Sheldon wrote:
> [snip]
> And restaurants will lose money from loss of alchol sales, which will
> cause food prices to increase, causing those who come to eat more
> rather than drink more to pay more in order to subsidize the BYOWers.
>
> There's no free lunch.
>
> Yours is a lose-lose situation.
> [snip]

No, your lack of experience is showing here. There are wine lovers who
are not great cooks. They will find a wine they like from a small
bottling not widely sold to restaurants and they will want to share it
with friends. They will pick a restaurant that serves food compatible
with the wine. The restaurant will serve it and collect a corkage fee.
If it goes well, the customers will return. Everybody benefits.
Repeat with many variations, and you have what has been common
experience in California (with its many boutique wineries) for decades.
Better restaurants know that welcoming the practice increases both
their customers' pleasure and their business. Low end restaurants (and
regions of the country where wine is not so popular) don't know
anything about it. -aem