This article got me thinking - I don’t go out for great drinks, I make great drinks and go out to go out. I wouldn’t buy a $45 cocktail, I’d buy the two expensive bottles and recreate it if I wanted it! I like a good drink but beyond good I don’t value a better one more somehow.
But at a restaurant I generally expect great food; I don’t go out to eat just to go out, I value the great food and will pay more for better.
What do you expect at a cocktail bar, and would you pay $45 for something that was ‘worth’ $45 in some way?
I paid probably $45 for a specialty cocktail in Disney World in the Star Wars bar, but it came with a souvenir glass. $25 is probably my limit for just a drink, but even that has to be an “experience” like the above bar.
I wouldn’t pay $40+ for a drink. Especially a martini, there’s not a perceptible increase in quality of ingredients to justify that price. I go to a cocktail bar for drinks that suck to make at home, tiki drinks, obscure liquors, house made syrups, blended drinks.