The $14 Cocktail - DC's New Norm

[DonRocks]

I'm not particularly into expanding my bragging rights by visiting every new restaurant, and instead would rather spend my money at the same places and really explore the kitchen and bar styles. Lately though I've been dragged to many different restaurants that I wouldn't say would be my first choice, and have been surprised at the rising pricing of cocktails. $12.50 is now pretty conservative. Even the Columbia Room's drinks are around $15 a pop, but that includes tax and tip. Imagine my disappointment seeing $13 and $14 price tags around town nowadays for pretty mediocre cocktails.

You just said what 90% of the dining public has been thinking for a long time now.

It is the rarest of cocktails that is worth $14; yet they're all over the place now. BourbonSteak really set a high bar with this price a few years ago, but it has become the norm for upscale cocktails in DC. With tax and tip, you're talking $18.50 per drink. Want to take your date out for a couple of drinks after the movie? That'll set you back 75 bucks.

Yes, a part of me is very happy for my bartender friends, but not happy enough ... I'm pretty much on the verge of saying, "Gimme your shittiest Gimlet" every time I walk into a bar these days, and if it's Rose's lime juice (yuck), then so be it. The price of cocktails has become downright painful, every bit as much as paying $12 for a lousy glass of mass-produced Muscadet or Sancerre.

And there's no relief in sight.

[DaRiv18]

BTW, I worded some of this poorly, and have edited the original post to say "Even though the Columbia Room's drinks are around $15 a pop, it includes tax and tip."

[DaveO]

First off, for the sake of transparency, I'm one of the people that operates the Professional Bartending School in Arlington. We don't teach artisan mixology, in fact far from it. We teach beginning bartending. OTOH, quite a number of grads have gone to become proficient bartenders and are active in the world of artisan bartending and incidentally part of that world of the $12-20 cocktail.

Ooof. That hurts. Frankly I've always liked my booze more for the impact than the spectacular taste.

The expensive cocktail is an opportunity for bars, restaurants, and of course the mixologists. There is of course a lot of potential mark up there...and frankly many of the ingredients are more expensive.

Regardless, here is an idea. For as many expensive cocktails as there are in the area there are an equal and in fact larger number of places with happy hour and terrific prices. Happy hours generally eschew expensive cocktails, let alone any drink that takes too long to prepare. Extensive preparation time kills the concept of happy hour with as many drinks served as possible in a short time frame.

But what if one were to mix the two with a limited number of specific artisan cocktails offered during happy hour. The goal of course would be to serve a lot of these special drinks at their special prices and the trick would be to prepare them quickly, efficiently, before the event.

Here is an example of artisan mixologists preparing a large number of specialty cocktails for a cocktail dinner: http://portland.thedrinknation.com/articles/read/8343-Brewing-Up-Cocktails-Behind-the-Scenes-at-a-Tales-of-the-Cocktail-Spirited-Dinner#

A lot of work went into the preparation but the end result was the ability to provide 60 dramatically flavored cocktails in a very short time period.

[thetrain]

Beer prices at bars have grown insane as well. I paid $7 or $8 for a 22 oz. Flying Dog beer at DCA this holiday season and thought to myself what a great deal it was. When the insulated airport prices are now deals, beer prices at bars have gotten out of control.