How much does a drink cost at your local bar/club?

[WormTheRed]

I managed to hijack the "VIP-club" thread in GQ and have thus decided that this issue is worth it's own thread :)

So how much does a beer/drink cost at your local water hole?


Over here, you buy a beer for 700 ISK which granted is only 5 bucks at todays rates. But if we look at "purchase parity power"* (which we should) it's more in the neighbourhood of twice that. Hence around 10 USD for a pint of lager on tap.

A standard drink is 1500-2000 ISK, which would be around 20-25 bucks.

This at standard places in d/t Reykjavik.


*Basically, how much you can afford if you earn local money compared between currencies.

[Manda JO]

Dallas, TX: During happy hour at a bar with lousy service and worse food, we pay $1.75 for mixed drinks with cheap, cheap liquor and $2 for draft domestic beer. On Mondays, you can get decent liquor in mixed drinks for $2.

At a decent but not fancy Mexican place, a decent Margarita is $4-$6.

What does package liquor or beer cost in Iceland? At those prices, I think I'd drink more at home . . .

[Hunter Hawk]

Per my response from the other thread: $5-$12 for a standard mixed drink.

Shots of the good stuff will be around $15-$35.

A shot of Louis XIII cognac is about $300 (I once sat next to a guy who spent the evening alone drinking this stuff)

This is at one of the better bars in Seattle, WA.

[WormTheRed]

What does package liquor or beer cost in Iceland? At those prices, I think I'd drink more at home . . .

The cheapest 1/2 liter bottles of beer go for around 200 ISK. A bottle of Sam Adams Holiday Brew goes for 350.

Vodka goes for around 3000 for 0,75 liters of the cheap stuff.

Yeah, you gotta love those taxes :)

But yes, parties tend to start at home.

[Hunter Hawk]

Whoops, typo in the price I listed for the cognac. It's only about $200/shot.

[Kyla]

Depends on how nice the place is. I don't drink enough to have a regular bar, but I went on a pub crawl a couple weeks ago and had a glass of wine at one place for $7 and then a couple mixed drinks at another (not as nice) place for, I think, $4 each.

Plus 20% tip, of course.

At those prices, I don't think I'd ever go out in Iceland.

[KarlGrenze]

If you go to a bar in a college town, they may have some drinks at $2, or some $1 shots. Other drinks are about $6. Fancier drinks may cost more, but I don't think it goes up to $25. And they may have $1-$2 beers, which are usually the local generic (Abita in LA, for example) or major brand. They may also have beer specials on other brands, depending on the night.

I know of what I paid, I never paid more than $6 for drinks and sometimes what I requested was paid by someone else, so I never knew the price.

Same as I wrote in the other thread. My bar experience is mostly Baton Rouge (LA), although I've seen similar prices listed in Athens (GA) (my current town). If I drink it either means I'm staying in the same place, not moving, for a looong time, or I have someone to take me home. In Athens I haven't found a person for the later, so I don't tend to drink.

[bouv]

Pretty much every bar here will have domestic lagers for $2-$3 a pint. Microbrews and craft beers will go for $3-$4 a pint. Mixed drinks are anywhere from $3-$7 for well/call liquor.

One local place here, though, has a "Duff Hour." Starting at 4 PM on weekdays (when they open,) a random keg will be $1 drafts. Though despite the name, it's not for an hour, it lasts until the keg runs out. Due to laws around here, bars and restaurants can't do traditional happy hours. Drink specials have to be for either the whole night, or until the given alcohol runs out.

I like going there because they don't have any cheap "Bud/Miller/Coors" type of beer. Everything is microbrew (most of those local) or brewed in-house.

[Olentzero]

My favorite watering hole down DC way (The Saloon, 1207 U Street NW) sold very good beer for around $5-7 a tall pint. Watering hole down the road from here (Village Pub in Hampstead NH) sells most pints at $3.50.

[silenus]

The only "decent" pub locally charges $6/pint for Sierra Nevada. Needless to say, we don't go there much any more. Our favorite Mexican restaurant charges $4.95 for a decently-sized Margarita.

