The Holy Grail of Thrifty Socialite – BYO Restaurants
For a long time, state liquor authorities had liquor license approval endorsements of more than a year. For novice restaurateurs, this meant that their bar would only serve non-alcoholic beverages to some probably very unhappy patrons. Although backups have since been fixed, there is still a workaround in place at that time. The “BYOB” license. While restaurants awaited their pending liquor license, they could allow customers over the age of 21 to bring their own spirits and wine to consume on the premises.
This helped the venues because they were able to help facilitate the enjoyment of dinner time for customers. Savers, however, saw this as a great opportunity. In a city like New York, where drinks cost an average of $ 10 at mid-tier restaurants, the opportunity to buy a $ 20 bottle of wine and have 6 drinks for $ 25 is quite attractive! As it became popular, more people began searching for BYOB restaurants by changing the designation from a band-aid to a badge of honor.
These days, with the backing of liquor licenses dwindling, the number of BYOB locations is small, but when you find one, a good night is often in store for you!
For the un-anointed, BYO [beer, wine, liquor]) works something like this.
1) Buy large bottles of wine and several packs of beer after work on Thursday
2) Gather more than 6 friends
3) Make a reservation for 8 (know friends always come by when it’s nighttime BYO)
4) Be ON TIME or you will lose your table
5) Drink for a quarter of the price in a bar. Sometimes there are corkage fees that can be per bottle, per person, or non-existent. They usually don’t exceed $ 5 a bottle, which is much cheaper than $ 5 a glass.
6) Enjoy the rest of the glorious evening!
To get you started on your way, here’s a taste of NYC’s BYO scene:
East Village:
Cafe El Parador
325 East 34th Street
(212) 679-6812
Apiary
77 Place of San Marcos
(212) 777-2537
Midtown west
Afghan kebab house
764 9th Avenue
(212) 307-1612
El Papasito Restaurant
346 West 53rd Street
(212) 265-2225
One of my personal favorites is Eat Pisode (123 Ludlow St, 2126777624) in the East Village. The food here is amazing, relatively cheap, and they have huge portions. They’re also completely fine with large groups that get semi-noisy after a few bottles. The “hunters” even come in jars!
Of course, there are many more places to BYO scattered throughout the city, but it would not be effective or particularly helpful for you to list them all here.