BYOB Restaurants in Seattle

[Peter Johnson]

Greetings fellow Seattle eGulletteers!

My wife and I have just moved (back) to Seattle from a wonderful four-year stint in Philadelphia. As some of you may know, it's so bureaucratic, cumbersome and expensive to get a liquor license in Pennsylvania that many would-be restaurant owners say "the hell with it," open anyway, add a bit of $ to the prices, and allow people to BYO. As you can imagine, this is a VERY nice aspect of dining in Philadelphia, and allowed us to eat out much more often due to the money we'd save by not having to buy wine at the restaunts (I know, "the markup" is a touchy subject and I'm not intending to "go there" with this post!).

When I was in grad school in Oregon, there were a couple of BYO places (in Salem), but I can't recall any such thing in Seattle.

I come to you seeking help--where can I get some BYO satisfaction? Alternatively, if a restaurant does not have a liquor license (is there such a thing?), is the default option "bring your own"?

Thanks!

Peter Johnson

[tighe]

Liqour laws in Washington are also whacky, but in an entirely different way. I believe that if a restaurant doesn't have a liquor liscence, then alcohol cannot be consumed on the premise at all, no matter who is providing it. Most restaurants will allow you to bring wine in if you pay corkage which ranges from $10 to $30 and some have limitations such as not allowing wines that are on their list to be brought in.

[tsquare]

Vios on Capitol Hill has a low fee for opening wines bought in their shop. Is this an acceptable alternate?

[Ye-Ye Girl]

Vios on Capitol Hill has a low fee for opening wines bought in their shop. Is this an acceptable alternate?

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In case this is an acceptable alternative, Red House in Renton also allows consumption of wines bought in their shop on premises either with or without food, for no additional charge.

[snooky]

I also have ties to the phila area and don't think there is

anything similar here. Even though most restaurants in Seattle allow

you to bring wine in with a corkage fee there seems to be a

stigma associated with it. If your bottle isn't great enough to

pass snuff you get the cold shoulder from the server - maybe its

just my wine self esteem. In phila BYOB's you're welcome to bring in

as many $10 bottles as you can put down. These restaurants are

also offering some of the most exciting food in that city- young

chefs and first time restaurant owners. Too bad our liquor rules

prevent this from happening here.

[little ms foodie]

The only time I was able to bring my own wine in without a corkage fee was to a bistro that was awaiting it's liquor license. Maybe they weren't suppose to do that!

[rockdoggydog]

Most restaurants with corkage also ask that you not bring more than two bottles of your own wine. Some will waive that if you also buy a bottle from their list. One of the good things about Sam's on Eastlake was their $5 corkage which they usually waived anyways, I think that was the cheapest corkage I've ever found in Seattle. Most restaurants will waive their corkage for regulars as well. I've also found that offering a glass to your waiter or sommelier will often get the fees waived or reduced especially if it's something new to them. Share the wealth.

Rocky

edited to remove redundancy from tighe's post upthread

Edited February 18, 2005 by rockdoggydog (log)

[Peter Johnson]

This is what I was afraid of. Just had a perfectly delicious dinner at Matt's in the market (brazilian fish stew with coconut overtones and fresh king salmon seared with a caper/olive oil almost "tapenade" on top, yum) but the wine was $32--fine, it was an OR Pinot and tasty enough, but that rocketed the price of dinner up to $95!!! Sorry to be such a skinflint, but damn...the idea of paying $62 for the same meal is much more appealing--yes, we'd pay for the wine at a store, but somehow it's more paletable.

Guess we won't be going out as often here...

[Peter Johnson]

I've also found that offering a glass to your waiter or sommelier will often get the fees waived or reduced especially if it's something new to them.  Share the wealth.

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Completely agree-we're all about sharing the wealth, and did that in Phila even when there was no corkage. Of course, it resulted in the occasionaly free gratis dessert, salad, "something new," etc. etc. etc.!

Time to start investigating corkage fees...

[ScorchedPalate]

Compared with San Francisco prices, I find the restaurant markup here tolerable, but the state liquor board markup utterly outrageous. In CA, you can get a 6-pack of microbrew for ~$5-$6 at Safeway, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire on sale for under $20, and a decent everyday table wine (fr'zample Ravenswood Vintner's Blend) for $6.99 at Cost Plus. Combine state-sanctioned gouging with our draconian liquor blue laws, and what you may find is that (a) you're drinking less in general, even at home, and (b) the restaurant wine prices don't seem so bad.

~Anita

ps: welcome to eGullet, and welcome back to Seattle.

Edited February 18, 2005 by ScorchedPalate (log)

[MGLloyd]

Lowell-Hunt cafe in Woodinville allows you to bring your own wine for no corkage fee. They do ask that if you have something interesting, to share a glass with them!

This restaurant is a new find for us. My wife and I were driving to Columbia to pick up her wine club order, and we intended to eat dinner at Purple Cafe afterward. We passed Lowell-Hunt on the way down, and decided on the spur of the moment to give it a try. Boy, are we glad we did. Excellent food at very cheap prices (the seared scallop appetizer for $ 8 and the seared duck breast for $ 16 were my choices), a pretty good wine list at an astonishingly low markup and a limited but good dessert menu made it worth the trip. It used to be that for that area of Woodinville, our favorites were Herbfarm, Barking Frog, Purple and Golden Goat, in that order. Lowell-Hunt will move to position three on that list.

[tsquare]

Restaurant Zoe newsletter states:

"Bring your own favorite bottle to RZ Sunday nights and they will waive the corkage fee...Please note that wines available on the RZ wine list are not eligible for opening."

(206) 256-2060 for more info - and reservations. FYI they are doing the 25 for $25 in March so they will be slammed.

[Peter Johnson]

Cool, thanks for the heads-up!

Restaurant Zoe newsletter states:

"Bring your own favorite bottle to RZ Sunday nights and they will waive the corkage fee...Please note that wines available on the RZ wine list are not eligible for opening."

(206) 256-2060 for more info - and reservations. FYI they are doing the 25 for $25 in March so they will be slammed.

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