My wife and I don’t usually eat at Olive Gardens (or any Darden restaurants), but we had a Darden gift card and needed to grab a bite on the way to a theater show last night.
It’s true that I asked for Bombay Sapphire gin, but I don’t really consider Bombay to be anything special. The drink was stiff, but small. Tonic was barely effervescent. No lime or other garnish.
And a neat shot of Jameson was $8.25.
OTOH, they charged me nothing for coffee (two urns, one decaf and one not) and nothing for my wife’s iced tea.
Food was up quick and hot, if unimaginative. Servings were big, as well as having the endless bread sticks and soup. At 70 years of age, something being endless or bottomless is less of an advantage than it used to be.
I haven’t eaten at a chain casual dining place in years. I’ve eaten at a lot of non-chain casual dining places (counting places that have two or three locations as non-chain) in the last year and a half. I can’t remember the last place that had single digit prices for a beer or glass of wine, never mind a cocktail or spirits. Prices are a lot higher than in 2019.
But I live and travel in the most expensive parts of the country (New England, NYC and SF Bay Area). Maybe other places a gin & tonic at $9 is pricey, but around here no one would be surprised if it was $11 without a “premium” spirit even.
It’s a total ripoff. When you figure that a quart of Bombay is about $22 on average (retail), and there are 39 shots in a quart, the bar is getting about $350 for that bottle. I don’t know how many bottles of booze a typical bar goes through in a night, but that seems excessive.
When I flew through Denver back in 2018, I stopped at a Mexican restaurant in the airport and spent $8 for what I thought was the world’s saddest margarita. It was served in a rocks glass so was very, very small for what I paid.
I’d be hardpressed to think of a reasonable place you could get a mixed drink for under $8, so $9 at Olive Garden is not a big deal. That’s typically what you pay for wine by the glass. What would you think a reasonable price for a G&T should be at a chain restaurant not known for liquor?
A restaurant tends to lose money in some areas, so they try to compensate with beer and liquor sales. So while it can be looked at as a “rip off,” it’s really just a survival mechanism for the business.
Same here, in Chicago. It’s been a few years since I’ve imbibed, but even pre-COVID, the average cocktail would run about $10 here. Looking at one of my usual watering holes now (which is a little bit more on the hip side), it’s $12-$15/cocktail. A shot of 1.5 oz Old Overholt (an inexpensive rye) is $7. Looking at a 2019 receipt I found online from Applebee’s a “Perfect Margarita” was $9 then (Rochester, MN location).
So, I wouldn’t bat an eye a $9 for G&T at a large chain restaurant. Now, you can probably find something in the $5-$7 range here if you go to more blue collar neighborhood bar around here, or if they have drink specials, but $8-$12 is what you’d expect from an average place.
Here in Southern California I can’t remember the last time I payed single digit prices for a cocktail (outside of happy hour). $12-$15 a cocktail sounds right.
If you are referring to the standard 750 ml bottle (we call it a fifth around here), there are 16 drinks worth in the bottle. The big 1.75 L bottle has 39…we call that a “half gallon” around these parts. Either way, they make money on those drinks.
$9 for a cocktail doesn’t seem excessive. Drinks have gone way up around here.
The retail cost of booze is almost irrelevant compared to the extortionate costs associated with a liquor license in most places. Restaurants may be greedy, but so are government liquor boards.
Around here, $9 is the minimum we expect to pay for a drink. I think G&Ts are $10 or $11. Something like a Manhattan or a Vieux Carré (if they can make it) is #12 or $13. A Grande Cadillac margarita (large, with higher-end ingredients) is only $9 ($8.95) during happy hour at the local Mexican place; so that’s not bad.
There is a new small breakfast place in town. Literally. I have to be careful to hit my head on the ceiling. Only game in town for breakfast. It might seat 20 people.
Two orders of Huevos Rancheros a diet coke and a coffee. $41 + $10 tip. It’s just sort of the way it is. It seems like restaurant prices jumped about 30% after Covid. I’m totally cool with it. Everyone deserves a living wage.
When we went to Hawaii for three weeks we didn’t experience any sticker shock.
Like everyone else, the other weekend when I was at a steakhouse, drinks were $14-$16. $9 sounds like where I’d expect a chain restaurant drink to land.
I have saved tens of thousands of dollars over my life by not caring for alcohol especially since I’m a foodie and a regular patron of music clubs. Shit’s expensive. That price seems about right to me. As someone already mentioned, liquor licenses are very expensive typically. They can be in the low six figures. It’s not that relevant to calculate the cost per shot in a bottle.
My exwife likes good wine and would normally have two glasses of wine with dinner. My next girlfriend also didn’t drink and I was amused at first how cheap dinner was now. When I get dinner with the exwife we split the bill and she pays the whole tip to compensate. We joke that I’m known as the asshole who doesn’t tip.
It’s just sort of the way it is. It seems like restaurant prices jumped about 30% after Covid. I’m totally cool with it. Everyone deserves a living wage.