‘We just need to pay our bills’: Popular wine bar East End Cellars raises corkage charge to cope with rising costs

An Adelaide wine bar institution says it has been forced to make a huge change to cover costs of running the business.

A popular wine bar says it has been forced to raise its corkage fee as the small business feels the bite of growing operating costs.

East End Cellars this week announced that customers who buy a bottle from their shop will have to pay $25 – up from $20 – to enjoy the wine at their Vardon Ave and Norwood sites.

“Due to the ongoing increase of operating expenses and despite having attempted to absorb these costs, we find ourselves forced to slightly increase our corkage fee,” the business said on social media.

East End Cellars this week announced that customers who buy a bottle in the cellar will have to pay $25 from Monday. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Owner Michael Andrewartha told The Advertiser it was a tough decision but the business had “no choice but to lift the corkage charge” amid the growing cost of doing business.

Mr Andrewartha said rent, wages and insurance costs were all rising – his latest gas bill for outdoor heating was $4000, compared to just over $3000 last winter.

“Everything’s gone through the roof,” he said.

“We just need to pay our bills.

“We could have increased the price of wine in the store across the whole board but we’re in a very competitive business and we need to be competitive on our wine prices.” Mr Andrewartha said despite increasing the corkage charge “compared to other wine bars we’re still very, very, very cheap”.

“We still think we’re way under market rate at $25,” he said.

“This is the only thing we need to raise. We won’t change our portion of food sizes, we’re going to take this … and change nothing else.”

At the same time, Mr Andrewartha said trading in the summer was down around 7 per cent from last year and he was “petrified” for the winter season.

The wine bar is just one of a number of businesses raising prices as the cost of living crisis takes a toll on the hospitality industry. 

Tuesday’s federal budget dealt another blow to the hospitality industry with the government ignoring calls for a pause on the beer and spirits tax.

It comes as one bar on Peel St said it has already been forced to charge customers $14 for a gin and tonic.

Hospitality venues have also lamented the rising cost of operations as customer spending drops, with breakfast burger bar chain Cheffy Chelby owner-operator Michelle Lowe saying a small coffee would need to be priced at $8 for the business to stay profitable.

She announced the closure of her last two sites last month, one of a number of businesses to shut up shop within the first months of the year.

“We need to be proactive and that’s why we’ve done this, so we’re not one of those statistics,” Mr Andrewartha said.