Mrs. Mix and I were out for dinner at Houston’s, a modestly upscale chain restaurant (sandwiches are $15-20, entrees $25-45). The hostess/greeter sat us, but when we balked at a table for a booth, it seemed she wanted to go above and beyond for the inconvenience and took our drink orders instead of the waiter, even though she seemed inexperienced. I might mention that we don’t appear hoity-toity by any means and were dressed in jeans with nice shirts/tops.
I ordered “an Old-Fashioned…with rye”; she feigned knowledge of the drink, but was obviously a little thrown…her only retort was “on-the-rocks?” to which I answered affirmatively. Had she asked me what brand of rye, I would have had to ask her what they have in stock (knowing she had no clue), as I’m only familiar with a few. So, easy way out, and I was fine with a well drink.
When the bill came, the drink rang up as $15 :smack:… The entry said “High West”.
Now I see High West isn’t even an upper-crust rye, so I suppose I should have complained. Even if it was though, is this now standard fare, whereby if the customer doesn’t specify bottom-shelf, he/she’s going to be taken for a ride?
Epilogue: the meal was OK, but even without counting the drinks, not worth the price. Don’t think we’ll be hurrying back.
FWIW, High West is a bit pricey. Last weekend I bought a bottle of High West Double Rye for $32, and a bottle of Old Overholt for $10.69. It could be that High West was the only rye they had. Even this far into the Rye Renaissance, I’ve found bars that don’t stock but one brand.
In DC, that would not be an outrageous price for a drink in a restaurant with those prices for entrees. Maybe $12 would be fairer, but its within the error of margin.
Plus, I googled High West. A fifth seems to go for $27-35 in stores, so I would not consider it a well whiskey.
Doper local to the High West Distillery checking in here.
I wouldn’t say High West is upper-crust, but they certainly have some individual whiskeys that are (the most expensive whiskey I’ve ever bought with my own money was a $95 bottle of their Midwinter Night’s Dram). However, the Double Rye that’s their mid-priced flagship is definitely not worth a $15 Old-Fashioned.
My guess is that you ended up with High West because they’re the only distillery around that deals pretty much exclusively in rye whiskeys, and all their bottles say RYE on the label real big.
The ONLY situation where I can see that being a little ambiguous is when one of those franchise restaurants has a cocktail menu where they list branded drinks (they must have a relationship with the beverage distributors), for example, a Bacardi Rum Runner. In that case, while I don’t think it is completely on the up-and-up, I could see a restaurant making the argument that if you order a Rum Runner, you are ordering what is on their menu.
Rye’s not my thing, so the following may be bunkum. But …
Is rye common enough now that a place like that would even have a well rye? Or would the situation with rye be more like, say, a liqueur, where the only version they have is the branded version and asking for “rye” amounts to asking for “the call brand of rye we happen to stock.”
I’m more of a scotch guy (Laphroaig 18 neat my good man!) and similar experiences were pretty common at the dawning of the single malt craze 20-ish years (!?) ago. You quickly learned to be very careful to ask exactly what they had & what they wanted for it.
The OP had a double opportunity for screw-up by ordering through somebody who he knew, or strongly suspected, was clueless about their actual stock.
Rye is the only whiskey I drink, given my druthers, and you have hit the nail on the head. The only places that have a well rye, in my experience, are places that specifically pride themselves on having an extensive whiskey selection.
In 99% of restaurants, specifying “rye” in your cocktail means “give me whatever rye you have,” and more likely means, “I understand that you don’t know what rye whiskey is, so go take a minute to ask the bartender if you have any, then let me know.”
High West is a pretty solid rye for a restaurant’s one bottle, though!
Ex bartender here. If you ask for Rye you’re going to get what you’re going to get. Rye is not in the “well”, it’s going to be a call at the very least. You should also expect that when you try to get fancy with a drink order your server is not going to know what the hell you are talking about, use small words and maybe show them a picture. In this instance you shot your own foot.
Yep, but the question comes in as to what that well liquor actually is. I mean, if you go to a regular place and order a well drink, you’ll probably get some kind of value brand- Sauza tequila, Jim Beam white as the bourbon, Smirnoff vodka, Gilbeys Gin, etc…
But if you go to a higher-end place or a dedicated cocktail bar, you may end up with well liquors that would be “call” liquors at other places.
For example:
But… High West is boutique enough to not be a well rye, unless it’s literally the only rye they had on hand.
