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.
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?
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.
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.
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)
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.
Around here that’s called “pregaming” - start at home so you don’t spend so much out.
Pregaming. That’s definately a word that’s going into my vocabulary!
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.
OK where do you work because I’m coming over.
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.
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.
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…
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!
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.
Pints (14 oz.) are $4.25 at our favorite brewpub - Russian River. 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.
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.