Little known fact: Restaurants in Montgomery County can obtain a “wine corkage permit” whereby the restaurant’s customers can bring their own wine and pay a “corkage fee” to drink it, rather than buy wine to go with their meal off the restaurant’s wine list.

90 restaurants in Montgomery County presently have this permit; here’s the current list:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/dlclre/resources/files/pdffiles/approvedwinecorkage%281%29.pdf

CALL AHEAD to see what a restaurant’s corkage fee is and if they have any restrictions. Across the dozen restaurants I’ve spoken with, the per bottle fee has ranged from $25 (somewhat reasonable) to $40 (probably not worth it, unless you’re bringing a $75+ bottle of wine). One restaurant said there was no fee for the first bottle, then $25 for each additional bottle. Another said you can only bring wine NOT ON THEIR WINE LIST. So, again, CALL AHEAD.

If you do BYO to a Montgomery County restaurant, let me know your experience. Thanks!