Can You Take Wine Home from a Manhattan Jazz Club?
January 10, 2009, by Karl Storchmann (Journal of Wine Economics)
Okay, things have improved in New York State. Since September 9, 2004, you can take home a partially consumed bottle of wine from a restaurant. See, for instance, this article in the New York Times.
Great. A few days ago we went to the Village Vanguard, a jazz club in Manhattan. We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, drank half of it and wanted to take the rest home. The waitress said "no, that is illegal." Didn't she know that the law has changed? But she insisted, it is illegal, period. That was a bummer. But it did not help, we could not take the bottle and gave it to the guys at the neighbor table instead.
Back at home, I looked up the infamous ABC law. And sure enough, the waitress was right. You can take home a partially consumed bottle of wine only if each of these conditions are met:
(1) Restaurant License Required
A partially consumed bottle of wine may be removed only from an establishment which has received from the New York State Liquor Authority a restaurant wine license or a restaurant liquor license. The plan of operation and other representations submitted by the license holder in connection with the license application will
establish whether the establishment is a bona fide restaurant. “Restaurant” is defined by subdivision 27 of section 3 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law in the following terms: "Restaurant" shall mean a place which is regularly and in a bona fide manner used and kept open for the serving of meals to guests for compensation and which has suitable kitchen facilities connected therewith, containing conveniences for cooking an assortment of foods, which may be required for ordinary meals, the kitchen of which must, at all times, be in charge of a chef with the necessary help, and kept in a sanitary condition with the proper amount of refrigeration for keeping of food on said premises and must comply with all the regulations of the local department of health.
(2) Full course meal required
A partially consumed bottle of wine may be removed from a licensed restaurant establishment only if the bottle of wine was actually purchased in connection with a full course meal, and only if a portion of the wine contained in the bottle was actually consumed with the meal. “Full course meal” is defined by subdivision four of section eighty-one of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law in the following terms: For the purposes of this subdivision the term "full course meal" shall mean a diversified
selection of food which is ordinarily consumed with the use of tableware and cannot conveniently be consumed while standing or walking.
(3) A dated receipt for the meal and the bottle of wine must be provided
At the conclusion of the meal, the restaurant patron must be provided with a dated receipt which indicates both the purchase of a full course meal and the purchase of
the wine. A receipt which is undated does not satisfy the requirements of the statute. A receipt which fails to indicate that the wine was purchased in connection with a full course meal is insufficient, because the statute requires that the wine be purchased in connection with a full course meal.
(4) Sealing required
Before a restaurant licensee may permit a partially consumed bottle of wine to leave the restaurant, the restaurant licensee or an agent of the restaurant licensee must:
• securely reseal the bottle of wine;
• place the resealed bottle in a one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag, and
• securely seal the bag.
The one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag must insure that the patron cannot gain access to the bottle while in
transit after the bag is sealed.
(5) Only one partially consumed bottle of wine may be removed from the restaurant
The purchaser of the full course meal and the wine may remove only one partially consumed bottle of wine.
More details including possible penalties can be found here.
Clearly, the Village Vanguard is not a restaurant. That alone makes it illegal to take your wine back home. The waitress was correct.
However, New York State is no exception. The following list reports the respective laws in the remaining 49 states and the District of Columbia. Most states stipulate that a full course meal is consumed and the wine is placed in a sealed doggy bag. (http://www.winedoggybag.com/statelaws.htm)
One can now imagine numerous cases in which it is illegal taking home partially consumed bottles in New York State. It seems as though the following case applies. You bring a bottle of your own wine to a BYOB, eat a meal but don't finish the wine. Can you take it home? No, since you don't have a receipt for it.
Okay, things have improved in New York State. Since September 9, 2004, you can take home a partially consumed bottle of wine from a restaurant. See, for instance, this article in the New York Times.Great. A few days ago we went to the Village Vanguard, a jazz club in Manhattan. We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, drank half of it and wanted to take the rest home. The waitress said "no, that is illegal." Didn't she know that the law has changed? But she insisted, it is illegal, period. That was a bummer. But it did not help, we could not take the bottle and gave it to the guys at the neighbor table instead.
Back at home, I looked up the infamous ABC law. And sure enough, the waitress was right. You can take home a partially consumed bottle of wine only if each of these conditions are met:
(1) Restaurant License Required
A partially consumed bottle of wine may be removed only from an establishment which has received from the New York State Liquor Authority a restaurant wine license or a restaurant liquor license. The plan of operation and other representations submitted by the license holder in connection with the license application will
establish whether the establishment is a bona fide restaurant. “Restaurant” is defined by subdivision 27 of section 3 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law in the following terms: "Restaurant" shall mean a place which is regularly and in a bona fide manner used and kept open for the serving of meals to guests for compensation and which has suitable kitchen facilities connected therewith, containing conveniences for cooking an assortment of foods, which may be required for ordinary meals, the kitchen of which must, at all times, be in charge of a chef with the necessary help, and kept in a sanitary condition with the proper amount of refrigeration for keeping of food on said premises and must comply with all the regulations of the local department of health.
