BYOW Vancouver

[mkjr]

Just curious as to the restaurants that permit BYOW. I know of one but they will be closed when I come back to the city for the holidays and I was hoping to get together with some friends with some bottles from the collection. I understand that people may want to be a little cautious in their answers as I am not quite sure on the legality of the same. Many thanks.

[Coop]

It's illegal.

[2roost]

Sadly the practice is illegal and any establishment which does allow it is risking losing its' liquor license. Unless you are a serious regular or friend of the family it is unlikely that you will find a licensed restaurant willing to help you out.

[Coop]

Well said.

[vandan]

don't some places allow it, but charge a "corkage" fee??

["T"]

don't some places allow it, but charge a "corkage" fee??

←

This is true but as coop said it is illegal.

mkjr:

If interested in a bistro type place PM and I'll send you a line.

[hopkin]

I'm interested to know what information you all have that concludes you to say 'bring your own wine' is illegal in vancouver.

My understanding has always been that if you don't have a licence, and don't intend to be getting one, you may as well support BYOW because you can serve wine - the trouble comes when you start charging for it. unless there are complaints, there's little any authority will do about this. An owner can support corkage fees and/or BYOW and not raise an eyebrow for years.

I'm sure this issue is more complicated, delving deep into the bureaucracy of ridiculous laws in this provence.

a.

Edited December 18, 2004 by hopkin (log)

[keyes]

I'm interested to know what information you all have that concludes you to say 'bring your own wine' is illegal in vancouver.

My understanding has always been that if you don't have a licence, and don't intend to be getting one, you may as well support BYOW because you can serve wine - the trouble comes when you start charging for it.  unless there are complaints, there's little any authority will do about this.  An owner can support corkage fees and/or BYOW and not raise an eyebrow for years.

I'm sure this issue is more complicated, delving deep into the bureaucracy of ridiculous laws in this provence.

a.

←

Greetings ,

I found this earlier...........

Mangez posted early Dec.......

West Restaurant. Honestly, I never was too keen on this place (been there about 5 times) until last night. I think the wine we brought has something to do with it. A 79 Cheval Blanc tends to make everything perfect regardless.

Well, we made a last minute booking and got a seat next to the kitchen at 8:30pm. Not a bad setup as we managed to bribe the chef with a nice glass of wine and our food tasted extra yummy.

Corkage was reasonable at $25 considering the decent glassware and decanters.

[stovetop]

For example, licensees:

cannot serve or sell liquor to minors

cannot serve or sell liquor to intoxicated people

cannot serve or sell illicit liquor (liquor not purchased from a BC Liquor Store or manufactured under a BC liquor licence), and

may advertise, but only under strict guidelines.

rules

Government site

Only Grandfather licenses such as royal Vancouver Yacht club or any other private club will able you to have your own locker, you can drink it on site, other then this it is illegal to consume any alcohol that is not purchased through your licensee.

Bad bad.

You will loose your right to be a licensee.

steve

[keyes]

For example, licensees:

cannot serve or sell liquor to minors

cannot serve or sell liquor to intoxicated people

cannot serve or sell illicit liquor (liquor not purchased from a BC Liquor Store or manufactured under a BC liquor licence), and

may advertise, but only under strict guidelines.

rules

Government site

Only Grandfather licenses such as royal Vancouver Yacht club or any other private club will able you to have your own locker, you can drink it on site, other then this it is illegal to consume any alcohol that is not purchased through your licensee.

Bad bad.

You will loose your right to be a licensee.

steve

←

It states that you can't sell "liquor not purchased from a BC Liquor Store" it does not make clear who the purchaser should be. The guest or restuarant?

[stovetop]

"sale" includes

(a) exchange, barter and traffic,

(b) selling, supplying or distributing liquor by any means, and

© a sale or selling in British Columbia to a foreign consignee or his or her agent in British Columbia;

cannot serve or sell illicit liquor (liquor not purchased from a BC Liquor Store or manufactured under a BC liquor licence), and

Please read the web site, all the rules are there.

Why is there this discusion, it is against the law to consume alchohol in a public place without a lisence.

End of story!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited December 18, 2004 by stovetop (log)

[Daddy-A]

Please read the web site, all the rules are there.

Why is there this discusion, it is against the law to consume alchohol in a public place without a lisence.

End of story!!!!!!!!!!!

