by KYW's Paul Kurtz
With liquor licenses at a premium in Pennsylvania, many restaurant owners have found another way to thrive.
Philadelphia is the single biggest "BYOB" town in America, according to statistics compiled by the web site GoBYO.com. There are nearly 900 restaurants in the city offering bring-your-own-bottle dining, plus hundreds more in the surrounding suburbs.
When Brian Held opened "Rouget" in Newtown (Bucks County), Pa. a couple of years ago, he thought about purchasing a liquor license but quickly realized it would be bad for business:
"I think we would lose a lot of clients. Our customers will store wine here with us. We'll keep bottles for them, and they really like the freedom -- and obviously the limited cost -- that goes along with that."
The area's BYO revolution is directly linked to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's monopoly on wine distribution. Restaurants, like consumers, must order their wine through the state, and to make a profit they'll double, triple, even quadruple the wholesale price.
BYOs offer a less costly alternative. Their growing popularity has caused some restaurant owners with liquor licenses to rethink their strategy.
David Ansill (right) spent $60,000 on a license for his restaurant at Third and Bainbridge Streets in South Philadelphia, but recently he implemented a "BYO night." It was so successful that Ansill now does it four nights a week:
"There's a hard core BYO crowd out there who only really dine at BYO restaurants. It encourages people to come who normally wouldn't come in and sample the food here, and hopefully become addicted. Sometimes they'll have an after-dinner drink or a before-dinner cocktail."
For Ansill, it's the best of both worlds.
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