[jtgain]

Around here, you pay for the ambiance. $1.75 beers and $2.00 mixed drinks at the shit hole dive place. If you don't own a gun, buy one before you go in those places.

At a nicer place, you will pay $4+ for a domestic beer and $6+ for a regular mixed drink

[UnwrittenNocturne]

I tend to only drink in dives..I prefer them for the clientele and the price. Not sure here in Vegas because I hate going out here but back in Tuscaloosa my favourite dive had beers as low as 75 cents, a long island iced tea for under $5 and standard mixes for around $2.

Never saw a fight there, not even any raised voices.

[TokyoBayer]

Most of the places I used to go to in Roppongi would be about $8 for a drink, although small beer would be $5. Restaurants are in that range as well. I like the beer here, so I don't mind.

[CAT=^..^=]

My local watering hole is in a small college town, where you can still get a bottle of beer for $2 to $3 any night. Mixed drinks are about $3 to $4 on average.

A pitcher of beer is about $6.


When I was in college, in a different small college town, we could still get .10 tap beers!! (1983). And the average pitcher of beer was only $2.

[Reply]

Here in Arcata, California, beers cost about $3-$4/pint, mixed drinks maybe $5-$7, and specials include things like dollar pint nights. They usually offer a good mix of domestics, micros, and imports.

It's a tiny college town and there are 4-5 bars (mostly the same, not quite dive, not quite upscale type places) right next to each other, so the competition is pretty fierce.

There are also a few Indian casinos in the area, and the ones with nicer lounges might charge 50% more.

[Sublight]

Most of the bars I've been to around Tokyo charge in 600-900 yen range, which would be about US$6-9. Some Izakayas (restaurants where it's expected that people will also be drinking a lot) advertise beers for 300yen/mug, and of course one can always find more expensive drinks if they look.

[kferr]

I live about 40 miles southwest of London. My local pub has 10 real ales on all the time ranging from £2.70 - £3.10 per pint. There's always a lower strength (3.5% ABV or so) for £2.50. The Xmas brews can go up to 9% ABV and sell for £3.50. I've no idea what wine or spirits sell for there.

[Sami41]

A beer and a shot. . .$3. That's any combination of bottled beer and straight shots that we carry. Davy's Locker, Las Vegas NV.

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

A pint of lager or beer is usually £2.50--£3.00. Anything is over £3.00 is deemed expensive and will not be visited again. Rarer or premium beers may cost more, though.

There was a pub in town that used to do pints of shit lager (Carling) for £1. There's also a club where my friends and I go where you get triple vodka + coke/red bull for £3.

[dalej42]

Most of the bars I go to have specials. Usually every day of the week except for Fri/Sat night.

On the average about 3.00 for a domestic bottled beer and 4.00 for a mixed drink. A lot of the specials are 2 for 1 drinks or draft beer specials.

[WormTheRed]

These are all mostly pretty darn proper prices, even with the tipping.

Thanks for the input!

[Sublight]

These are all mostly pretty darn proper prices, even with the tipping.

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. No tipping in Japan. The price you see is the price you pay. At some of the bars in Roppongi that have western staff, tips will be accepted, but at most Japanese bars it would actually be considered impolite.

[Barrels]

At your "Typical Wisconsin Supper Club" in beautiful downtown Pipersville (the town has 10 houses and the restaurant) prices are close to.....

Old Fashion- $4
Call OF- $4.75
House Wine- $4 glass
Call Wine- $6-8
Rail Mixer- $3.75
Call Mixer $4.50-6.00
Martini/Manhattan- $4
Call M/M- $5-7
Domestic Beer, Tap or Bottle- $3
Micro Beer, Tap or Bottle- $4
Ice Cream Drinks/Cordials- $6 + a damn good tip for ordering one in the middle of a Friday night Fish Fry, more if you order a Grasshopper and an Alexander. The wrath of god if you order those plus a Pink Squirrel.

Barrels-
Friday Night bartender at "Typical WI Supper Club".

