The high price of drinking wine in Austin, Texas restaurants
I recently made a trip to San Francisco, and I had the good fortune to eat out at several fine dining establishments. When the wine list appeared at the first restaurant, I noticed that the wine prices were much less than I would pay in Austin, TX. At first, I thought it was just for Californian wines, but prices for imports were also lower then I had seen in Austin.
So I dropped by K & L Wine Merchants in San Francisco and got the local retail prices for several bottles of wine and took the information with me when I went out to eat.
At each place I went, the mark-up used by Californian restaurants was about 2x retail — so a $20 bottle of wine from K & L would cost about $40 on a restaurant wine list. I have done this comparison many times in Austin, and I find that the mark-up from retail shop to restaurant runs somewhere between 3x and 4x.
Why so much more? The answer is on the bottom of almost all wine lists in Californian restaurants where they list their corkage fee. In California, you can take your own wine with you and pay a service fee that ranges from $10 to $25 per bottle. In Texas, it is illegal to bring your own wine to a restaurant that serves liquor, and most fine dining places have a full bar. If you want wine with your meal, you have to pay whatever price the restaurant wants to charge, and many places take advantage of you.
There does appear to be some hope for Austin wine drinkers, and it is coming from the new wine bars and “try and buy” shops that are springing up around town. Several of these shops, including Taste Select Wine, The Grove Wine Bar & Kitchen, and Vino Vino, offer good-to-excellent food, and they sell their wine for less than most restaurants. For example, Taste sells wines at competitive retail prices, and they only add a $10 corkage fee to drink the wine with your meal. The Grove and Vino Vino offer wines at about 2x to 2.5x retail to go with their food.
Maybe these establishments will force a change — but what we really need is an overhaul of the archaic Texas liquor laws. This prohibition against taking your own wine to a restaurant that serves liquor does not make the people of Texas any safer or less likely to drink to excess. The only thing this prohibition does is make more money for Texas restaurants.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
State and local government are the ones making cash off of our liquor laws, so don’t expect things to change. Bars and restaurants aren’t exactly going broke selling the stuff, but sometimes it’s more trouble than it is worth to sell alcohol in your establishment. Not only are the taxes and levies high, the penalties for non-compliance are harsh! The biggest problem in Texas is the lack of uniformity across the state in laws. I honestly couldn’t tell you how different laws are from Dallas to Tyler to Houston.
Here in Houston, there are a few dry areas with restaurants that cannot serve beer, wine or liquor. Some of which serve pretty good food. The best part? They are BYOB and most charge about $2 a head to, I assume, offset what they lose in soda sales. Also, most places here have decent prices in the 2-3x retail range. Sometimes you can find great finds where you least expect it. There are more an more wine bar springing up every few months, it’s a good time to be a oenophile!
Colin,
Thanks for your reply. I agree with your thoughts on Texas liquor laws and their enforcement- they vary widely across the state.
It appears the World Trade Organization (WTO), may come to our “rescue”. It turns out that the “three tier system” used in Texas to distribute wine and alcohol maybe violation of various treaties to which the US is a signatory. As it currently stands, European wineries cannot sell directly to American or Texan consumers but US wineries can. The WTO sees this as an unfair advantage for wineries in the US. If the US courts agree, we could see a change in liquor control laws across much of the country including Texas. It will take a while for this to sort itself out, but we will keep you posted.
Cheers,
neil
Hey!
Ihay tookabottle to Dan’s on N. Lamar an didn get sharded a unscrew fee.
Good fries!
“In Texas, it is illegal to bring your own wine to a restaurant that serves liquor…” Just adding on to Colin’s comment ~ I have brought a bottle of wine into more than one restaurant (in Austin) and been welcomed. I’ve found that if you call ahead and ask them if they’ll permit it, restauranteurs(?) are usually willing to oblige (note: I’ve never brought a bottle in that was already on the restaurant’s wine list). Yes, they might charge a corkage fee, but I’ve never paid more than $20. Also, I always offer to share the bottle with the waiter/waitress and the sommelier.
Another little known service restaurants can offer (but many either don’t know or don’t want to put themselves in what they may see as a liability) is giving diners the opportunity to take home an opened bottle of wine they didn’t finish with dinner. Again, this may be one of those “local control” things, but before ordering a bottle I think my table might not finish I ask if I can take take what I don’t drink home and have usually been successful. (One waiter told me it was OK as long as the bottle wasn’t in the front seat of the car.)
thanks for all the interesting reading on Wine Enabler,
Rodney
@ Rodney-
I lived out in East Texas (Tyler) for a few years and had the fortune (misfortune?) of waiting tables out there for a few months. As part of training we were brought up to speed on liquor laws there which were strange because Tyler is in a “dry” county. There that meant that there were no liquor, beer or wine sales in the county from any establishments other than restaurants with a proper license. No grocery store sales and no liquor stores without making a trip to an adjacent county provided they weren’t dry either.
What is interesting was the loophole that you mention. It was legal to come into a restaurant, order an appetizer and bottle of wine to go. The bartender had to open the bottle and pour one serving of wine as well as observe the diner consume food with the wine. The bartender could then pack up the wine to-go for the customer who would pay and leave. I never say anyone do this, but I was told that diners did on occasion ask for this service.
I’m not 100% sure what parts were actual county ordinance, Texas liquor law, or company policy. I was just amazed that the laws on the books encouraged drinking and driving and cross county driving to get alcohol.
My girlfriend works as a liquor rep here in Houston, I’ll try to find out what state laws there are (if any) about bringing liquor into or out of an establishment.
Colin
Rodney,
While it is true that some establishments with a full bar might “look the other way” and allow you to bring in wine, in doing so they are in violation of TABC regulations and they could be fined or worse for such activity.
The “to go bottle loophole” you and Colin are talking about was written into the law to account for the individual that wants just a glass or two from a bottle of wine. I guess this does happen, but most often the loophole is used by someone who wants to take a bottle of wine home. Some businesses are reluctant to do this because of the open container law.
Cheers,
Neil
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