I did call…$18 a bottle! BUT the decent wines are $50 a bottle there so #Win. (thank you all)
Bon appetite!
A smart waiter will charge that $18 once and look for a nice tip.
And I sure wouldn’t tip on the corkage fees. Jeez, makes you want to sneak in a flask or something!
Hope you had a great celebration!
@busdriver, yes you do tip on the corkage ( and then some) for the wine service. The server is still bringing glasses, pouring, and paying attention to when to refill. Allowing outside wine is a courtesy.
Sounds like the dinner was last night, but I’ll add my two cents anyway. We go out for dinner with two or three other couples on a regular basis. Sometimes we ask for separate checks and sometimes we just split it, with adjustments made for drinks. One couple prefers to put the tab on their credit card and the rest of us would pay them cash. It took me about a year to realize the CC points that we were missing out on by not doing that once in awhile.
@SouthernHope, how did it turn out?
I used to know someone who regularly went out with a few other couples. One of the men always put the tab on his expense account card, and then the other couples gave him cash.
In my view he was ripping off his friends, and possibly his company. She maintained that the expense account was part of his compensation, so it was all fine.
I was appalled. I could see expensing it, if that was the deal, but what on earth was the justification for then having the friends pay him? But she and I rarely saw eye to eye on ethical issues.
It would be a very unique expense account to allow him to take friends, not colleagues, out to dinner. The IRS wouldn’t allow the deduction so the company couldn’t deduct it. It was probably just an account where he got to use the points or other benefits. Every account I’ve had has been like that (although the government cards didn’t allow us to charge personal items on them even though they were our personal cards)
I had a co-worker who always charged the birthday lunches, happy hours, good bye parties on her card because she wanted the points. I also think she made money on the deal as she charged it and the tip was already included. Most people put in more money, so co-worker got a pile of cash and it was probably more than the bill.
All of the husbands were doctors. That may have been the justification. He might have worked for a drug company or the like.
So your coworker didn’t even have the decency to leave the extra money as an additional tip, or return it to the rest of you? How did everyone feel about that? I wonder what would have happened if someone said “If there’s extra, let’s leave a bigger tip.”
Hey, all, thanks for this! The dinner was beyond amazing…the birthday person was beyond thrilled…and the waiter was happy with the adding of the “8th” person onto the bills of the other 7. And paying a corking fee is the way to go…much more affordable and there was a story behind each bottle that the table talked over.
Many thanks!
Consolation, you would be pleasantly surprised that things have changed dramatically since those “good old days.” No more expense accounts, and all meals with docs are strictly regulated. The days of freebie wining and dining are gone. 
It seems like it could be quite a racket. Maybe it’s just me, but I would have a hard time with someone who I knew was just pocketing everyone else’s money.
She took the pile of cash. I doubt she counted it until after we left the restaurant. She took the risk that there wouldn’t be enough money to cover the bill, but I bet that never happened.
“She took the pile of cash. I doubt she counted it until after we left the restaurant.”
Well, that could be a dangerous way to do things after the first time and people catch on. >:)
We also split by one less than the birthday person. If there is a huge disparity in orders (three expensive drinks vs none; steak vs salad), the person that ordered more will usually offer to pay more. Or one of the others will say that the cheapest person should pay less, even if the spendy person does not offer to pay more. Most of the time the difference is so small that split by several is it fine.
One of my son’s however, showed me that his friends calculate what they owe and then put it on a card, with the waiter knowing that the card that ends with 1234 is charged $25 while the one that ends in 7891 is charged $45. We did this when out with family and one group was a different size than the other. We had always just split the bill no the cards. They also do the vemo thing.
It sounds like the restaurant did 7 separate checks, which is kind of surprising. Seems like that would add the time the waiter had to take to make the check.
Interesting the comments re separate checks in business situations. Often for my work, there will be a group dinner at a fancy restaurant and it’s not uncommon that this will be a split check (of at least $100 and once it was $200+, ug, ug). I get a per-diem so I try to eat cheap on other days and save up for the group dinner where I’m going to be subsidizing those who drink and get the steak. I’m the boring salad and tea person, though in this situation, I try to get something more extravagant so it doesn’t look like I’m as cheap as I am. My business dinners will sometimes have graduate students and I speak up and force a discussion about what’s going to happen with the bill. Sometimes we decide on a set amount for the graduate students and post-docs ($20/$40 say) and the rest of us split the rest of the check.
Glad it was such a great dinner. I’ve never had an issue with splitting checks with a group. Servers are happy to do it and I’m happy to wait any additional time. Most POS systems can accommodate all kinds of situations. I appreciate the flexibility and tip accordingly.
My DH was out of town on business one time and met up with 3 other men for dinner. They said that they wanted separate checks. The waitress said that they didn’t do separate checks, so they said that they would each sit at their own table and not eat together. The restaurant had the empty tables, but this would have almost wiped them out of 4 person tables. The waitress paused, then said that she would do separate checks. They were all putting their meal on their respective corporate credit card.