Is It Rude to Bring Your Own Glassware to a Restaurant?

Wine pros can all agree that the proper glassware is essential to optimizing the wine drinking experience. While you might not necessarily need a separate set of glasses for Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and so on, it’s important to have at least one solid universal glass to help accentuate the liquid’s innate aromas and flavors.

But what if the glassware at a restaurant isn’t exactly up to snuff? If you were planning on balling out on an expensive bottle or bringing a cherished wine from your personal collection, seeing stemless glasses or water cups as the only options can put a damper on the whole evening. So is it ever an option to bring your own glassware to a restaurant? Or would it be considered rude?

VinePair tapped Jin Ahn, the general manager of noreetuh, a Hawaiian restaurant in New York City’s East Village, to share some advice.

“As with pretty much anything in life, it depends,” Ahn says. “If the restaurant is pretty confident in their stemware and doesn’t want to deal with any outside serviceware coming into their place of business, then it would be rude. It comes down to the policy of the restaurant and how respectful the guests are to these stances. If the restaurant and the guests have a common understanding, then all is well.”

The same goes for BYOB restaurants. Though many might assume that BYOB spots are more open to guests bringing their own stemware, it’s still always best to check in advance. Further, it’s a good rule of thumb not to impose the responsibility of the cleaning and maintenance of the glasses on the restaurant staff.

Ahn notes that it’s also important to remember that every business operates differently, so if one establishment lets you bring glasses, it’s not safe to assume that another will feel the same way.

For Ahn, it all comes down to communication. If you’re thinking about bringing your own wine glasses out to dinner with you, he suggests simply calling or emailing to ask if it’s OK. “If it’s not a big issue for the restaurant, you’d be surprised to find how that small gesture of respect will be received by the team,” he says.

So the next time you plan on setting up a full-blown 12-glass tasting on a restaurant’s table, make sure you get the approval from the staff first.

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