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Florida Legislature 2005 (click for ongoing coverage)

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A doggie bag for that wine?

A plan to let diners take home half-finished bottles nears passage. But will it really reduce drunken driving?

By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published April 21, 2005

	[Times photo: Joseph Garnett Jr.]
	Wine consultant Chris Baznik pours merlot samples Wednesday at Wine Exchange in Tampa. The "merlot to go" plan might help sales, she says.

Any restaurant in Florida can bring you a doggie bag for the leftover steak, chicken wings or salad you couldn't finish at dinner.

But carry a half-finished bottle of wine out of the same restaurant, and police may bring you something else: a citation.

Now the Florida Legislature is poised to come to the rescue of any diners in the midst of this great debate: Do I waste the last bit of wine in my bottle, or swig it down now and hope I'm sober enough to drive home?

A proposal jokingly called "merlot to go," would allow restaurant customers to take home their leftover wine, without breaking the law that bars people from driving automobiles with opened containers of alcohol inside.

The bill already has passed the Senate. The House Commerce Council approved it unanimously Wednesday, sending it to the floor of the House for final passage.

The Florida Restaurant Association supports the bill, saying it would discourage drunken driving, not encourage it.

"It encourages them to take it home, and not just drink it," said Carol Dover, president and CEO of the association.

That's how the House sponsor, Rep. Bruce Kyle, R-Fort Myers, sees it, too.

"There are a lot of people who buy an expensive bottle of wine, and they'll finish it, rather than take it home. This will make them want to bring it home rather than drink more than they should," Kyle said.

Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said he decided to sponsor the wine bill after reading about a similar bill being considered in New York and considering his own restaurant experiences.

King likes red wine. His wife, Linda likes white wine. When they go out to dinner together that means they often order wine by the glass to avoid leftovers.

"There is a limited selection when you buy by the glass or the wine that is available is cheap and not very good," King explained.

Dover thinks it unlikely that people would continue sipping their wine after they got into their cars.

"I can't quite envision somebody driving down the road with a $300 bottle of wine, drinking it," she said.

If the bill becomes law, restaurant workers could recork a partially finished wine bottle and put it in a special sealable wine bag, like a Ziploc bag. They also would staple the restaurant receipt to the bag. Customers would have to put the bagged bottle in the trunk, glove compartment or other "nonpassenger area" of their vehicles. They could only take home wine they had bought along with a full-course meal.

Reviews from restaurants were mixed.

"A lot of customers are under the assumption that they can take their bottles of wine as it is," said Ben Pumo, owner and chef at Benedetto's Italiano in Land O'Lakes. If the law passes, they would be right.

But Pumo wonders what would happen if someone takes their wine in a special bag, hops into his or her car, and then smashes into someone else.

"It's a Catch-22. If you do it, and they get in a car wreck, then you're liable."

Still, restaurateurs liked the fact that their staffs wouldn't have to tell their customers - just as they're deciding how big a tip to leave - that they need to leave behind the rest of the fine wine they just purchased.

"We do have to do that fairly often, and usually people don't really like it," said David Tyler, general manager of the Wine Exchange in Tampa. However he said he didn't think the bill would dramatically affect the restaurant either way.

Bob Moore, day manager of Kelly's For Just About Anything in Dunedin, can see the positive side of the bill.

"I would much rather (customers) be able to take it and finish it at a later time than drink more than they should," he said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving sees no reason to object to that argument, but no reason to support it either. They're neutral on this one.

"There's no research that shows this would have an impact on stopping drunk driving or that it would increase the number of drunk drivers," explained Andy Hindman, executive director of MADD Florida.

Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.

[Last modified April 24, 2005, 10:55:35]