If youve ever brought a special bottle of wine to a nice restaurant youre familiar with the word corkage. Its the fee a restaurant charges you to open and serve wine youve brought. But how about if you show up with dessert?
Say youre celebrating a loved ones birthday at a gastropub downtown and you want to bring a birthday cake from your local bakery. Be warned: its possible that you could be confronted with cakeage when you get the check. Thats the fee a restaurant charges to serve you and those in your party a dessert youve brought (and very possibly bought) for the occasion.
Preliminary research dates this term at least as far back as 1991 when San Francisco Chronicle writer Herb Caen alerted his readers to the danger: “We all know that if you bring your own bottle of wine to a restaurant you get charged a corkage — but! If you bring your own birthday cake, you could be charged a cakeage.”
Either everyone in San Francisco was like, “Uh, ok, fine…” or the restaurants decided to put the kibosh on the practice, because after a second 1992 San Francisco example the word is absent from the Lexis-Nexis database of news publications until 1996 when cakeage is suddenly something the Australians are having to budget in. New Zealanders were next, and then the Brits. The term is still rare in the U.S., but if you dine out and are in the habit of bringing your own cake you may want to call ahead and ask about cakeage.
#wordswerewatching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry. Share
a charge that you pay in some restaurants for being allowed to eat a cake or cakes there that you have brought yourself: Restaurants often charge customers to cut and plate the cake you have brought. The practice has come to be called cakeage.
Now with these two points addressed I can actually get to the crux of my reasons to disagree with cakeage – it’s just miserable, plain and simple. While it may not be profiteering, who wants to make money like this. The world’s a dark enough place without making it that bit more miserable by charging someone on their birthday to slice and serve a bit of cake that cost the restaurant nothing. Cakeage fees, to me, represent a lack of compassion and kindness to your fellow persons which is more important than ever. And if there is a small but genuine cost to the restaurant, is that so bad for something so sincerely lovely as the celebration of a person? Is ‘giving’ such a bad thing? And it’s tight and I don’t like tight people. They’re annoying to be around.
Hence I thought to put forward our arguments to perhaps bring a more balanced view to the cakeage controversy as both husband and I are so poles apart on it.
I can see how cakeage can be a killjoy but if I had a restaurant I would hundo p have a cakeage charge. Other than the obvious reason that I’d be potentially losing out on desserts ordered off our carefully made menu as the customers have brought their own delicious cake in, I’d also have to deal with having to take delivery of it plus the responsibility of keeping it safe in storage until the meal. Not to mention, have the serving staff bring the cake in, wait till the singing and picture taking has been done (which in this Instagram generation can take AGES, cuz you gotta get that perfect gram with the cake…and why wouldn’t you want to when they look as gorgeous as ours), then take it away to cut it in portions and serve them on individual plates with cutlery and then there is the clearing and washing up.
I’ll break it down into three points. Firstly, the argument often used that it costs extra is poppycock – the additional cost to the restaurant is negligible, their staff will be working anyway, there is no extra rent due etc. The additional cost is basically only the cost of the extra washing up and maybe a few minutes of staff time. I can understand if you were to apportion the costs exactly you could argue otherwise, but it’s an add-on that requires no investment by the restaurant. That said I know how difficult the food industry is with restaurant closures all over the place and can completely appreciate the temptation to charge, I just feel it will deter people which would only cost them more.
It IS extra work (and considerably more than opening a few bottles with regards to corkage), and when a lot of birthdays are celebrated on weekends when restaurants are at their busiest (with multiple special occasions no doubt!), it adds on more pressure on the staff. So to do all the extra work involved in serving a birthday cake for free, the added responsibility, plus the possible expense of missing out on having desserts off the menu…I can’t say it’s unreasonable for restaurants to charge a cakeage fee at all.
#wordswerewatching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry. Share
Preliminary research dates this term at least as far back as 1991 when San Francisco Chronicle writer Herb Caen alerted his readers to the danger: “We all know that if you bring your own bottle of wine to a restaurant you get charged a corkage — but! If you bring your own birthday cake, you could be charged a cakeage.”
Say youre celebrating a loved ones birthday at a gastropub downtown and you want to bring a birthday cake from your local bakery. Be warned: its possible that you could be confronted with cakeage when you get the check. Thats the fee a restaurant charges to serve you and those in your party a dessert youve brought (and very possibly bought) for the occasion.
If youve ever brought a special bottle of wine to a nice restaurant youre familiar with the word corkage. Its the fee a restaurant charges you to open and serve wine youve brought. But how about if you show up with dessert?
Either everyone in San Francisco was like, “Uh, ok, fine…” or the restaurants decided to put the kibosh on the practice, because after a second 1992 San Francisco example the word is absent from the Lexis-Nexis database of news publications until 1996 when cakeage is suddenly something the Australians are having to budget in. New Zealanders were next, and then the Brits. The term is still rare in the U.S., but if you dine out and are in the habit of bringing your own cake you may want to call ahead and ask about cakeage.
Here’s How Much I Charge For My Cakes
FAQ
Why is there a Cakeage fee?
Is a cakeage fee normal?
Why charge cake cutting fee?
How do I avoid cake cutting fees?
What is a cake-cutting fee?
A cake-cutting fee, also known as a cakeage fee, is a rate many wedding venues charge when a couple brings their wedding cake from an outside bakery.
Should you charge a fee to deliver a cake?
Always charge a fee if someone wants you to deliver a cake. You can choose to have a fixed rate for deliveries within a certain radius, or you can charge based on the distance. Either way, be sure to consider the cost of gas, the wear and tear on your car, and the value of the time it takes you to deliver the cake.
How much does a wedding cake cost?
The exact cakeage fee, which is a play on the “corkage fee” is a charge some restaurants add to diners’ bills if they bring an outside bottle of wine, will depend on the wedding venue. But on average, if you decide to have your cake made elsewhere, you can expect to pay $1.50 (or more, depending on your region) per person.
Why do you have to charge more for a cake?
All this is skilled labour and not everyone can make it. So you have to charge and value yourself more for the skill in the cake. The cake is also a carved cake which needs skill and planning so you have to calculate the cost of skill over and above the cost of labour.