There's no question as to the illegality of the practice. But it appears it still happens. The original purpose of this post was to find out which restaurants do allow BYOW. Since the practice is illegal in BC, this part of the thread is dead in the water, since a)eGullet cannot be seen as supporting the practice, and b)eGullet cannot be seen as the cause for one of these establishments getting into trouble with the BCLDB.

However, the discussion of whether or not BYOW should be allowed is fair game.

A.

Your Friendly, Neighbourhood Forum Narc

[hopkin]

You will loose your right to be a licensee

and if you are not and never will be a licensee, this is irrelevant.

Why is there this discusion, it is against the law to consume alchohol in a public place without a lisence.  End of story!!!!!!!!!!!

A law is only relevant when it is enforced.

Major Chutney on Cambie did byow for many years. He knew he would never get a license because he only had one space for a washroom and so could never obtain a full restaurant permit. He had nothing to loose.

And how about behind closed doors - a restaurant must not always be public.

I've had many events serving liquor in a licenced or non-licensed location, after hours or not, with no trouble. not even from the police if they showed up.

remember you can be ticketed for j-walking, riding a bike without a helmet and all sorts of crazy things.

if more diners encouraged restaurants to support BYOW, restaurantuers would more often allow it to happen - it would then become common place. I think many restaurants discreetly do this already.

a.

Edited December 19, 2004 by hopkin (log)

[Coop]

Certainly this happens, at private parties and offline tastings. It won't happen if restauranteurs think they can be outed on discussion boards like this. At a certain local wine lovers board, events are planned reguarly but

the name of the restaurant is never posted. Perhaps these tastings don't always happen in restaurants, perhaps they do, if they do keep your mouth shut and enjoy the experience.

Should bringing one's own bottle be allowed? I vote yes. I have some very nice wine in my cellar that I would love to bring to a restaurant. Should someone be allowed to bring in a bottle of Farenese Primitivo to save themselves a few bucks? No. This is how restaurants make money. I want the places I love to survive, even flourish. The money they make on liquor and wine makes that happen. I think a fair corkage fee in a top place like West or Lumiere should be $40.00.

Edited December 19, 2004 by Coop (log)

[nwyles]

Ok , before this thread starts to get out of hand , a couple of things.

The rules are fairly clear. Bringing your own booze into a restaurant is not legal.

They are there for a couple of reasons -

A few years back , a small restaurant on "The Drive" was selling his own homemade wine as housewine. He got busted.

Another restaurant was making border runs, bringing in cheap vodka for the U.S. -busted.

The basic reasoning is control of the product and taxes made on it. The gub-ment makes it coming and going on booze so they want to keep strict control on it.

Common sense application -

Grandma and Grandpa on their 50th wedding anniversary ask to bring in a bottle of champagne from their wedding to drink with dinner. Although in contravention of the strict adherence of the rules, this is not the application that they were intended for. It is a no-win situation. There is not the manpower to police this and nobody really cares.

Imagine a hypothetical Dr. David Cooper having a fine bottle that although purchased from the liquor board, it was 30 years ago on his 40th birthday. The Gub-ment made their money off of it at the time and the vintage is no longer available. Same as above ! No one cares. This is not the spirit of the rules and regs.

Rico Suave wants to bring his own case of Vodka to his Xmas party - piss off !

Boris Yeltsin brings a bottle of vodka from Russia for him and Bill Clinton to drink a toast with. I do not recall either of those guys spending time in the local slammer for that. ( standing up and drinking is a violation as well - so standing and offering a toast is illegal )

There are restaurants around town that allow you to bring in wine as their list is not so good but the food is. We are not talking about wild raves here, we are talking about a bottle of wine with dinner.

These are not the situations that the rules were written for. I will follow up with my local inspector for some more guideance and report back to the team !

CHeers

[mkjr]

Many good points. I certainly do not want people to get in trouble if it is against the law (my uncertainty of the legality of the same was alluded to in my original post), although it would appear the practice does exist (privately, publicly or otherwise). Perhaps BC may go the way of Ontario which recently approved a bill to allow the same.

[nwyles]

I got a call from Liquor control this morning. As suspected, bringing a bottle into the restaurant is in contravention of the Liquor Act. They have posted some clarification on the website as Ontario now allows this. They wanted to state that B.C. does not yet support this. No news if it will or not in the future.

More to follow.

N