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Aside from dive bars, I don’t think I’ll ever go out to drink again

UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
Long story short I met a friend for lunch today. It was nice. He paid the bill and I got the tip (as he is employed and I am not). Then, on the way out, saying our goodbyes, he dropped a bomb on me about a deep personal loss.

I couldn't let it end like that. So I offered to buy him a couple drinks at the restaurant bar so he could talk more about it and get some support, as it was obvious he didn't really want to go home yet and needed someone to talk to.

We had two double margaritas, each. My bill was $96. He covered the ($20) tip.

Is this normal? Is this what people pay for drinks in these places? It wasn't even a fancy restaurant, just middle of the road. Jesus Christ. I'm sticking to dive bar happy hours or drinking at home for the rest of my life.

I'm just flabbergasted that any place would see that as reasonable, but the whole bar was packed, so maybe I'm just a poor person.
 
P-MAC

P-MAC

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Nov 15, 2017
4,625
Here in the UK for a cocktail I would consider £10 normal. £20 is expensive. Not sure I've ever seen one more than that.
 
Rellodex

Rellodex

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Oct 29, 2017
2,234
restaurant bars are usually expensive but you're talking four doubles of a mixed drink is gonna run you no matter where you go
 
Drain You

Drain You

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Oct 27, 2017
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I don't know if that's normal, but bars suck. I just have friends come come over my place and drink for a fraction of the cost. Im 33 and married so my opinion might be different. Not looking to mingle, just wanna hang out and have a good time.
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
Rellodex said:
restaurant bars are usually expensive but you're talking four doubles of a mixed drink is gonna run you no matter where you go
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I guess I learned my lesson. Both of our tolerances are too high to consider that a reasonable deal, at all.

Maybe restaurant bars are just a young person's game.
 
krazen

krazen

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Oct 27, 2017
13,531
Gentrified Brooklyn
Because it's going to be expensive anyway, restaurant bars are only good for more complex cocktails than lets say liquor and soda. That said still not a guarantee they will have a good bartender who knows how to make drinks, but generally ill get martini's since the olives will be fresh, etc.
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
krazen said:
Because it's going to be expensive anyway, restaurant bars are only good for more complex cocktails than lets say liquor and soda. That said still not a guarantee they will have a good bartender who knows how to make drinks, but generally ill get martini's since the olives will be fresh, etc.
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Don't get me wrong, they were really good margaritas. But, you know, not $24 a pop good, lol.
 
supernormal

supernormal

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
3,220
Yeah I can't "drink" unless each cheap alcohol at a happy hour. I can probably run a 1000 dollar tab easy at those prices. I've celebrated birthdays where I've had 20+ mojitos and 6-7 rounds of shots. I don't think I've ever paid more than 200 for drinks ever.
 
Muitnorts

Muitnorts

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,186
It's another aspect of life that's becoming prohibitively expensive.

In the UK it feels like most non chain pubs can't survive and everywhere is else constantly pushing prices up so much that it just isn't worth it. A place I used to visit every couple of weeks or so has nearly doubled in price over the last year.

My birthday is coming up soon and most times I'd have a night out with some friends but I don't want to piss that much money down the drain this year.
 
Deception

Deception

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Nov 15, 2017
8,516
Where I live, a double margarita would range from $15-20 depending on the place. So I can definitely see it being $80 before taxes.
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
Muitnorts said:
It's another aspect of life that's becoming prohibitively expensive.

In the UK it feels like most non chain pubs can't survive and everywhere is else constantly pushing prices up so much that it just isn't worth it. A place I used to visit every couple of weeks or so has nearly doubled in price over the last year.

My birthday is coming up soon and most times I'd have a night out with some friends but I don't want to piss that much money down the drain this year.
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Yeah. It seems like we're getting squeezed out of anything that used to be considered "normal" discretionary expenses, nowadays.
 
Dervius

Dervius

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Oct 28, 2017
5,083
UK
Tangential, but I'm confused about a 'doubke margarita' as I've never had a double cocktail before, they're generally double measures by default.

That does sound expensive OP. Last time I was out in London I was paying ~£20 per cocktail, but in general I pay closer to £10 and again most contain a double measure.
 
Alcoremortis

Alcoremortis

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Oct 25, 2017
2,809
One of the many reasons I don't really drink. A single glass of scotch could basically fund another meal.
 
