Don't buy their wine
From Jeremy Deedes Sir: What is to be done about the quite ludicrous mark-ups which many London restaurants are applying to the price of their wines? Multiples of four, five or even six times retail, far less wholesale, prices are not unusual. And this before the restaurateur chooses to add a further 12-15 per cent to the price as a compulsory service charge. In some establishments it has become little short of licensed larceny.
Two thoughts: first, that all lunchers and diners boycott the wine lists in all restaurants for a specified week and simultaneously benefit their health. Second, that it becomes acceptable by all restaurants for diners to take in their own wine, as in Cape Town and other less greedy capitals, with a corkage to be charged up to, say, a maximum of £.10 a bottle.
Jeremy Deedes
Compton, Berkshire
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