In Japan, there's a custom called bottle keep. Frequent customers to a bar or restaurant get to keep a bottle of sake at the establishment with their name on it—that way, if they just want a couple of glasses without the commitment of drinking a whole bottle, they can just save the rest for later. It's a good way to keep customers coming back, but it's also really great for the customers. It almost feels like coming home—they officially become regulars there, and they don't even have to bring cash. I went to a restaurant the other night that had a rack overloaded with bottle keeps. Each name is neatly labeled on a wooden panel hung over the neck of the sake bottle.
So cool if we had that here in the US. It would probably be deemed as illegal sooner or later though. But I love the concept!
Posted by: KoreaMelon | September 30, 2008 at 01:56 AM
Some old-school steak houses in the U.S. do this as well. At the original Morton's in Chicago, you can keep a whole case of wine in a little locker with your name engraved on the front. I imagine you have to be a very regular customer to get one since there aren't very many.
Posted by: Pallavicini | September 30, 2008 at 08:01 AM
At least in the small city I lived in I did hear that there was some chicanery at certain bottlekeeps that would switch bottles on customers or pour drinks from the bottles of rare customers. I'm not sure if this is a widespread problem or just perhaps at some of the shadier establishment, but it's interesting that there is room for the system to be abused. You should keep this series up, cross comparison's of Bar Culture are always interesting.
Posted by: TN | September 30, 2008 at 11:18 AM
A local sushi bar here in California does the same. No shenanigans, no problems. Not sure if it's illegal here, nor why it would be. Things can get pretty Nazi here, so it's cool that adults can be adults.
Posted by: vagrant | September 30, 2008 at 03:19 PM
Customs like this would never work with Western red/white wines because of the pouring portion and the bottle size.
People usually buy a whole bottle of red/white wine when they're celebrating and it would be poured all out and shared with the whole party.
Posted by: MeaningOfLife | October 01, 2008 at 10:21 AM