I once asked a very nice good-looking bartender at a swanky hotel bar what she'd recommend. She named a drink I'd never heard of -- the Grand something or another -- so I asked what was in it. She named a couple of liquors, a syrup and some other ingredients. "Great, how much is it?" I said. I'm glad I wasn't drinking any water because I nearly did a spit-take when she answered that it was $22.
I was reminded of that story when I saw this advice column asking a bartender if $9 was too much to pay for a cocktail. The columnist answered that $9 is not too much, depending on what you get. She's right. While I didn't order that $22 cocktail, I have paid $9 -- just not every day. The question is what's the cut-off -- where's the dollar line between an expensive-but-still-good cocktail and highway robbery?
Many restaurants don't list cocktail prices on their menus. At those restaurants you make an implicit bargain: I agree to order your high-mark-up booze and you agree to not make me feel like a fool when the bill comes. The problem is when restaurants don't live up to their end of the bargain. In the advice column, the columnist was furious that she'd been charged $11 for a vermouth on the rocks that she had no idea cost that much.
I know the feeling. Once, I was sitting at the bar at a swanky steakhouse and asked the bartender for a gin & tonic. He told me he made a great variation and I said fine. I watched as he used the well gin and tossed in some other things and handed it to me. "What tab is that under?" he asked me. When I answered that I didn't have a tab and was paying cash, he looked at me sheepishly and said, "Uhhh ... that will be $16." Lesson learned.
Besides sucking up your pride and asking about prices, you should also have some inkling of what you're ordering. If you order a Scotch and the bartender says, "Dewars, Johnny Black or Johnny Gold?" you better know you'll pay twice as much for the Johnny Walker Gold. As long as you're willing to drop that kind of money, go for it. As for me, I'll stick to my $12 maximum.
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any bartender worth his salt should be more interested in cultivating regular clientele and giving the guest a great experience than in gouging or duping. those whose only goal is padding a tab may get the fleeting advantage of a begrudging tip but will likely never see that guest return. my policy is to recommend the best and, if it is the most expensive, tell the guest upfront. seems simple enough to me.
Well, they know you feel awkward asking, so they take advantage of it. I hate when places do that.
As for what a drink is "worth", it's all about what you value. Earlier this week I paid $3 for a 25oz Bud Light because I found it to be a better value than a 25oz Blvd. Wheat for $5.25. If I had a choice of a Guinness or, say, just about anything on tap at the Foundry, I would have gladly paid the difference.
That said, I've found I typically enjoy a $30 bottle of wine in a restaurant as much as a $75 bottle. It's the law of diminishing returns at a certain point; for the price, I'd rather have six Dewars than one d-bag b.i.l. JW Blue.
Bummer, Owen. A bartender upselling you to a $16 gin and tonic deserves to have you either not accept the drink or at least nog leave a tip.
I once ordered two cocktails at a hotel bar. It was a reasonable hotel, like a Hilton or Marriott or something, not a Ritz or The Plaza. The total was $24.
I mentioned the excessive price to the manager when I checked out the next day and made it a practice to always pay cash at places like hotels so that I don't just "put it on the tab" and fail to notice how much the drinks are. Some places simply commit highway robbery when they know they can get away with it.
The only time I'm not very good at getting drink prices is when I'm sitting at a table for dinner and the waitress suggests a glass of wine. I hate asking how much it is in that situation.
Twist my arm and I'll tell you a story. Stella, my wife, has a jackass brother-in-law (I don't claim him as my b-i-l). We all went out for cocktails at Pierpont's (Stella's brother and sister and spouses). I ordered a Maker's Manhattan as did my b-i-l. Jackass b-i-l ordered a Johnnie Walker Blue. He then proceeded to tell us how much he loves scotch and the best is Johnnie Walker red(a truly ludicrous statement akin to saying Budweiser is the best beer). The Johnnie Walker Blue was indeed very good, I took a sip while he was away. Stella's sister was leafing through the cocktail menu and noticed that the Johnnie Walker Blue was $32. She didn't talk to him the rest of the night and his second cocktail was a water on the rocks.
After a couple of months of me asking him if he was drinking Johnnie Walker Blue a communication came down from Stella's mother that jackass b-i-l didn't want to hear about that anymore.
I have about 35 other stories of Stella's jackass b-i-l and they are one of my favorite things to share over drinks.
He has also called Bully! Porter a stout and Budweiser Select like a microbrew.
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