Mantra Corkage Fee

[Lost in LOS]

Never once said the restaurants don't make profit on food, they do. 80% profit on drinks and 20% profit on food. Drinks are easy money and the icing on the cake, now you don't like cake without the icing, do you? This is why the corkage fees, although it should be reasonable. You being a businessman should be able to figure this out, or if you never owned your own business I understand your confusion. Just for fun, since you are a regular at Mata Hari, ask Louie how long he would be able to stay in business if not for the drinks, you may be surprised at the answer.

Enough on this from me, you may have the last word on this for all eternity

have a nicer day

Ok, lets assume I don't know what I am talking about and never owned 4 successful restaurants and take your [and my] favorite restaurant as an example, Mata Hari.

I order a bottle of water for 40 baht? [don't remember but about that] costs 7 baht and a bartender opens the refrigerator and hands it out. Done. I would say about 5X profit and very little overhead. Same with your beer.

Now lets take your 350 baht entree. there are 9 people working in the kitchen at Mata Hari to cook it, add food costs at about 1/3, gas for cooking, waiters, dishwashers etc and you tell me what the profit is on that dish.

Just curious since you obviously know more about the restaurant business man than me.

regards Jimmy

That's a little bit simplistic. for a business man like you.

Don't you think?

1 entrée 350 baht plus 9 people to make it.

How about

50 Entrée at 350

50 Main courses at 750

50 Deserts at 250.

50 bottles of water.

The water wins it, it pays all your bills.

Do I need to 9 x 50 people to make all this?

Don't get me wrong, of course drinks make up a percentage of the profit of a restaurant.

but you were trying to imply, there is no money

to be made selling food in a restaurant. and that is Bs.

Why did you not open a bar if the profit is on the booze. and soft drinks.?

Also how do restaurants that don't sell booze make money

or are they just a hobby for these people.

Have a nice day.

[plasticpig]

na me='jimmys' date='2008-08-05 09:47:33' post='2127823']

Never once said the restaurants don't make profit on food, they do. 80% profit on drinks and 20% profit on food. Drinks are easy money and the icing on the cake, now you don't like cake without the icing, do you? This is why the corkage fees, although it should be reasonable. You being a businessman should be able to figure this out, or if you never owned your own business I understand your confusion. Just for fun, since you are a regular at Mata Hari, ask Louie how long he would be able to stay in business if not for the drinks, you may be surprised at the answer.

Enough on this from me, you may have the last word on this for all eternity

have a nicer day

The confusion my friend is your inability to

bring quantity into the same equation. with percentage and cost.

Please don't miss quote me, I never said I ever had a business.

Or needed one for that matter.

But im starting to think your 5 restraunts were really hotdog stands.

What did you charge for squirts of mustard and ketch-up.

Were dill pickles extra

Have a very nice day to you.

Edited August 5, 2008 by plasticpig

[buckeroo2]

I had a look at the Mantra website a while back. Very flashy. No mention of PRICES. That is always a bad sign. They want to attract those who are not at all price sensitive, so needless to say I have never been there, and never will.

Their food prices are on their website.. I was considering going there for a meal. I changed my mind when I saw the price on something being 4,200 baht.

http://www.mantra-pattaya.com/menu.html

The 4200 baht is for the surf and turf - steak, lamb and king prawns

[fm2002]

Would like to point out a few things. In my experience in the USA (going back awhile) we worked off 18% beverage cost (higher for top end wine) and depending on the level of the restaurant; food cost for buffet type would be 18-20% and say as high as 40% for high end. Labor cost around 20% (much lower in Thailand) and than operating costs vary. Now anyone can debate the %'s above, but using this as a guide it's apparent that your largest margins are on beverage and as a earlier post pointed out water especially the boutique type water has incredible margins. That said who goes to a restaurant because they serve good water? Drinks are a after thought for most. This is my point that it's a small minority that would bring a bottle with them to a Mantra type restaurant and IMO is a bad business practise because having a reasonable corkage fee wouldn't decrease the spontaneous buyer but instead alienate the BYOB customer. Oh and by the way that BYOB customer will be ordering water and probably a before dinner drink and after dinner espresso . Oh and if his date is Thai a fruit shake or soft drink.

Now obviously I have an axe to grind and would prefer if Mantra would change their corkage fee, but isn't this one of the powers of fourums. Where we can pool together our like minded thoughts and try and make changes ???

[email protected]

[racefan]

That does sound very high. How much do the other restaurants you listed charge for corkage?

Out of interest, how much was a comparable bottle of wine to the one you took?

Most around 250 baht - 500 baht tops.

It's funny you ask about comparable bottle. I brought a Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc which I purchased for around $26 USD or about 858 baht. It just so happened that when I finished the bottle they asked if I would like another ? They obviously thought I had bought it from them. I replied you have this wine and they responded yes. I asked how much and I think it was around 3000 baht !!!

A fine choice of wine if I may say so.

I got hooked on Cloudy Bay when I was introduced to it in England in the mid 1990's. It then cost about 10 quid a bottle. Don't know what it would be now.

I seem to recall that it is from a small producer and they only release limited stocks each year, but again that may well have changed.

When I saw it in Mantra in February I couldn't believe my eyes and thought about treating myself until I saw they were charging over 4,000 baht for it!!

Most corkage I have paid in Pattaya was 500 baht at the Dusit on one of their Saturday buffet nights which I thought was reasonable.

[lanny]

I've been reading the replies in this thread and I don't see what I think could be the answer. Some of the replies hint at this but none come right out and say it.

If, as you say, the restaurant has the same wine on its wine list, they would have a very strong motive for discouraging anyone from bringing their own. That would imply a high corkage fee. So, whether you bring your own or order a house wine, the restaurant makes about the same profit.

Very simple.