A reader, Tony Asrilen really nails the issue of Torontonian's lack of outrage over restaurant wine charges - and he asks why when you bring your own wine, is there a corkage charge at all? There isn't a corkage charge in Montreal.


"I am mystified about why Torontonians aren't more outraged about restaurant
wine charges.  You mentioned that restaurant costs double when wine is
included, and that Alice's Restaurant allowed you to bring your own
wine - at a charge of $20!  That's $20 for bringing your own wine!  And
in my experience this charge is typical in Toronto, if they allow you
to bring your own wine at all.

I'm often in Montreal, where hundreds of restaurants, if not thousands,
encourage you to bring your own wine - at no charge whatsoever!  They
put big signs to that effect all over the front of the restaurant.
Their costs can't be much different from Toronto's.  The only
difference seems to be the greed factor.  I don't know of a single
Toronto restaurant that allows you to bring your own wine for free.  I
would love to see food writers make more of an issue about this, but so
far I've seen almost nothing."

What do you think?