Mistouze

Mistouze

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Oct 26, 2017
3,550
Yep, that's around what I would expect for 4 double cocktails in a restaurant. And yes it ain't cheap.
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
Most of my time out of the house drinking is spent at dive bars with cheap beer (like $5 for two-three drinks). I think I'm just learning I'm not cut out for these cocktails, lol.
 
echoshifting

echoshifting

very salt heavy
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
15,455
The Negative Zone
You can certainly still find good cocktails at decent places for ten or twelve bucks a pop. I mean, you got four doubles. That's not four drinks, it's eight drinks. That price doesn't sound too outrageous to me as long as they were proper pours.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

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Oct 27, 2017
27,616
I can see prices like that, but I live in Vegas and hitting up fancy places inside of casinos can get expensive. Outside of Vegas, LA, NYC, and Miami, those kinds of prices seem way out of the ordinary.
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
echoshifting said:
You can certainly still find good cocktails at decent places for ten or twelve bucks a pop. I mean, you got four doubles. That's not four drinks, it's eight drinks. That price doesn't sound too outrageous to me as long as they were proper pours.
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Again, I think our tolerances are just too high. For me, it was nearly $100 just to barely get a buzz. I guess I can see it being worth it if that would have actually gotten us drunk.

Must be a personal problem.
 
echoshifting

echoshifting

very salt heavy
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
15,455
The Negative Zone
UltraMav said:
Again, I think our tolerances are just too high. For me, it was nearly $100 just to barely get a buzz. I guess I can see it being worth it if that would have actually gotten us drunk.

Must be a personal problem.
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You certainly could have just gotten ripped off, too 🤷‍♂️

I have a tolerance too, but if I'm really looking for my night to go sideways I am only drinking at gay bars and clubs. It's like a rule they pour heavy
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
echoshifting said:
You certainly could have just gotten ripped off, too 🤷‍♂️

I have a tolerance too, but if I'm really looking for my night to go sideways I am only drinking at gay bars and clubs. It's like a rule they pour heavy
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Yeah. It wasn't like I was trying to get fucked up, necessarily. But I left sober and actually went to another friend's Memorial Day event, where I continued to drink light beers and left feeling just fine.

Maybe a little from column A and a little from column B.

Oh well, it's OK to be old I guess.
 
Psychotext

Psychotext

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Oct 30, 2017
16,903
In the UK I'm fairly used to paying £10-£15 a cocktail. I guess that's about $15-$20.

I don't go out to get drunk / buzzed though (would be hugely expensive), I go out specifically to try said cocktails. If I wanted to get drunk I'd go to Spain, ask for a rum & coke and get half a pint of rum for $5. lol
 
julia crawford

julia crawford

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yeah i usually don't have cocktails because when i look at the prices i'm like no thanks.
 
OP
OP
UltraMav

UltraMav

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Oct 25, 2017
2,850
Psychotext said:
In the UK I'm fairly used to paying £10-£15 a cocktail. I guess that's about $15-$20.

I don't go out to get drunk / buzzed though (would be hugely expensive), I go out specifically to try said cocktails. If I wanted to get drunk I'd go to Spain, ask for a rum & coke and get half a pint of rum for $5. lol
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As an American, hearing "I'd go to Spain" makes me insanely jealous, lol.
 
Y2Kev

Y2Kev

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Oct 25, 2017
14,144
Cocktails at ~$20 per (definitely a double anything) in the city seems very common.
 
LProtagonist

LProtagonist

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Oct 27, 2017
7,769
We've got a great cocktail bar/small plates restaurant nearby that was named one of Esquire's top 20 bars in the US. It's not in a major city or anything, but it's got some fancy and unique cocktails. They charge like around 15 bucks per drink. I'm personally willing to pay that once and a while for something really interesting to drink, but not for something standard like a margarita.
 
thewienke

thewienke

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Oct 25, 2017
16,301
OP did you get well or top shelf tequila? You can easily double or triple your bill by getting name brand shit in your mixed drinks.

Also surprised to hear you weren't really feeling it after two. I can't recall a time where a bartender at a Mexican restaurant went light on the alcohol. Maybe one of those goofy ones ran by white people (does On the Border still exist??) but you done fucked up by going to one of those to drink.
 
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Deleted member 171

Oct 25, 2017
19,888
While pricey, it sounds like it was an investment in your friendship really. I'm actually a bit surprised the restaurant bar was that expensive, as generally they're more reasonable because people are buying food.

Here in Portugal it's generally 2-3 euro for a pint, and maybe 6-7 for a mixed drink if it's a nicer place. Much more reasonable to get drunk!
 
