The Unusual Alcohol Rule To Know Before Traveling To Philadelphia

If you live in sunny California and you're heading to Philadelphia for a visit, there will be a number of cultural shocks in store for you. Aside from the weather, especially if you're traveling in the winter, there are some standout food and drink quirks in the City of Brotherly Love. There's the Philadelphia Pizzaz Pizza, a totally unique experience, the unusual addition of fish cakes to its hot dogs, as well as 24/7 access to cheesesteaks when you've got a craving at 3 a.m. Venture to one of hundreds of restaurants in the Philly area, though, and you might come across an unusual bring-your-own-bottle (BYOB) culture, which is borne out of a post-Prohibition state alcohol law having to do with liquor licenses.

You see, after the alcohol sales restrictions were lifted when Prohibition was struck down, Pennsylvania remained a state-controlled distributor of alcohol and required restaurants to obtain liquor licenses in order to serve alcohol at its establishments. Licenses were super-limited based on the population size of a given county, and even today they are much sought-after, but can be quite expensive to obtain. As such, not every restaurant that wanted to serve alcohol could.

Rather than fight "The Man," crafty Philadelphians found a slick work-around, and it has since spread, initially throughout the city and then to the furthest reaches of the state. Philadelphia certainly isn't the only city in Pennsylvania to feature a bevy of BYOB restaurants, but it was the very first.

If it's your first time dining out in Philadelphia, you'll want to pay attention. BYOB restaurants in the city tend to be well-marked — some even have BYOB built into the restaurant name on Google Maps — but if the restaurant you're interested in visiting doesn't, check its social media. And if all else fails, give the location a call to double-check. While you're researching, it's also helpful to find out the restaurant's bottle limit; for most, it's one bottle of wine per patron, so if you're going out with a group of four, you could bring four bottles total. It's also good to know ahead of time if you need to bring your own glassware or accessories, like a wine bottle opener.

Which brings us to the corking fee. The restaurant business is tough, so don't be surprised if there's a little add-on cost for the privilege of bringing your own wine or beer. This can range anywhere from miniscule — $5 — to obscene, upward of $20. (Imagine getting charged $40 to enjoy two bottles of wine at dinner!) For the most part, though, even if the corking fee is $10 to $15, you're still saving, particularly if you weigh the fee against the marked-up price of individual glasses of wine that you'll pay at non-BYOB restaurants.