Bar business suffering in January

[Sneakeater]

14 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

Perhaps more to the point, the average bar doesn't either. I am not talking about specialist bars here; I am talking about bars that make a Tanqueray martini with a splash of Dolin and charge me nine times what I could make it for at home.

There's an easy answer to that:  those bars aren't worth going to.

[Sneakeater]

12 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

I used to not notice this kind of thing, but I am still stung by having paid $60 for two martinis that were smaller and worse than I would make and some devilled eggs. (I think that included tip.)

You can buy 3.5 liters of name (not well) gin for less than that. The differential is staggering.

See my last post.

[Wilfrid]

We seem to be on completely different tracks here. I am comparing the price of bar-drinking with home-drinking based on roughly the same kind of drinks.

You are saying there are some bars that make such special drinks that they're worth paying for. Of course there are.

Unfortunately, my life, whether in New York or on the road, doesn't always deposit me in proximity to those bars.

[Sneakeater]

I just don't drink in those kinds of bars.  Really.  It's not like it's necessary.

[Sneakeater]

It's like if you go to a beer bar and all they have is Bud and Miller, you just leave, right?

[Sneakeater]

Like, when you go to an exhibition opening and they're giving away really shitty wine, you don't drink it, do you?

[Sneakeater]

And I mean, when they're giving out bad food, you don't eat that either, do you?

[Wilfrid]

Let me try once more.

Nobody wants to drink shitty drinks in shitty bars. 

What I am saying is that a perfectly competent, very strong and very cold and very well-made cocktail costs me nine or ten times more in a bar than at home.* That fact has been underlined for me, and doubtless for many other people, by the months bars were closed or only open in a limited way. 

*Two years and ten months since all the bars closed, I do make very good cocktails at home. I've had some practice.

[Sneakeater]

I guess I misunderstood.  Sorry. 

[Sneakeater]

Although TBH I still don’t see the point of going to bars whose drinks are merely competent. 

[joethefoodie]

I don’t mind going to bars where the drinks may be merely competent. I mean, i don’t go to a place like Jimmy’s Corner because I want a great cocktail. I go because it’s fucking Jimmy’s Corner!

[Sneakeater]

Yeah I don’t really do that.  But even then as you said you’re not going for the drinks, so whether the drinks (as opposed to the experience) are worth their price doesn’t come into play. 

[Sneakeater]

26 minutes ago, Sneakeater said:

Although TBH I still don’t see the point of going to bars whose drinks are merely competent. 

Of course Wilf is right that it’s different when you’re traveling.  

[Wilfrid]

27 minutes ago, Sneakeater said:

Although TBH I still don’t see the point of going to bars whose drinks are merely competent. 

Circumstances. You drink whatever cocktails at music venues. I've seen you. If I'm traveling on business, I am pretty good at looking up decent bars in advance of my trip, but if it's ten o'clock at night and I'm ready for bed, I'm going to take a chance on the hotel bar. 

As it happens, I am in a very good bar neighborhood right now, but I've certainly lived places where the only way to get a better-than-competent cocktail would be to get on a subway, and there's not always the time or inclination. 

[Sneakeater]

Yeah that’s what drinking at home is for.