey, have a glass of tap water instead, and no ice because it takes up space! On the way back home I'll take you to the liquor store and will buy you a whole bottle."
Yes.
That's why we love and married each other. Similar financial goals. Realization that we can buy a whole six pack and bottle of wine and drink it at the hotel or beach vs overpaying for one drink at the restaurant. We rarely dine out. Restaurants are such a waste of money. Her home meals taste better almost 100% of the time.
Costco pizza is $10 and feeds 4, though - I fully support that. In-N-Out burgers are also well-priced. But a sit-down restaurant? Nah, we don't need to be "served". Better yet, the burritos we cook while camping - can't beat the price, location or experience.

People who dine out regularly spend hundreds of dollars a month. They are also not the ones that seem to be on top of their retirement finances. We'd rather retire early than work. The average American doesn't get the trade-off. Delayed gratification is no longer a thing. "Let me take a selfie with my friends at this fancy bar". That makes them feel good about themselves. lol

/rant from a 40-year old grumpy old man :)
 
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Yes.
That's why we love and married each other. Similar financial goals. Realization that we can buy a whole six pack and bottle of wine and drink it at the hotel or beach vs overpaying at the restaurant. We rarely dine out. Restaurants are such a waste of money. Her home meals taste better almost 100% of the time.
Costco pizza is $10 and feeds 4, though - I fully support that. In-N-Out burgers are also well-priced. But a sit-down restaurant? Nah, we don't need to be "served". Better yet, the burritos we cook while camping - can't beat the price, location or experience.

People who dine out regularly spend hundreds of dollars a month. They are also not the ones that seem to be on top of their retirement finances. We'd rather retire early than work. The average American doesn't get the trade-off. Delayed gratification is no longer a thing. "Let me take a selfie with my friends at this fancy bar". That makes them feel good about themselves. lol

/rant from a 40-year old grumpy old man :)
For me, there is time for all of it. We cook at home quite a bit, but we also enjoy trying new restaurants, cuisines and just taking a break from cooking while supporting local businesses.

Delayed gratification is a risky proposition. Sometimes you get too old and sick to be able to enjoy it.

We are well on our way toward early retirement though.

But if you have to make a choice between occasional eating/ drinking out and your 401k, then I fully support choosing the latter.
 
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Well...why not bring in your own food, too? Ask them for a plate, and pay nothing? Maybe tell them to cook it for a $5 fee?

No different than bringing in your own wine, or whining about a corking fee.

Talk to a restaurant owner about the margins in their business. You’ll be surprised at how little the markup is on food, and how high the labor cost.

Or, maybe, get out more often and stop worrying about how a restaurant makes money.
 
Another thought: dining in a restaurant isn’t always about cost.

Mrs. Astro is an incredible cook. Her Filet Mignons beat Ruth’s Chris any day. But just the meat (tenderloins, which she butchers at home, at less than half the cost of buying filets) is about $15 each. Add in the side dishes, labor for prep and servers, and dishes, and yeah, a similar cut of meat at Ruth’s Chris is $50.

You know what? I take her out to eat, at nice places that aren't really better than she can do, just so that she isn’t stuck in the kitchen, and can enjoy the company of the people we are with, along with a nice dinner, with no prep, no clean up. No worries. She enjoys it. I enjoy it. She talks with the owner, or the chef, at times, while analyzing the prep style, ingredients, everything.

Cooking is an art that I appreciate, but can’t hope to understand or master. She has mastered it, and sometimes, I just want her to enjoy the evening.

The analog, for you BITOGers, is her taking my Mercedes to a professional detailer so that my day is freed up to enjoy, hopefully with her, not spent on the car. Even though I’m cheaper and better than the detailer she hired.
 
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