[buttonjockey308]

The joints I haunt go everywhere from $3 drafts/bottles up to $6.50 and the cocktails range from $7 on up to $100 (high end cognacs not withstanding) and the wines from $3 a glass to $5,700 a bottle. Margaritas are $6 to $8, rocks not frozen. All downtown Chicago/neighborhoods. I do prefer the dives, but even those have jacked the prices severely.

[Baron Greenback]

The pints in the local range from £2.10 to £2.50, the halves from £1 for the house whisky and vodka to about £2.80 for one of the older malts.

[Neidhart]

Beer is really cheap in Prague, about $1 each. It might be worth flying in from Reykjavik just for that. :D

[Rack-a-Bones]

Per my response from the other thread: $5-$12 for a standard mixed drink.

Shots of the good stuff will be around $15-$35.

A shot of Louis XIII cognac is about $300 (I once sat next to a guy who spent the evening alone drinking this stuff)

This is at one of the better bars in Seattle, WA.

$15 for a shot? What bar do you hang out it in? Up in Ballard $2 PBR, $2.50 Bud and domestic, Micros $3-$4, mixed drinks $3.50 and up depending on the liquor you use.

ETA: Now that I think about it People's Pub has some pricey scotch and I'm sure the newer yuppier places have some high end liquor too.

[Hunter Hawk]

$15 for a shot? What bar do you hang out it in?
The Zig Zag Cafe (http://zigzagseattle.com/). And yeah, this would be for pricey scotch or the equivalent. You'd see the same price range at other bars at the same tier.

[Khadaji]

Between two and four bucks for a beer in town, depending on the bar.

[Kalhoun]

I haven't been to a bar in ages, but a glass of wine in a restaurant goes for $6-$8 for a "chain restaurant" kinda joint and upwards of that for a nicer place.

[Spoons]

Between $5 and $6 for a draft beer (sized at 16 to 20 oz), and I'd guess it's about the same for a bar shot. A premium shot would be higher, of course. A glass of wine would be about $6; again, it could be more depending on the wine.

These would be typical sports bar or "family restaurant" prices. There are places where drinks are cheaper (though most people probably wouldn't want to go to those); and of course, many places, such as bars in fine-dining establishments, where drinks would be much more expensive. And naturally, given my location, prices here are in Canadian dollars.

[Spezza]

The cheapest 1/2 liter bottles of beer go for around 200 ISK. A bottle of Sam Adams Holiday Brew goes for 350.

Vodka goes for around 3000 for 0,75 liters of the cheap stuff.

Yeah, you gotta love those taxes :)

Yeah, but how much do you pay for coffee?! Alcohol might be prohibitively expensive in Iceland, but when I was there you could buy a pot of coffee for $1 (hyperbole, yes, but coffee is damn cheap in Iceland).

Around here my cheapest bar/club drink is $2.25. It is a student dive, but definitely the best bar in town because of its atmosphere and crowd (though it has been waning in recent years). Otherwise, at any typical place you're playing upwards of $5 for a drink. At a few more select places, places I rarely visit, with tip a patron is paying $7 or so for a single drink.

This is Southern Ontario.

[WormTheRed]

Well sure, coffee is pretty cheap and readily available. Especially with the free wifi most cafes offer.

That just doesn't do it for me on a friday or saturday night though ;)

[Cosmopolitan]

A mixed drink with one mixer & one booze costs a minimum of $5.00 on Long Island & usually a bit more in Manhattan or hipster Brooklyn - $7.00 or $8.00 minimum. Costs increase, of course, as quality of liquors/volume of drinks increase.

A specific example: A fancy 12 oz. tequila martini with Patron, Kahlua, and perhaps one other variety of liqueur (sp?) served by a local place costs $15.00.

[msmith537]

$5 - $6 in Hoboken and NYC is typical. You can go to a lot of places in the East Village that run $2 beer specials.

I did a ski house in Hunter Mountain, NY about ten years ago. The Hunter Village Inn used to run a drink special of 10 beers (in those 6 oz cups) for $7.