Hilarious_Bearious

Hilarious_Bearious

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Nov 4, 2017
7,577
So two people having two doubles each... That's like 8 drinks. $96 is about $150 dollaridoos, and we don't have to tip. So about 18 bucks per drink for a margarita sounds about right here in Australia. Margaritas are one of those drinks where there's a wide gamut, where you can get cheap icy ones out of a machine for 5 dollaridoos, but could also get fancy ones with high shelf tequila and other fancy fixings for scores of dollars. But $20 for a cocktail sounds about right, depending on the quality/venue etc.

If I go out drinking, it's to a local brewery or the bowls club. It's about 18 dollaridoos (or 12 BurgerBux) for a jug of nice, local beer while enjoying live music, supporting local business and engaging with the community. I'll go once every couple of months with my mate and we'll take turns buying jugs and go through about 4 all up. I don't mind throwing down 36-40 dollaridoos to get a nice buzz over an afternoon under those circumstances.

Queensland has some weird old laws about having to own a pub in order to operate a bottle shop. I guess it makes sense to force sellers of booze to offer a space where people can meet and consume alcohol in supervised circumstances. As a result, most of our pubs and clubs are owned by the shitty supermarket duopoly so they can operate their bottle shops. As a result the venues are often crappy carbon copies. Operating a bottlo is essentially a license to print money here, so it will be interesting to see what the supermarket duopoly does about the pub requirement as patronage dies off due to cost of living. Will they just eat the loss in order to maintain their lucrative retail presence, or use their overwhelmingly powerful lobby power to get the law changed?
 
Ernest

Ernest

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Oct 25, 2017
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On the high-end for sure, but still in line with what most bars and restaurants charge for drinks these days.
 
skeezx

skeezx

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Oct 27, 2017
20,562
I don't go out drinking any more but when I did I expected to be out ~$100 by end of the night, regardless of what kind of bar it was

ironically I was broke AF back then not really sure how I did it
 
Jubilant Duck

Jubilant Duck

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Oct 21, 2022
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A decent cocktail is going to be $12-15ish, maybe $20 at a super fancy speakeasy place. So that is ballpark what you paid.

But a margarita isn't a decent cocktail; it's a cheap mixed drink meant to be gulped rather than sipped. You got overcharged even accounting for the nice restaurant upcharge.
 

nitewulf

Member
Nov 29, 2017
7,321
Those are like high end mixology bar prices in NYC, in fact more expensive as those run $18 to $24. Dive bars are perfectly fine. Restaurant bars aren't a good hangout for what you needed. Should have walked out and looked for a regular bar nearby.
 
Joe Shlabotnik

Joe Shlabotnik

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Oct 27, 2017
5,934
A single margarita is gonna cost $10+, so four doubles is going to cost close to what you paid.

I mean, you had essentially four drinks each, and you were "feeling fine" after ~4 oz of tequila, so you have a... high tolerance. Paying for drinks anywhere is going to get expensive for you.

(edited because I can't math, and 4 oz is less wild than 8 but you still have a very high tolerance)
 
Orayn

Orayn

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Oct 25, 2017
11,398
Joe Shlabotnik said:
A single margarita is gonna cost $10+, so four doubles is going to cost close to what you paid.

I mean, you had essentially four drinks each, and you were "feeling fine" after ~4 oz of tequila, so you have a... high tolerance. Paying for drinks anywhere is going to get expensive for you.

(edited because I can't math, and 4 oz is less wild than 8 but you still have a very high tolerance)
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Alcohol takes anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour to fully absorb depending on the individual and whether or not you've eaten, so you very well could be feeling fine for a decent amount of time after a double marg even without a high tolerance. A lot of people don't realize this and "get drunk" impossibly fast.
 
Flavius

Flavius

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Oct 28, 2017
2,440
Orlando, FL
I just want to preface by saying this isn't a knock on you for not confirming the prices before ordering, but…

As someone who enjoys whiskey, I've also learned the hard way to make sure I know the price on pours before ordering for myself and a buddy. 🤣
 
Fatoy

Fatoy

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Mar 13, 2019
7,330
I don't drink cocktails very often, but if I did order an Old Fashioned or something similar in a reasonably nice bar / restaurant in a big city in the UK, I'd expect to pay £15-20 for it. So 4x that is £80 at the upper bound, or $102 USD.

Inflation is very real in alcohol (amongst other things) here, and it's quite an insidious force. I don't even bat an eyelid at a £6 beer any more.
 
Excuse me

Excuse me

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Oct 30, 2017
2,060
Even pint prices are too high if you are in mood for more then few. Gotta just nurse your drinks/beers these days. Given that what OP paid that's still insane.
 
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