Random / fluff question about drink prices

Absolutely would not typically pay 45.00 (about $30.00 US) for just a typical drink.  If I was looking to try an expensive Whiskey like a Whistle Pig or a Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon I would expect it (and probably more) but not just for a basic drink.

BUT…If asked which Whiskey and I was looking for something top shelf, I would know to ask the price, especially if I was leaving it up to the bartender to pick what to use.

I would likely be annoyed with myself for not realizing that if I leave it up to the bartender to suggest a drink, that there's a good chance they'll suggest something top shelf. And that I should have either asked or put a qualifier on my request in the first place.

Yes, it would have been nice for the bartender to have offered the price ahead of time, but I don't think I would expect it.

That works out to around 55 euros, so yes, I'd be very annoyed, as that's a week's shopping for us! I think bars should be upfront about prices, was there a drinks menu?

I’d definitely be annoyed. I’ve been in a similar spot before when my friend and I were going to dinner with someone we didn’t know well and my friend asked for a suggestion of where we could go. The person we were going out with was local to the area and she (well, her husband who was driving) suggested a place that turned out to be an all you can eat Brazilian restaurant which my friend and I hadn’t ever experienced before. We should have asked to look at a menu before we decided to eat there so that part was on us.

When the bill came it was upwards of $50 per person. 😳 The couple we were with ended up not even having enough money to pay for their own meals and they didn’t have a credit card, so we had to spot them the extra $$. 😳🤪🙄 I would never choose somewhere like that for myself because I never eat enough to even make a $20-25 PP all you can eat meal worth the cost to me, and I would never suggest a place like that unless I knew the others were prepared to pay that or I was planning to pay for everyone in the group. I don’t know what would have happened if we wouldn’t have had the extra money to help them cover their bill.

$50/£39 for a meal doesn't strike me as high but paying that for a drink/cocktail is high for me.

We’ve spent that too on a special night out at a higher end place now, but then we go in knowing it’s going to cost that. This was probably about 20 years ago so a dollar went further back then. My friend and I were traveling and on a somewhat limited budget, we were meeting up with this woman that she only knew casually from a scrapbooking MLM group that was a couple levels down in her downline, and we just wanted to go somewhere a little nicer than McDonald’s. Her DH came along because this lady didn’t like driving downtown where the convention was being held, and he was leery of her going off alone to meet “strangers from the internet” LOL.

When we asked them for suggestions we were thinking Applebees or Chili’s fare which was more like $15-20 PP max at the time (we don’t drink either), so $50 PP was way beyond what we were expecting to spend on a single meal. And then we had to cough up extra to cover part of their bill on top of that! I mean, we were eating granola bars and peanut butter sandwiches in our hotel room to keep our costs down, so…yeah. We really weren’t prepared for that.

I should have added, this was probably 20 years ago when $50 bought more. But even these days we tend to spend $75 or less when DH, DD and I all go out to dinner. But DH and I don’t drink which does help to keep the cost down quite a bit.

FWIW, we recently were treated to an expensive dinner out for a birthday. All of us ordered the special (prime rib) and DH noted, “For what two of these dinners cost, I could have bought a whole prime rib and cooked it myself, fed all six of us and had leftovers the next day.” 

Where do you live?

The fancy place in my town charges $12 for a fancy smoked old fashioned under a cloche type drink. I am in a 3rd tier suburb of the Twin Cities. I suppose a fancy place in Minneapolis could be $30. I would just go buy myself an entire bottle of top shelf stuff and make many drinks at home.

That bartender should have given them a heads up for sure!

I go to Las Vegas a lot. I was there in September for a meeting. My business partner and I went to the pool bar when we arrived and each ordered a mojito. There were no prices on the drink menu. But as much as I go to Vegas I was expecting $30-$35 per drink. I watched the bartender make the drink. He did not use top shelf liquor. I was shocked when our bill was $95. This was not a place I have stayed at recently and won't be staying at again.

Hiding as I type this out --- but $90 for two drinks would not be that unheard of for my DH. If anything, it would be a touch above 'above average' for a goodish whiskey for DH so not the cheapest he'd drink but not the most expensive either but he has an extensive collection of whiskeys, scotch and vodkas so he knows what he wants when he is at the bar.

As to whether or not the bartender should have told him how much it was, that kinda depends on the restaurant. More upscale and pricey places normally do not tell how much it is unless you ask. But mid range to lower end places will offer the information up front.

South Florida
from Chicago

I would be annoyed that the bartender suggested a premium priced drink without saying that it was that tier of alcohol. We learned that lesson when we went out for a fancy dinner for a friend's retirement. The waiter suggested a glass of a specific wine to us when we had our dinner menus out and were giving our food orders. The drink suggestion was sort of a pairing suggestion. However the rest of us had $15 drinks we had already selected but the one person who took the suggestion and ordered that wine was charged $50 for the glass of wine. Lesson learned that if you don't have the alcohol menu in front of you, you've gotta ask what it's going to cost.
It's like being suggestive sold 'fries with the burger' but at a steep price!