Minnesota Restaurant Owners Reveal How Much Wine is Marked Up

It's easy to drop a lot of cash when you go out for dinner. Your bill skyrockets when you start ordering drinks. Restaurants obviously mark up their prices to cover expenses and make a profit, but just how inflated our the prices?

Randy Caparoso, a restaurant wine consultant at Wine List Consulting Unlimited, told winemag.com: "Industry-wide markups average two and a half to three times wholesale cost. Results of a survey published in that article, show 70% of people who order wine think they're paying way too much. The owners of Mercy in Minneapolis, Mike Rakun and Scott Gardiner, agree.

Gardiner told KARE 11: "I think the industry standard of the three times markup has been there for so long, it's actually sometimes four times markup. They don't understand that the restaurant paid $25 for that bottle and they're getting charged $75 or $100." Rakun and Gardiner say their wine prices are listed a little above retail, which according to KARE 11 means, "you’ll find the same bottles of wine on their list at 50 percent less or more than other restaurants in town."

Listen to Dunken & Samm weekday mornings on 106.9 KROC!