BYO = Bring Your Own... What? Wine, water, utensils, food, seasonings? I often carry a small bottle of Tabasco sauce and my DW often has a set of plastic utensils, but we expect the "normal" restaurant amenities.

cause you can bring cans too? or (laughing picturing this) a box of wine?

I'm seeing BYO used a lot these days instead of BYOB. (The Sun's style is still to use BYOB.) When did that happen? Any reason for it?

Maybe BYO is in recognition of boxed wines [for a large party, I hope].

Maybe BYO is in recognition of boxed wines

But "box" also starts with "B".

I'm a big Wine Source fan. Great selection and prices. But the BYOB concept doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'm too rigid and old fashioned but I like the ease of ordering a glass or two of the appropriate plonk with dinner. Somehow, handing the server a bottle and saying "Please open this for me" is like walking in with a fish and asking the restaurant to "broil it with lemon butter," adding "oh, and here's some cauliflower in this bag here you can throw in to dress up the plate. Now, where did I put that baking potato?"

We used to travel everywhere with a corkscrew and a knife (for slicing up cheeses and salami or whatever to make an impromptu picnic), but of course Homeland Security put the kibosh on that.

Michael A. Gray, you're not the only one who doesn't find the BYOB thing attractive.

Dahlink, I still travel with a corkscrew and knife. And a full-size Boy Scout aluminum utensil set (they nest in a plastic pouch). I just make sure they are in my checked baggage. Never had a problem. Of course if you insist on carrying everything on board you are restricted.

Well, I know we've traveled this road before, but I like the $avings that BYOB provides. We've been buying a rather inexpensive wine called Menege et tois that is pretty compatible with just about any food. If we were to purchase it with our meals in the places that I've noted that carry it, it would be almost three times what it costs to just bring with.

RiE, my husband tries hard never to check a bag, but when we are traveling together, he is stuck.

The family still teases me about the time I got nailed by the airport security people. We had had a picnic while traveling around St. Martin, and I simply totally forgot that the knife we borrowed from the hotel was still in the bag we used for our picnic. We got through security okay leaving the island, but they found it in Puerto Rico. They actually brought out a measuring tape, and I was just under the length then considered actionable. Whew! Then of course I had to mail the knife back to the hotel ...

Does BYOB stand for BYO Beer or BYO Beverage? The savings could be nixed by the corkage fee though. I went to Cafe Gia recently, and their $5 fee seemed steep considering where we were and the food being served. We would have targeted a $20 wine there, but spent about the same even though it was BYO. We weren't overly impressed with the food either. It didn't seem like a good value. The eggplant was tough and the sauce tasted like it was in a pot with a burnt spot at the bottom - so sad.

I always thought that BYOB meant "Bring Your Own Booze". So it covered everything. (Admitedly, it's not a legal concept here.)

Michael A. Gray: you would hate the tropical island we frequent. We spend a day fishing and then take our catches to a local eatery who prepares them however we request, serves it with fresh, lcoal produce and charges us a whopping $10, total. It's fresh. It's delicious. And we don't have to clean up anything.

At home, we have a handful of BYO restuarants we visit. We find that their food prices are slightly less, I assume b/c they don't have to cover the overhead of the liquor license and additional insurance. Our preferred spots don't charge a corking fee and we tend to open the bottles ourselves. We go to these spots pretty regularly, so we are familiar with the menus and have a good idea of what we'll order, which allows us to be better prepared to pair our drinks.

Dahlink ... I still travel with corkscrew and knife, but they are packed in my checked luggage. (I am not known for traveling light.)

Last trip I forgot that I had a pocket knife in my computer bag, but the $10 mail it home service worked just fine. I got absolutely no guff from the TSA folks, who handled it as the stupid mistake it was.

It's almost a little hard to believe that in 2000 I brought a 15" Wustof bread knife home from Santa Fe in my carry-on canvas bag.

The only bad thing about BYOB restaurants is you have to plan ahead. More than once I have found myself saying "if I had known we were going to eat here I would have brought along a bottle of wine." Also if you are out running errands in the summer time you can't leave a bottle in your hot car.

21224 -- I was, of course, speaking of a freshly bought (as opposed to freshly caught) fish. And if I snared something tasty in tropical waters, I'd do exactly what you do. Call my aversion to BYOB ennui or laziness. But even when my bride suggests lunching at Checkers, my first question is 'Do they have a wine list?'

What about the rule to let the chef have a taste?

MD Canon, I, too, ran afoul of security when I did take only a carry-on. I thought I had removed all prohibited items, but forgot one pocket knife. Got caught on the trip home. Luckily the security line was short so I could get to the mail-home drop box and back in time for my flight. The sad part is that the security folks at BWI missed it on the way out.

I once brought home a Spanish samurai sword replica in checked baggage, but that was long ago and far away.

Have you seen www.byoblocator.com yet? it would be great to se Baltimore represented here! Its a new site that just started up. You can add your own byobs and search for byob's that others have added. You can even save your favorite's. Pretty cool no? Its starting from scratch and need users to get it going. check it out Baltimore!

www.byoblocator.com

While no Baltimore-area restaurants are listed on byoblocator to date, I did a search for Philadelphia and got 3 results. The site does have one glaring omission: the details provided for a given listing does not specify whether the restaurant charges the dreaded corkage fee (and, if so, the amount of same).