Bring your own bottle/Corkage fee

[daverube]

I just received the California Grill's Wine List via email; however, it doesn't have anything on it regarding a byo corkage fee. The wife-to-be and I will be dining there in November during our honeymoon and thought about bringing a really nice bottle or two. As such, does anyone know if byo is allowed and what the corkage fee would be??

thanks,

dave

 

[ThreeCircles]

Just a heads up - BYOB is NOT permitted in any of the Disney restaurants. A) the liquor laws in Florida do not permit that on property which already has proprietary liquor licenses; and B) The restaurants make a large portion of their income off of alchohol sales, and they don't want you bringing in your own.

While some Disney restaurants do not permit bringing outside bottles of wine into the restaurant, California Grill being one, many others do. The Corkage Fee often varies from location to location.

For instance:
Citricos: $20
Narcoossees: $20
Victoria & Albert's: $25

There is no Florida law that prohibits a restaurant or liquor license holder from allowing this. However, it remains the license holders responsibility to follow and enforce all laws governing the consumption of liquor on their property even if a customer brings it into the establishment.

At any rate, it is certainly up to an individual restaurant to decide if they allow this or not.

And restaurants have a corkage fee to offset the cost of not selling a bottle of their own wines.

Disney is absurdly expensive when it comes to wines from the low to the high end. Generally, as a wine increases in price the markup in a restaurant decreases. So, restaurants generally make a higher margin on lower-end wines than they do premium and high-end wines. This isn't the case for Disney.

The sad thing is, Disney would sell a lot more wine if their prices were even half as outrageous as they are.

**This information was correct prior to '04. I didn't call WDW-DINE or WDW-MAGIC to verify that it is still correct.**

 

[unkadug]

...The sad thing is, Disney would sell a lot more wine if they're prices were even half as outrageous as they are...

Perhaps this is their way of trying to keep most guests sober.

 

[ThreeCircles]

Just had dinner last night at Disney's Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club. Brought a nice bottle of Bollinger and the corkage is $20.00.

I've also called Disney Guest Services and was told that any non-theme park restaurant owned by Disney will allow you to bring in a bottle. Obviously some individuals who are kindly "providing" information on this thread have no idea as to what they're talking about.

 

[Monty]

Just had dinner last night at Disney's Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club. Brought a nice bottle of Bollinger and the corkage is $20.00.

I've also called Disney Guest Services and was told that any non-theme park restaurant owned by Disney will allow you to bring in a bottle. Obviously some individuals who are kindly "providing" information on this thread have no idea as to what they're talking about.

In defence of "some individuals", in my experience Disney is generally not reliable in providing accurate information over the phone or in person. Unless everyone talks to the same staff person you talked to, it is quite likely we'd all get differing responses. My advice would be to take your bottle with you. If they allow it, great. If they don't, it's not like it'll go bad... :lol:

 

[Hurricane]

Just a heads up - BYOB is NOT permitted in any of the Disney restaurants. A) the liquor laws in Florida do not permit that on property which already has proprietary liquor licenses; and B) The restaurants make a large portion of their income off of alchohol sales, and they don't want you bringing in your own.

Though I only glossed over FSA Title 34, Chapter 561-9 as well as the Orange County Code, I don't find anything to support such a proposition. In fact corkage fees are very common. While alcohol is a revenue center for many restaurants, a corkage fee is nearly pure profit meant to recoup lost revenue. Of course there is nothing I can find to prevent a license holder from preventing bringing their own bottle.

The best advice is to call the maitre d' of the specific restaurant and ask their corkage policy.

 

[ThreeCircles]

Though I only glossed over FSA Title 34, Chapter 561-9 as well as the Orange County Code, I don't find anything to support such a proposition. In fact corkage fees are very common. While alcohol is a revenue center for many restaurants, a corkage fee is nearly pure profit meant to recoup lost revenue. Of course there is nothing I can find to prevent a license holder from preventing bringing their own bottle.

The best advice is to call the maitre d' of the specific restaurant and ask their corkage policy.

You can't find the information because it doesn't exist. There is no such law as stated.

 

[davinakb]

I'd never thought about bringing a bottle to dinner at Disney, but I may consider it for a future trip. Honestly we like trying different wines at the various places (Jiko, CG, AP, V&A). However, it can get expensive.

ThreeCircles, I have to agree with you about the prices. Even with our DDE card, the prices sometimes border on the ridiculous. For example, we found a wine at CG we liked a couple years ago; our local stores sell for about a third the price. It's worse on cheaper wines; interesting article here. So it may be worth a $20 fee to bring our own bottle one night next time.

 

[bjunderwood]

My family was once able to bring in a bottle of wine when we had dinner at France. We told the guards at the front of Epcot we had been told over the phone it was allowed, they called the restaurant, who confirmed it, and they allowed a sort of "one time deal." This was two years ago and I'm sure it would never be allowed again (probably an error on the receptionist), but we still were able to do it.