After my review of La Cachette last week, I got a thoughtful e-mail from Bruce Caplan, owner of Fetishes Fine Dining in St. Pete Beach. He had two points he wanted to make. First, he thinks an automatically added gratuity is reasonable if it's stated plainly on the menu and restated by the server. Fair enough, although I'd say automatic gratuities that head north of 18 percent start to chafe me a little.

Second issue, BYOB with no corkage fee. Here are his thoughts:

"Selling beverages is a crucial part of our business. The practice of bringing your own wine and corkage fees was born years ago, when restaurants, with some exceptions, had very generic and uncreative wine lists. In those days if you wanted that special bottle, you had to bring it yourself. Those days are gone. BYOB has evolved into making a stop at the wine shop on the way to the restaurant. 
 
We, for example, have tens of thousands of dollars invested in wine inventory. It has been a long process and our wine list today is recognized as one of the most progressive in our area. It's an expensive investment and selling these wines is an important part of our business. Wine sales can dictate in some instances whether a restaurant succeeds or fails. Have you ever seen someone show up in a food and beverage establishment with their own bottle of scotch, or a six pack??  Of course not.  It's not even a consideration. Try showing up with your cooler in tow sometime and see if you're offered a frosty glass.  Or set your bottle of Kettle One on the table and order a tonic. And if you think that restaurant wine mark-ups are unfair, try calculating the 25 to 30 cocktails that are poured from that $25 liter of vodka.
 
Maintaining a respectable wine list, and storing that wine for sometimes years on end can be very costly. We have wines that have been cellared since the 90's, earning no income whatsoever. We have built this inventory in order to offer our diners a well diversified selection of the finest wines. Given your position at the paper, I wish you would reconsider your opinion on this issue. You are promoting a practice that is detrimental to the very business that you should be supporting."

A lot of good points there, although I'd say I'm not so much promoting the practice as letting readers know about an opportunity to save a little cha-ching. A great wine list is certainly something to be lauded and rewarded.