[DianaG]

I'm not a beer drinker, so I have no idea about that, but around here (Boston and surrounding) I usually pay $8-12 for either a top shelf vodka or whiskey, or a glass of wine.

[Glazer]

At the "World Famous Tattle Tales" the only bar I go to any more.
$5.00 Domestic Beer
$5.50 Well Drinks
$7.00 shots of Maker's Mark the only thing I drink
$10.00 Table Dances
$150.00 for 30 min. in VIP but I don't go to VIP 'cause I'm cheep.

A 1.75 l bottle of Maker's Mark at my local liquor store goes for $38.00 cash

[Shagnasty]

Just out or curiosity, how do locals get drunk in Iceland enough to make the club scene worthwhile? There aren't that many people to begin with and lots would have to save up for weeks to get a decent buzz the way I am reading this. Lots of Americans would have to spend $300 a night to drink just 12 drinks and that does not make sense.

There must be something else going on. I want to go to Iceland but how do people afford going out at all?

[spinky]

For the types of places I tend to go (pub-type places in seattle; not "clubs"), you can usually expect a pint to be $4 or maybe $5. Specialty beer will be more, like rare belgians that go up to $15 at certain places I go (but they still have normal-priced stuff on tap).

[Crawlspace]

$8 for a beer, $9-10 for a whiskey in Manhattan. This is not typical of Manhattan as a whole, just typical of the places my med-school feels entitled to celebrate. I don't hang out with them much.

[WormTheRed]

Just out or curiosity, how do locals get drunk in Iceland enough to make the club scene worthwhile? There aren't that many people to begin with and lots would have to save up for weeks to get a decent buzz the way I am reading this. Lots of Americans would have to spend $300 a night to drink just 12 drinks and that does not make sense.

There must be something else going on. I want to go to Iceland but how do people afford going out at all?

Well, there's always smuggling :) Or booze you bring when you come from abroad. By which I mean that people usually start off at home parties and head down town later in the night.

Or you just suck it up and spend the money anyway. I spent pretty close to $300 the weekend before Christmas on a standard pub crawl, without any major excesses.

You did however miss my take on PPP in the OP, so the drinks wouldn't be quite so expensive these days for foreigners due to the favorable exchange rates.

[Nametag]

Just out or curiosity, how do locals get drunk in Iceland enough to make the club scene worthwhile? There aren't that many people to begin with and lots would have to save up for weeks to get a decent buzz the way I am reading this. Lots of Americans would have to spend $300 a night to drink just 12 drinks and that does not make sense.

There must be something else going on. I want to go to Iceland but how do people afford going out at all?

12 drinks??? Um, what's "going on" is that most people aren't raging alcoholics.

[Shagnasty]

12 drinks??? Um, what's "going on" is that most people aren't raging alcoholics.

Even if you split it among two people and have six each, that still sounds like a lot of money. Binge drinking is extremely common in the U.S. especially among young people and plenty of otherwise non-alcoholics drink many drinks in a night routinely. I always heard the night-club scene in Iceland can be hopping. Do people not get drunk as a general rule? What are the places like?

[ShelliBean]

At the bar I work at - $1.75 for a beer.

Liquor is $2, $2.25, or $2.50 depending on which you ask for. Doubles range from $3.50 to $5. I almost never get asked for anything more complicated than a margarita and I made the price up as I went. Same deal with shots.

[DianaG]

Erm... I'm not even flinching at 12 drinks, let alone 2 people, six drinks each, which is what I'm presuming (perhaps incorrectly) that the married Shagnasty means, and I'm not a raging alchoholic. I DO tend to start early and finish late when I go out though, and if you're out for 6-8 hours, that's two or fewer drinks per hour.

[Antinor01]

At my regular bar in West Hollywood, a sapphire/tonic, jack/coke or similar is 6 bucks and I always tip a dollar.

Around the corner at the Abbey the same drink is $11. (Most of the reason I don't go there)

[WormTheRed]

Even if you split it among two people and have six each, that still sounds like a lot of money. Binge drinking is extremely common in the U.S. especially among young people and plenty of otherwise non-alcoholics drink many drinks in a night routinely. I always heard the night-club scene in Iceland can be hopping. Do people not get drunk as a general rule? What are the places like?

