Pay up if you don’t want a drink with your meal

A sign like this is now commonplace in Penang where surcharges are imposed on patrons that buy their meals in coffee shops. The trend though, hasn’t caught on yet in other parts of the country with restaurants in no hurry to levy corkage.

GEORGE TOWN: Coffee shop owner Micah Ooi, 37, often does not mind when patrons occupy a table without ordering any drinks.

But it soon became a habit. Customers would come in and order food from the hawker stalls, but not cough up a single sen for a drink.