yeah but they made up for with your cover charge
Most people pay the cover and a few drinks. I’m a dead beat.
Hey, plenty of brunch places get away with mediocre eggs by selling bottomless mimosas. It’s a workable strategy.
Had a couple of these two weeks ago at Hotel Monteleone. $20 per drink, and I assume they knew how to make them. I enjoyed them.
I enjoy them too. But for a double-sawbuck I’ll make them at home! (Which I do anyway, since they’re hard to find here.)
Being a non-drinker, I can’t speak personally, but I looked around at some of our local medium-grade restaurants to find drink prices. Most of them don’t post prices, but one Mexican restaurant lists “specialty” margaritas (which is any margarita except Happy Hour) at $7.50-$15 for the smaller size. The OP’s price doesn’t seem out of line for a call brand (even Bombay) at dinner.
When I visited Iceland ten years ago, our hotel bar wanted $25 for a Manhattan.
On top of the hotel bar premium, there’s the “literally every single thing has to be flown to the island” surcharge.
When I used to drink, gin was my preferred poison. It has been some time, but Tanq, Beef, and Bombay were definitely call brands, and Sapphire definitely premium. (My budget preferences were Booth’s or Burnett’s. Especially if mixing it with tonic.) I find it curious that distilleries have offered so many “premium” products that yesterday’s top shelf is considered near the bottom.
But yeah, when I drank, I hated paying restaurant/bar prices. Would generally fill up before and after. Did most of my imbibing at home or in the homes of others.
It is actually 22-25 shots to a 750ml. Former Director of Catering & Convention Services, for one of the IHG properties in Austin…
750ml = 25.3 fluid ounces or .79 of a us quart.
But I concur with your point that he’s getting ripped off by Olive Garden…
Yeah, I knew that, but when I did a fact check the site I saw said “39”, which didn’t sound right, but the intertoobs never lie, right?
Also if he’d gotten the Bombay Blue Safire G&T at my hotel it would have been $13.00 drink at a banquet bar and a $14.75 drink at the hotels lobby bar… wholesale for a 750 of BB is about $28.00 if remember correctly…
Why are people surprised that restaurants charge a high profit margin on drinks, especially ‘called’ liquor? Liquor and overpriced appetizers are how restaurants make a profit, especially now when protein and fresh vegetable prices fluctuate so much that they are often losing money on entrees.
Stranger
A lot of bars and restaurants use liter bottles which throws off the math a bit. I’ve never got a good answer to why this size is so unusual for retail purchase but so common behind the bar.
Bingo!
I don’t know what would make them do that… well maybe they buy individual bottles and not buy by the case but that’s only reason I could think of… I always buy by the case… we got a slight discount for buying by the case. The bottles were all 750s… the only time we ordered “handles” was for margarita/ daiquiri machines at quinceaneras…
That was my thought as well. $9 for a Bombay Sapphire Gin & Tonic seems like a great price to me.
If allowed by the local authorities Darden might be getting a manufacturer rebate for using Bacardi brands … would not be surprising if other Bacardi products are being sold at a better price too at their other outlets like Long Horn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s, Eddie Vs, Yard House, Capital Grill, and many others.
I don’t know if they have Fernet Branca, but wouldn’t bet in it.
Iceland is the only place I’ve been where the local people go to the airport to buy booze at reduced prices.
I thought the local moonshine was not supposed to be hard to get a hold of, though I did not bring myself to try it and do not know the prices (going to be cheaper than ordering a bottle of wine in a restaurant, that’s for sure).