You must've missed my answer in post 41?

Yes, people go out. Yes, people party a lot. Yes, people drink a lot.

But you usually start at home.

And grudingly pay the high prices (unless you've just been abroad or have a smuggler friend)


ETA: And Nametag. 12 drinks in one night ain't all that much, like DianaG says.

[ShelliBean]

Around here that's called "pregaming" - start at home so you don't spend so much out.

[WormTheRed]

Pregaming. That's definately a word that's going into my vocabulary!

[Snarky_Kong]

On Thursdays at one of the bars on the University of Illinois' campus you can but a whole keg for, I think, $15. You have to do it before either 5 or 7, I forget which. Most drinks are $3-$5, but you can always find a $1-$2 special every day of the week and the classier bars have "martinis" and scotch that can run up to around $15.

[Rack-a-Bones]

At the bar I work at - $1.75 for a beer.

Liquor is $2, $2.25, or $2.50 depending on which you ask for. Doubles range from $3.50 to $5. I almost never get asked for anything more complicated than a margarita and I made the price up as I went. Same deal with shots.

OK where do you work because I'm coming over.

For the types of places I tend to go (pub-type places in seattle; not "clubs"), you can usually expect a pint to be $4 or maybe $5. Specialty beer will be more, like rare belgians that go up to $15 at certain places I go (but they still have normal-priced stuff on tap).

The dives I go to you usually get PBR for $2 - $2.50 (Sunday's at Shorty's PBR is $1) Bud $2.50 - $3.50. Micros $3.50 - $5.00 Wells $3 - $5. Shots $4 - $7. That is for the basic stuff. Top shelf and Belgians vary all over the place. But these are the "dives"* like Lava Lounge, Shorty's, Teddy's, Lock & Keel, Water Wheel. I don't do the fancier places like Twist, Mix, Bel Mar, etc.

[Nametag]

I gave it serious thought, and based on Shagnasty's 2nd post, I don't think he was thinking of "drinking for 2." 2 drinks an hour IS a lot -- even in my rip-roaringest, drink-til-til-you-puke, pass-out-and-wake-up-still-drunk episodes (in my youth, thank god), I couldn't have kept that pace up for more than 3 hours. My comment was also based on the implication ("even 12 drinks") that this was a minimal acceptable number for one person. If your evening ain't complete unless you're completely shitfaced from start to finish, then you've got a problem -- granted, it might not be alcoholism.

[gurujulp]

In the bay area, it varies wildly.

There are bars with dollar or two beer, and there are bars where I have paid $16.00 for a fruity rummy drink. My currently favorite place is an upscale restaurant which I can't really afford- $10.00 for a cocktail in a 9 oz martini glass

This is excluding the really high end liquors (the tequila bars with specialty shots for over $100.00 and such)

Oh, and if I am not driving, four drinks an hour easy...

Not even to get raging drunk- I am just big and can hold my liquor. I probably wouldn't exceed 12 in 3 hours, though...

[ShelliBean]

OK where do you work because I'm coming over.


Well I work in a country club in the deep south, but you are welcome to swing by if you want to make the trip!

[Hunter Hawk]

Binge drinking is extremely common in the U.S.
Borderline GD comment: On the other hand, having two cocktails before dinner is technically a binge, since an average cocktail has 2-3 units of alcohol. I realize that the researchers need to come up with an operational definition of "binge"; I just don't agree that the current definition is particularly valid.

[psycat90]

Pints (14 oz.) are $4.25 at our favorite brewpub - Russian River (http://russianriverbrewing.com/pages/chalk.html). But my husband and I always pay happy hour prices. - $2.75 a pint.

Prices do vary greatly, but I'd always expect to pay about $4 for a decent beer, $10 for a decent glass of wine.

[Superfluous Parentheses]

I think it's 1.80 euros for a half-pint, 2 to 3.50 for special beers (which may or may not come in larger glasses, or contain more alcohol).

Most pubs are a little bit more expensive, though, but not by a lot.