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Cork and carry?
A Metromix reader wrote to us this week with what we thought was a pretty good question: When you don't want to finish that whole bottle of wine at a restaurant (or simply can't), doesn’t that restaurant have to -- by law -- provide you with a way to carry it home.
Turns out, not really.
Here's the deal: In January 2007, a so-called "cork and carry" law went to effect for all of Illinois. The law says that if a restaurant recorks your wine for you to bring home, then it must put it in special one-time use, see-through, sealable and tamper-proof bags -- not your ordinary Ziplock. Putting the half-consumed bag in a brown paper bag and stapling the top just isn't going to cut it -- and could put the restaurant afoul of its liquor license. Restaurants must also provide a dated receipt just in case the cops pull you over on your way home.
But this law basically just spells out how that doggy bag must be handled -- it doesn't require that a restaurant must provide the doggy bag in the first place.
We spoke to one restaurant GM who said that the only reason they wouldn't provide the bag is that they're difficult to obtain -- and the request itself is pretty rare.
The good news: According to a Chicago Tribune story last year, however, you can bring your own specially approved bags with you. The bad news: good luck finding those bags.
We called Sam's Wine and Spirits in Lincoln Park and South Loop and Binny's in Lakeview and none stocked these special bags.
However, this web site Winedoggybag.com sells the special bags direct to the public: Smallest pack available online is 25 bags for $18.75, but if you call directly they have smaller amounts available to the public, according to the rep we spoke to.
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