[OSM-talk] pub vs café

[Dermot McNally]

2008/10/18 Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org>:

> Are there still proper restaurants in the UK without a license? Can you
> then bring your own alcoholic beverages and have them served? I read
> something about a "corking fee" related to this, but this may well have
> been from 20 years ago.

This situation used to be very common in Birmingham on the "Balti
Mile". There, Indian restaurants offering affordable (and tasty) food
traditionally did not have licences. Off-Licences (shops licensed to
sell alcohol for consumption "Off" the premises) began to spring up
next door to the restaurants, and members of the public would bring
their own beer and wine into the restaurant. A corking fee is exactly
what you describe, a surcharge on self-brought (usually) wine, but
whether one will apply is very much down to the restaurant itself.
Corking fees are not confined to unlicensed restaurants either - it
could happen that a customer would choose to bring a very special
bottle of wine he owns to enjoy with a meal.

A lot of the Birmingham restaurants I mentioned do now have licences,
but self-brought booze was still common enough last time I was there.

Dermot

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