(2) Full course meal required
A partially consumed bottle of wine may be removed from a licensed restaurant establishment only if the bottle of wine was actually purchased in connection with a full course meal, and only if a portion of the wine contained in the bottle was actually consumed with the meal. “Full course meal” is defined by subdivision four of section eighty-one of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law in the following terms: For the purposes of this subdivision the term "full course meal" shall mean a diversified
selection of food which is ordinarily consumed with the use of tableware and cannot conveniently be consumed while standing or walking.
(3) A dated receipt for the meal and the bottle of wine must be provided
At the conclusion of the meal, the restaurant patron must be provided with a dated receipt which indicates both the purchase of a full course meal and the purchase of
the wine. A receipt which is undated does not satisfy the requirements of the statute. A receipt which fails to indicate that the wine was purchased in connection with a full course meal is insufficient, because the statute requires that the wine be purchased in connection with a full course meal.
(4) Sealing required
Before a restaurant licensee may permit a partially consumed bottle of wine to leave the restaurant, the restaurant licensee or an agent of the restaurant licensee must:
• securely reseal the bottle of wine;
• place the resealed bottle in a one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag, and
• securely seal the bag.
The one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag must insure that the patron cannot gain access to the bottle while in
transit after the bag is sealed.
(5) Only one partially consumed bottle of wine may be removed from the restaurant
The purchaser of the full course meal and the wine may remove only one partially consumed bottle of wine.
More details including possible penalties can be found here.
Clearly, the Village Vanguard is not a restaurant. That alone makes it illegal to take your wine back home. The waitress was correct.
However, New York State is no exception. The following list reports the respective laws in the remaining 49 states and the District of Columbia. Most states stipulate that a full course meal is consumed and the wine is placed in a sealed doggy bag. (http://www.winedoggybag.com/statelaws.htm)
One can now imagine numerous cases in which it is illegal taking home partially consumed bottles in New York State. It seems as though the following case applies. You bring a bottle of your own wine to a BYOB, eat a meal but don't finish the wine. Can you take it home? No, since you don't have a receipt for it.
Posted by Karl Storchmann at 1/10/2009 4:03 PM 
Categories: wine laws,regulation,New York State,ABC law
Categories: wine laws,regulation,New York State,ABC law
Tell your favorite restaurant that they can get the legally compliant bags at http://www.togobrand.com
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Karl,
It is amazing what can be learned by reading the fine print of law and regulation. In this case, the law is clearly intended to *pretend* to be sensible. It is not a serious attempt to address the issue, because apart from wine geeks it is not a serious issue. Being a serious issue is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a serious governmental response.
In this case, policy makers live in fear that some moron will take home a half-consumed bottle of MD2020 and crash broadside into a station wagon full of nuns. Should that happen, anyone who voted for the *common sense law* will be blamed.
Economists devote too much attention to those aspects of the market that are most easily mathemetized and too little attention to institutions such as government, which are hard to model. In the US, government has been the dominant player for a hundred years. Yet I continue to marvel at how small a role it plays in our research agendas.
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One more thing: A wine geek should always keep a new wine doggy bag in his briefcase. Just in case all the other legal criteria have been met but the restaurant is not with the program:
See http://www.winedoggybag.com/
I suggest that AAWE have a thousand of them made up and sold as tschotchkes at the next annual meeting.
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We appreciate the mention of www.winedoggybag.com We have hundreds of our customers who have put their logo as well as other information on wine doggy bags. If you would like samples, just give us a call at 800 401-9014. Making them available to your members would insure that if they purchased a bottle at a restaurant who did not have a wine doggy bag, they would still be able to take home the unfinished wine.
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Regarding the BYOB case; it's likely that you would be charged a corkage fee in that case. To me, that sounds like evidence of a purchase, but whether the corkage fee meets the standard as espoused in state statutes is uncertain at the very best.
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Brian, that is an interesting thought. I don't know the answer but will try to find out.
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The economics of corkage implies the opposite: You are buying a service, not wine. Hence, the wine was never sold to you by the establishment.
The advantage of bringing your own bag (BYOB2?) is that you, the customer, can decide whether to walk out with the leftover bottle that you have placed in the bag yourself. I would not expect a restaurant manager to try to stop you. At a Manhattan jazz club north of, say, 100th Street, for example, they are more concerned about customers walking out with completely empty bottles of Captain Morgan than half-empty bottles of sauvignon blanc.
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It is an interesting point that you are paying for service rather than the wine when a corkage charge is applied to the bill. But brining your own wine doggy bag seems like the way to go. We have lots of individuals buying them from us just for that purpose. In fact, many have us print their name and other info on the wine doggy bag.
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Does the law even apply to a BYOB situation, assuming that you walk home and thus aren't driving with an opened bottle of alcoholic beverage in the car? If so, depending on corkage charge, bring half-bottles. This Chicago news rpt says you can, but could be wrong http://bit.ly/6Z9H1G State laws differ...
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Punktlich2, for NY the answer is: it does not matter whether you walk or drive. Without a full meal and without a doggy bag you must not take your wine. --- It would be fascinating to compare the various state rules regarding BYOB and their determinants. --
And yes, all this favors half bottles. Karl
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