Il Granaio Italian Restaurant in Glen Mills, PA, and its younger sibling, Antica in Chadds Ford, PA, recently initiated corkage fees at their respective restaurants.
Both restaurants were originally BYOB; however, Il Granaio recently acquired a liquor license and opened a service bar replete with a modest wine list. You may still BYOB; but patrons who do so will be charged a wine service/corkage fee of $8.00 per bottle. Once a restaurant acquires a liquor license, a corkage fee for those who still wish to tote along their own vino is certainly understandable.
What is not understandable, however, is why the owners also decided to initiate a wine service /corkage fee of $5.00 per bottle at their sister restaurant, Antica, which remains a BYOB. Antica has always been a BYOB restaurant and has never charged a corkage fee. To initiate one now, for no apparently good reason other than squeezing a few more bucks out of their patrons, sends a definite message to the restaurant’s loyal clientele – and it is not a particularly positive one.
The owners are certainly not newbies to the restaurant game and they should know better; but apparently they do not – and that also sends a less than positive message. I have always praised Antica – food, service and ambiance – in my reviews; but I will certainly think twice before paying a return visit. And I have no doubt that other diners will do the same.
A paraphrase of a line from the movie Casablanca comes immediately to mind: “How extravagant you are throwing away customers that way… some day they may be scarce.”
Bon Appétit!
TAD
{ 0 comments… add one now }