[berettafan]

i don't believe for a second the restaurant needs $10-$20 to cover the use and cleaning of the glassware and the waiter/waitress isn't getting paid a dime more to screw up the cork vs. getting me a water.

it's lost profit and that is all it is. IF i could find a local restaurant with no corkage fee and a decent menu i'd frequent it and they would be better off so far as my eating out dollars are concerned.

BUT we don't have decent restaurants here. Even the 'good' ones don't have great wine lists OR charge less than 3x's markup. Granted 3x's is in the neighborhood of what liquor cost should be but wine bottles are just too easy to cost out for the average consumer (as opposed to food items). And nobody carries two pages each of Spanish and Italian reds. WTF?! Yes, yes we know your wine salesman reads Wine Spectator and your owner or bartender realizes that 30 something pseudo-sophisticates gravitate towards purdy labels but how about something off the beaten path???

Hoy!