Good news for retailers. The number of restaurants that permit people to bring their own wine (BYO) grew by 10.4 percent in the second quarter of 2009, according to the restaurant survey company, DiningInfo.

After resurveying more than 30,000 restaurants in 10 major metropolitan regions over the past three months, DiningInfo found that 16,947 restaurants now permit BYO. This includes restaurants with their own wine lists that have recently started to permit BYO -- 13,577 in the second quarter, compared to 12,134 in the first quarter. During the same period, over 6,000 restaurants were confirmed to be closed or not answering their phone during normal business hours, indicating that successful restaurants have discovered BYO as a worthwhile way to attract more business in these difficult economic times.

Other highlights of the extensive statistics released today by DiningInfo include:
• Corkage fees are going down. Overall, the number of restaurants with free corkage increased to 4,012 from 3,256, while the number with corkage fees of $21 or more decreased to 2,228 from 2,337.
• San Francisco continues to lead the nation in the percentage of restaurants with wine lists that permit BYO (88.3 percent).
• Philadelphia continues to lead the nation with the percentage of restaurants that are solely BYO (29.6 percent) as well as BYO-permitting restaurants that have free corkage (74.1 percent).

The 10 metropolitan regions covered are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Southeast Florida and Washington/Baltimore.