Where your bottle is welcome

There’s good news for wine collectors whose best-loved bottles outnumber their evenings at home: No or low corkage fees are a growing trend in L.A. restaurants.

At the Patina Group’s Pinot restaurants for example, including Pinot Bistro in Studio City, Cafe Pinot in downtown L.A. and Pinot Hollywood, as well as sister restaurants Zucca and Nick & Stef’s, there is no charge for corkage ever (although it’s $25 at flagship Patina).

“We have very nice wine lists in our restaurants,” says chef-founder Joachim Splichal. “But we understand people have sentimental bottles.

“People have verticals at home they want to try with a couple of friends. This gives them an opportunity.”

Wine collectors have also taken note since the Restaurant at the Hotel Bel-Air waived corkage Sunday through Wednesday evenings. Josie’s no-corkage Mondays (limit two bottles per party) has helped business on what is generally acknowledged as the slowest night of the week. “We tried to create an atmosphere where a bunch of people were bringing their own wine on Mondays and table-hopping,” says co-owner Frank Delzio. Now, Mondays are “solid” and there are quite a few regulars.

Where else to take your bottle and your appetite? Sunday evenings, corkage is waived at La Cachette. The same goes for Tuesdays at EM Bistro. Girasole, a neighborhood Italian in Larchmont Village, never charges corkage. At Cafe Bizou’s three locations -- Pasadena, Sherman Oaks and Santa Monica -- corkage is just $2 per bottle.

“About 30% of our customers bring their own wine,” says co-owner Philippe Gris. And while this does cut into the restaurant’s wine sales, Gris says many wine-toting customers purchase cocktails, “because they know they are saving already.”

Leslee Komaiko

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Small bites

* Dine out on Jan. 26 to support tsunami relief. More than 45 Los Angeles area restaurants will donate a percentage of that day’s sales to Operation USA, a local relief agency. Among the restaurants participating are A.O.C., Ammo, Aubergine (Orange County), Avenue, Bar Celona, Blue on Blue, Buddha’s Belly, Chaya Brasserie, Chaya Venice, Elixir Tonics & Teas, Falcon, Fat Fish, Grace, Granita, Jar, La Boheme, L’Orangerie, Lucques, Luna Park, Meson G, Michael’s, Minibar, Monsoon, Nook, Norman’s on Sunset, O-Bar, Oceanfront at Casa Del Mar, One Pico and Pedals at Shutters on the Beach, Pearl Dragon, Pearl Kitchen (O.C.), Sona, Spider Club, Tamarin, the Courtyard, the Little Door, the Lodge (O.C.), Troquet (O.C.), Valentino, Villa Sorriso, Voda, Whist and Yu.

For more information, go to www.operationusa.org.

* Brooke Williamson and Nick Roberts, of Amuse Cafe in Venice, have opened a second restaurant, this one with David Reiss (owner of the Brig bar on Abbot Kinney), about a mile to the south in the old Menemsha space. Beechwood, says Williamson, is “American bistro-esque.” The restaurant features a bar area where sandwiches and dishes such as grilled lamb meatballs and rock shrimp skewers are served. The dining room menu is a bit more formal.

Beechwood, 822 Washington Blvd., Venice, (310) 448-8884.

* David Lentz, formerly chef at Opaline, and husband of chef Suzanne Goin, is opening the Hungry Cat next week in the Sunset & Vine complex. The restaurant will feature a compact menu of moderately priced seafood, including a number of dishes from Lentz’s native Maryland, like peel and eat shrimp and a 100-year-old recipe for crab cakes. In addition, there will be a raw bar. Caroline Styne, Goin’s partner in Lucques and A.O.C., created the wine list.

The Hungry Cat, 1535 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, (323) 462-2155.