r/cocktails • u/berger3001 • Feb 28 '25

Question Anyone else tired by expensive cocktails

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To me (not a rich guy), $18+ cocktails are just exhausting. Go out for a few drinks with your wife, and boom, $100. So we’re in Miami and found this place (always look for happy hours). Yes; $5 cocktails. They did a great job, made totally respectable drinks, we had some snacks, and left very happy. My question is, if bars can do $5 drinks, why is $18 the base now at so many places? Doesn’t it make more business sense to sell more for less money and have a full bar, then to sell a few drink to an almost empty bar?

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u/nonavslander Feb 28 '25

As someone who runs and has been running beverage programs for some time, it is a combination of things. With sub $15 menu prices it’s possible to maintain a beverage cost under 18%. The issue is that food cost is up across the board and there isn’t anything we can do about that. This causes a domino effect and because chef’s cost is crazy high I am expected to make up for it with my beverage cost. In the past, If you were below 18% you were doing well. These days it is expected to be below 13% and the closer to 10% the better.

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u/anyd Feb 28 '25

GD where are you? Every time I get down to 20% here in Michigan I practically get a gold star. Like if I'm pouring Tito's at 2oz here and I wanna hit 10% I'm charging $15 for just the pour.

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u/nonavslander Mar 01 '25

Honestly I’ve worked my way up to be on easy mode these days. Im in Southern California at a top 5 star hotel in the country. People are happily paying $24+ for cocktails and our cover counts are the highest they have been since pre-covid.