‘Cakeage’, the charge that’s dividing restaurateurs and diners

Cakeage, or the practice of restaurants charging a fee for serving celebration cakes that have been provided by guests, has divided opinion between restaurateurs and diners this week. Many restaurateurs are happy to provide the service, with or without adding a charge for doing so, in recognition of customer support. Others refuse, citing concerns about food safety and traceability, as well as potential for lost revenue.

So who is right and who is wrong? What is reasonable and what is not?

With restaurant margins narrower than ever, the potential loss of revenue when diners bring cake and perhaps don’t order dessert cannot be discounted. Staff shortages are biting too, and someone has to be available to cut the supplied cake, plate it up and wash the dishes afterwards. And yet many restaurants will oblige, and see the positives in doing so.

Colly Corcoran, a chef who runs Coal restaurant in Blackrock, Co Dublin, thinks it’s good for business.

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“We never have a problem with a party bringing in a celebration cake to the restaurant. We don’t charge anything for plating. We are a neighbourhood restaurant and we are absolutely delighted that they chose our place to have their celebration. Most of the time they bring people that have never eaten in the restaurant before, so it’s a good way of getting new customers.”

Free of charge

For now, you can have your cake and eat it, free of charge, at chef Sean Drugan’s Vintage Kitchen restaurant on Poolbeg Street in Dublin 2, but that may change.

“I allow it as it is not that often, and is usually a larger party, so a bit of give and take. These things may change now though, with the increasing cost of everything to do with running a restaurant. Also I can understand high end places with their own bakery and pastry section having a problem with it.”

Gina Murphy, owner of Hugo's restaurant on Merrion Row in Dublin, also doesn't charge a fee to serve celebration cakes.

“As we don’t bake them to order, I have no problem with them being brought in. But our experience is that the cakes are never eaten. They are only for show and so that Happy Birthday can be sung and the candles blown out. Most are left behind and we end up having a slice with our coffee the next day.”

Zack Gallacher, a chef and food consultant in Donegal, believes there is a regional divide.

“You would never get cakeage charged outside a major city. Restaurants in towns all over Ireland host family gatherings and functions all the time and generally know the people booking it as customers already. We would never charge a fee for them bringing in a celebration cake.”

And it's not just neighbourhood restaurants with a regular clientele that take this approach. "[We] have always been happy to help. Preferably to be served after dessert (for obvious reasons) without charge," says Alan Vallely, director of food and beverage at the five-star K Club in Co Kildare.

Some restaurants agree to serve a cake supplied by a diner, but will impose a fee for doing so. Parallels are being made with paying a restaurant to serve a bottle of wine brought in by a diner. Morgan VanderKamer, a sommelier and co-owner of Barrow’s Keep restaurant in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, thinks it’s a fair comparison.

Business

“Restaurants are a business. If dessert is being replaced by a brought-in cake which is being served by the kitchen, then quite similar to corkage, it’s fair enough and respectful to accept a cakeage fee.”

A social media callout revealed that many Irish diners are prepared to pay a restaurant to serve their brought-in cakes.

“I can’t understand how anyone would think it’s OK to do it. Would you go to a pub and ask them if it was OK to bring your own beer?” wrote Gillian Grant.

"Cakeage is fair, bringing food to a restaurant where the primary revenue source is food and keeping a table from being turned over to accommodate more customers definitely should come at a small price," wrote Anthony Clarkson.

However some restaurants refuse to serve a cake that has not been prepared on the premises, because they cannot be certain it is food safety compliant. The manager of a busy Dublin restaurant (who asked to remain anonymous) relates a recent experience. A party of eight booked for lunch, and brought in a home made birthday cake. They subsequently contacted the restaurant to say that three of them had suffered food poisoning. It transpired that the fresh cream cake had not been refrigerated before arriving at the restaurant.

A spokeswoman for The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, when asked for official guidance on restaurants serving cakes made off-premises, said that there was no law in place to cover this, and it was a matter between the customer and the restaurant.

Discretion

In practice it seems to be at the discretion of restaurateurs to decide whether or not to serve celebration cakes brought in by diners; and if so, whether or not to charge for the service. The ground rules are, check with the restaurant first; be prepared that they might impose a charge – either a sum for the cake or a per head cost, and choose buttercream icing over a fresh cream filling.

However, even restaurants that try to keep customers happy by serving their brought-in cakes can sometimes get it wrong too, as author Andrea Mara found. "I don't mind paying (they are plating it up, washing the dishes, losing dessert revenue), but one restaurant phoned my husband to ask him to pay cakeage for the surprise birthday cake I'd arranged for his upcoming 40th!"