Whether you go to restaurants all the time, or only on special occasions, you probably notice one thing - very high prices for alcohol, moreover, the most commonplace and common. Not elite, but sold in almost every mass market. Many, regardless of income, do not want to buy a glass for the price of a whole bottle. However, at the same time, people do not imagine meeting in a restaurant with friends, colleagues, relatives without good wine. There is a way out for those who value their earned money. And they will help them cork collecting in a cafe, hookah, restaurant. What it is, how legal and widespread it is in Russia, we will talk further.
What is cork collection?
Everything is simple. Cork collecting in a hookah, cafe, restaurant or other institution is a fixed fee for which you can bring your own liquor to the hall. Where to drink it, in company or alone. In institutions where such an innovation has not yet been adopted, bringing food, soft drinks, and alcohol to the hall is prohibited. How to use them.
The fee is usually set by the owner of the institution. If you look even at large Russian cities, it does not exceed 300-700 rubles. In some establishments, the amount of collection depends on the volume of the bottle that you brought with you. Somewhere you can bring your own alcohol absolutely free, the main thing is to order something in a cafe. However, this phenomenon is most common in Russia when paying corporate parties, wedding banquets.
The alcohol brought by the guest usually has a number of requirements:
- Only closed bottles in the original packaging are accepted.
- The service does not apply to guests under 18 years of age.
- Do not bring homemade, draft, low alcohol drinks.
Restaurants can introduce the possibility of cork collection only with a check for a certain amount. It is not uncommon for it to be canceled on holidays and holidays.
How is it formed?
It would seem that everything is simple - you pay the restaurant for the fact that it loses a part of its profit, giving you the opportunity to enjoy the brought alcoholic drink. But how to explain the existence of such a fee in the case when the client orders the whole establishment for several hours for his own event?
Restaurateurs explain that a fee is made up of several services. What is cork collection? Rental of glasses, opening of wine bottles, their cooling and other preparation, beautiful presentation by a waiter or sommelier. In fact, this is an additional service charge, rent of the hall. Or officially issued tips.
In the case of ordering an institution completely cork collection is not static. It is formed based on the number of guests, the number brought by the customer or bottles opened during the banquet. Depending on the pricing policy of the institution, the amount of the fee varies from 50 to 1000 rubles per person (or per bottle).
Some restaurants allow themselves a trick: they introduce, but artificially inflate the cork fee to force the client to order alcohol from the storerooms of the establishment for a banquet.
Who benefits from this?
In fact, from the cork collecting in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of our country there is no loss to the institution itself or to its guests. See:
- You come to a restaurant with a pre-selected favorite drink (s), which you bought in an alcohol market at an adequate price. When ordering such alcohol in the restaurant itself, you would overpay two, three or even more times.
- The institution itself makes a profit from cork collection, so it does not remain in the red. In addition, alcohol is known to warm appetite.Therefore, the company with its alcohol in most cases orders many dishes, and also leaves a generous tip.
Why is it for restaurateurs?
Having learned what cork collection is, the reader may ask why more and more restaurants are introducing this innovation, not only abroad, but also in our country. There are quite a few reasons:
- The institution opened recently and has not yet managed to acquire a license for the sale of alcohol. While many visitors do not imagine dinner in a restaurant without a bottle of good alcohol. The way out is cork collection.
- If the institution is small (pubs, burger, shawarma, pizzerias, etc.), then it simply has nowhere to store a decent supply of alcohol. And taking a sommelier to the state is also an additional expense for a specialist.
- Thematic institution. For example, many people associate a pub with beer, grilled sausages, burgers, and inexpensive snacks. But there are visitors who wish to eat their meat dish while drinking a refined, elite drink. It is not profitable for an institution to buy expensive alcohol for such connoisseurs. It is much easier to introduce a cork fee (in St. Petersburg, by the way, it is especially popular).
- Additional advertising - word of mouth. Agree, having encountered a restaurant on the way with such an unusual innovation for our country, you are sure to tell friends about it, share the location on social networks. The institution is such a free and effective advertising at hand.
From installment history
Initially, the cork fee was called a cork fee. That is, a fee for a bottle of alcohol brought for dinner at a restaurant. The phenomenon is quite popularly popular in Western countries. At the same time, there is not called a cork fee payment for their own alcohol at a banquet or corporate party. The latter is more characteristic of our country.
In Russia, the cork fee was originally practiced in restaurants at hotels, hotels. From the center of Moscow, St. Petersburg, this innovation is slowly but surely beginning to spread throughout the country.
Cork collection abroad
The opportunity to come to an institution with your own alcohol is not an original invention of Russian restaurateurs. This is a borrowed phenomenon - it came to our country from Europe, the USA. What is cork collection, they have long known there, it already does not cause any questions.
Usually a desire to bring their own alcohol is reported when booking a table. In response, the guest is announced the amount of cork fee and the existing nuances. The rules in each restaurant are different. Somewhere your alcohol can be discovered only by buying something from the local alcohol. Somewhere, the fee is the cost of the cheapest liquor in the wine list.
Most foreign restaurants also have an unspoken rule: the alcohol brought must be of good quality (cost from $ 25-30). The situation is different in European countries and with tips - visitors leave a fee of at least 20% of the total bill. After all, even in this case, the sommelier is working on serving the drink at the highest level.
Cork collection in Russia
Now fast forward to our country. In Russia, cork collecting is legal. But alas, the innovation is not widespread everywhere. Restaurants, where you can easily come with your own alcohol, are mostly found only in the capitals - Moscow, St. Petersburg. But even there, many well-known and beloved places by various guests have not yet introduced a cork fee.
In general, the managers of most Russian restaurants do not even know about the fact of such a service. Somewhere they treat her with an undisguised prejudice: "We are a decent enough institution to allow guests to come with their own alcohol!" The idea of establishing a high cork fee in order to exclude visitors with cheap alcohol, whom they so fear, does not appeal to such managers.
Thus, a cafe with cork in Moscow, and even more so in small Russian cities, is very small. It is mainly introduced by progressive establishments that are not afraid to pamper guests with new products.
Tips before visiting
Even if you find a cafe or restaurant with a cork charge, we advise you to do the following before visiting:
- Verify the relevance of the proposal. If the fee was introduced due to the lack of a license for alcohol, then after its acquisition such a "liberty" could be canceled.
- Be sure to call the institution and find out all the details of the payment, the possibility of carrying your alcohol.
- Clarify the exact cost of the fee: the cork fee in restaurants is unstable.
Thus, innovation is not yet quite widespread in our country. And some restaurants mean cork-picking not as a fee for guests to drink their own alcohol, but as a contribution for servicing a customer’s alcoholic beverages at a banquet or corporate party.