WineLovers Discussion Group

I'm looking for BYO restaurants in Portland, Oregon area. I've looked on Zagat, Yelp, Wine Spectator, and Urban Spoon with not much in the way of results.
Any suggestions?

Vin Pina wrote:I'm looking for BYO restaurants in Portland, Oregon area. I've looked on Zagat, Yelp, Wine Spectator, and Urban Spoon with not much in the way of results.
Any suggestions?

Not quite sure what you mean here, Vin. If you're looking for restaurants that are benign about bringing a special bottle in, that's pretty much every one I know. Might charge a minimal corkage fee, but maybe not if you buy another bottle.

This is considered wine country so bringing bottles in---again, for certain reasons---is de rigeur. I personally wouldn't worry about it much.

Of course if you do it because you're trying to avoid paying wine list prices, that's another thing entirely.

Hoke wrote:

Vin Pina wrote:I'm looking for BYO restaurants in Portland, Oregon area. I've looked on Zagat, Yelp, Wine Spectator, and Urban Spoon with not much in the way of results.
Any suggestions?

Not quite sure what you mean here, Vin. If you're looking for restaurants that are benign about bringing a special bottle in, that's pretty much every one I know. Might charge a minimal corkage fee, but maybe not if you buy another bottle.

This is considered wine country so bringing bottles in---again, for certain reasons---is de rigeur. I personally wouldn't worry about it much.

Of course if you do it because you're trying to avoid paying wine list prices, that's another thing entirely.

Thanks for the reply. What I mean is, in other cities I'ved lived, Boston, NYC, Hartford, there are published lists of restaurants that permit BYO without a corkage fee. Gobyo.com and Zagat, as examples, actively maintains such lists. I want to know exactly which restaurants allow BYO in the Portland, OR area. However, it sounds like no such list exists. You just have to wing it and ask each and every restaurant, is what you're saying?

No idea, but hello Vin. Long time no see.

Vin Pina wrote: I want to know exactly which restaurants allow BYO in the Portland, OR area. However, it sounds like no such list exists. You just have to wing it and ask each and every restaurant, is what you're saying?

Your second post asked, as I read it, about restaurants that allowed you to bring in your own wines without paying corkage.

Don't know about that but in past week we have been bringing our own wine to dinner in a hotel restaurant with airs and paying $15 corkage, in a branch of Elmers they first had to ask the manageress and search out a corkscrew but it was just $5.

Paying corkage when you're not buying wine from them seems only fair.

Just ask.

Peter May wrote:

Vin Pina wrote: I want to know exactly which restaurants allow BYO in the Portland, OR area. However, it sounds like no such list exists. You just have to wing it and ask each and every restaurant, is what you're saying?

Your second post asked, as I read it, about restaurants that allowed you to bring in your own wines without paying corkage.

Don't know about that but in past week we have been bringing our own wine to dinner in a hotel restaurant with airs and paying $15 corkage, in a branch of Elmers they first had to ask the manageress and search out a corkscrew but it was just $5.

Paying corkage when you're not buying wine from them seems only fair.

Just ask.

Did you have the German Pancakes in Elmers, Peter? It's something of a Portland tradition.

Peter May wrote:

Vin Pina wrote: I want to know exactly which restaurants allow BYO in the Portland, OR area. However, it sounds like no such list exists. You just have to wing it and ask each and every restaurant, is what you're saying?

Your second post asked, as I read it, about restaurants that allowed you to bring in your own wines without paying corkage.

Don't know about that but in past week we have been bringing our own wine to dinner in a hotel restaurant with airs and paying $15 corkage, in a branch of Elmers they first had to ask the manageress and search out a corkscrew but it was just $5.

Paying corkage when you're not buying wine from them seems only fair.

Just ask.

Thanks for the note. I'm not asking about fairness or willingness to pay a corkage fee. I'm only asking if there is a list of BYO restaurants with zero corkage (I'll take a list with corkage fees also). Fairness, in Peter's words, implies a restaurant where they have liquor for sale. That was not my question. My question was far more general. So, the word fair is not relevant to my question. if there is a list of BYO restaurants in Portland (with or without corkage), as I asked, great. If not, that's ok too.

FYI, La Sirene in NY, or Yama in Wellesley, to name just two of many, promote BYO with zero corkage fee. Should I ask them "is that fair." No, as it is not relevant. As an aside, I tip them handsomely for their food service.

David M. Bueker wrote:No idea, but hello Vin. Long time no see.

Good to be back! Best to you and Laura!

Hoke wrote:
Did you have the German Pancakes in Elmers, Peter? It's something of a Portland tradition.

I didn't know that .....

I had the Flat Iron steak, something which I heard of first on this forum, and this was the first time I encountered it.

Juicy, tender and quite flavoursome.

Vin Pina wrote:

David M. Bueker wrote:No idea, but hello Vin. Long time no see.

Good to be back! Best to you and Laura!

Vin, here on the west coast there is no such list or tradition. A proprietor who knows you might not charge you corkage personally, and a Somme might not charge you if you offer him a glass of something interesting, but as others have inferred corkage in the kind of restaurant you'd want to take a bottle to is pretty much standard.

Jenise wrote:

Vin Pina wrote:

David M. Bueker wrote:No idea, but hello Vin. Long time no see.

Good to be back! Best to you and Laura!

Vin, here on the west coast there is no such list or tradition. A proprietor who knows you might not charge you corkage personally, and a Somme might not charge you if you offer him a glass of something interesting, but as others have inferred corkage in the kind of restaurant you'd want to take a bottle to is pretty much standard.

Hi Jenise, Thanks for your note. I obtained a list. All set.