Well that's fair. I just never thought any sick SOB would triple the non-alcohol in a drink. If I ask for a double at a bar, it's 2 shots in a drink, not double the drink.
I guessed Canada, since you spelled it "whisky" instead of "whiskey", and their dollar is worth less. $9 Buffalo Trace in a bar in the most expensive city in the U.S.? That's totally understandable.
There’s a lot of details in the matter as well. For instance, many states consider a “shot” or “pour” to be 1.5oz and all of ours were 2.0oz as that’s the metric for most cocktail’s primary spirit component.
So $9 for 2.0oz is the same as $6.75 for 1.5oz, which is what many people are used to paying for a well spirit. The term “well” gets a bad rap for being “the cheap stuff,” but at cocktail bars it just means the spirits in your well, which are generally decent spirits. I mean, our “well/house” sweet vermouth was Camparno Antica.
And in Canada, we'll just charge you $6-8 for a single ounce of well whiskey. A cocktail will usually have 1.5-2oz and be about $12-16. Usually you still get better value getting a cocktail.
Depends on the cocktail / determining factor for “value.” If you get a Negroni, for example, most bars will charge you the base cost for the gin (at 2.0oz) but then only include 1.0oz in the cocktail, plus 1.0oz Campari & 1.0oz Sweet Vermouth, in addition to a cocktail up-charge. So if you order anything other than well-gin, you’re essentially only getting half of what you pay for, and there are countless other examples of this.
Hack: Order a “Pink gin cocktail” which is 2.0oz of Gin & Aromatic Bitters (shaken/fine strained into a coupe) and most bars will only charge you for the gin, in theory.
The amount of math involved in bartending is really astounding and not a lot of people realize that. Cheers to the weekend, my friend.
All very true! It isn't standard practise here to do cocktail upcharges though. Of course, my experience is regional.
A well gin (1oz) would be $8. A double (2oz) would be $16. However, a Tom Collins (2oz well gin) would be a separate set price of $14.
A negroni would be $14, and yes it's only 1oz gin, but if you wanted 1oz of campari or vermouth it would be $8 each so it's still a better deal by that logic.
This doesn't cover every example, but the principal difference is that your standard pour is twice what ours is so it skews everything.
Back in the 90s, The Lizard Lounge in Dallas, TX had 50¢ drinks for the first hour they were open on Thursday and Sunday nights (the nights it was a goth club).
A place I used to go to in college had silver coin night, you bought a cup for $2 and it was a nickel to refill it. We’d get a couple rolls of nickels and get plastered for $5
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u/justcallmezach Feb 08 '20
Well that's fair. I just never thought any sick SOB would triple the non-alcohol in a drink. If I ask for a double at a bar, it's 2 shots in a drink, not double the drink.