Do you bring your own alcohol to a restaurant in case of family gatherings?
I live in Slovakia and in certain parts this is a very common thing - if you're about to have a birthday/wedding/any other gathering, you book a restaurant or some bigger place, you agree on what meal they should prepare for you and they prepare tables. The waitresses are there for you as usual.
But when it comes to alcohol and drinks in general, the restaurant doesn't serve it, you bring your own and also serve it.
I always found it weird that we bring our own alcohol to a restaurant even though the restaurant offers alcohol aswell.
Is this common in your country also? Do you bring other things for a party/gathering in a restaurant?
8 replies
Never seen that here in Austria. You would probably get kicked out if they saw you bring your own drinks.
I've never heard of any restaurant in The Netherlands that would allow you to do that.
Unheard from in France and Belgium
Definitely not happening in Italy.
I saw it in UK in places where they had no license to sell alcohol
Never seen that here in Germany. Especially considering drinks are usually what the restaurant is making the majority of profit from.
The only place where we do bring something ourself are "Biergärten" (beer gardens) where you can bring your own food, but buy drinks (unsurprisingly mostly beer). Although they also sell some food and often have a section that is more like a normal restaurant where you order both.
No, you just get the alcohol from the restaurant in Spain - I'd think they would get quite mad at you if you were to bring up a wine bottle to the table.
Never saw that in Europe (but I never been to Slovakia), it's quite common in Australia though, where restaurants without an alcohol license use the BYO acronym, meaning bring your own. Sometimes they might apply a "cork fee" though, so you bring your own alcohol but the restaurant provides the glasses, the waiter might serve it I think, and then there's a cork fee in the bill.
Reviving an old thread, but in Ireland that is still a thing. Not so much in Dublin anymore, (it was until relatively recently) but definitely in the countryside or the smaller cities/bigger towns it is still a done thing. When you bring your own, some places charge 'corkage' for it, which is essentially a charge for bringing your own alcohol with you, and charging you to open it. Not all places charge corkage, and some do out of necessity, while many do out of greed.
Restaurant customer doing ‘dry December’ quoted €40 corkage for alcohol-free wine
Corkage was debated in the Dáil Éireann (the houses of parliament) earlier this year.