A little transcript from a rather heated little blog comment off Wandering Dumpling. I'd like to preface this with an apology to Boneta et al if it appears that I'm picking on you. I'm not, I'm just refuting the argument that cocktails are expensive because of the cost of inputs. They are expensive because we're willing to pay expensive prices for things that give us pleasure. You are pricing according to demand and willingness to pay, which is what any sensible business owner would do. What is annoying, however, are the copycat joints – which seems to be every new restaurant – that are charging $12+ for very, very ordinary cocktails that have very, very verbose names and ingredients.
Just to uninvitedly throw my two cents at the cocktail debate:
Coming from someone who bartended for too many years, there is a grand difference between a good bartender & a great bartender. I think great bartender is sufficient, but if you have a penchant for superfluous differentiation, then fine, let’s call them ‘mixologists’. I believe great bartenders or mixologists are artists. And just as any who paint for a living can call themselves artists, it doesn’t mean they are great artists. Mixologists or ‘great’ bartenders, as with great artists, are rare.
Now perhaps we are particularly blessed in Vancouver or there is something in our crystalline mountian water that correlates to liquor slinging virtuosity, or we have far too many bartenders who believe they are great artists. I suppose it is possible that we are living in a Renaissance of imbibition , which centuries from now will be talked about as the Golden Age of Muddling. Or what I think is more likely, we need to get over ourselves a bit. If you’re a bartender and make a delicious cocktail, well done, you’ve done your job. Stop admiring it, and make another one – this is also your job.
Although Paul’s point about higher costs of inputs demands higher drink prices is fair, the argument isn’t awfully sound for most drinks out there. We’re all rather innumerate, which allows even the most basic of drinks to be overpriced. We also equate stuff we’ve never heard of as being good/expensive. The $12 or $13 cocktail that Dumpling is talking about is usually protected by a clever process of making the most basic of ingredients sound rather special.
For instance, Boneta’s R.B.Y.C. Cocktail uses Flor de Cana Rum, Cointreau, lime juice and house-made falernum syrup. $12.
What is it? Nicaraguan Rum that is $1.30 more expensive per bottle than Bacardi – albeit much nicer (marginal cost/ounce = $0.96). Cointreau (mc/ounce = $1.34). Half a lime (mc =$0.13). Fancy sounding simple syrup that has extra flavour from spices like cloves and vanilla(mc = $0.01-$0.15).
Estimated cost per drink assuming 2oz of booze 3/4 rum to 1/4Cointreau proportions – very rough proportions as I’m no mixologist – $2.24-$2.39
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a perfectly nice drink. But you would have a lot more trouble charging $12 for a double Bacardi and lime juice, which has a very similar cost structure.
I don’t mean to pick on Boneta – I could easily do the same breakdown of drinks at places like Diamond, Refinery and George. I would also say that these places do make tasty cocktails. I’d just like to debunk the myth that premium cocktails in our city are priced on a cost plus basis. What’s far worse than paying a lot for a drink at a place like Boneta, is paying a lot for a drink at a place trying to be like Boneta, which is what I believe the Dumpling is referring to. The fact that almost every restaurant in the city now has a classic cocktail which is $12+ is a precedent that is absurd. Unless we are at the dawn of the Golden Age of Muddling, we should demand to be ripped off selectively rather than ubiquitously.
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A little transcript from a rather heated little blog comment off Wandering Dumpling. I'd like to preface this with an apology to Boneta et al if it appears that I'm picking on you. I'm not, I'm just refuting the argument that cocktails are expensive because of the cost of inputs. They are expensive because we're willing to pay expensive prices for things that give us pleasure. You are pricing according to demand and willingness to pay, which is what any sensible business owner would do. What is annoying, however, are the copycat joints – which seems to be every new restaurant – that are charging $12+ for very, very ordinary cocktails that have very, very verbose names and ingredients.
Just to uninvitedly throw my two cents at the cocktail debate:
Coming from someone who bartended for too many years, there is a grand difference between a good bartender & a great bartender. I think great bartender is sufficient, but if you have a penchant for superfluous differentiation, then fine, let’s call them ‘mixologists’. I believe great bartenders or mixologists are artists. And just as any who paint for a living can call themselves artists, it doesn’t mean they are great artists. Mixologists or ‘great’ bartenders, as with great artists, are rare.
Now perhaps we are particularly blessed in Vancouver or there is something in our crystalline mountian water that correlates to liquor slinging virtuosity, or we have far too many bartenders who believe they are great artists. I suppose it is possible that we are living in a Renaissance of imbibition , which centuries from now will be talked about as the Golden Age of Muddling. Or what I think is more likely, we need to get over ourselves a bit. If you’re a bartender and make a delicious cocktail, well done, you’ve done your job. Stop admiring it, and make another one – this is also your job.
Although Paul’s point about higher costs of inputs demands higher drink prices is fair, the argument isn’t awfully sound for most drinks out there. We’re all rather innumerate, which allows even the most basic of drinks to be overpriced. We also equate stuff we’ve never heard of as being good/expensive. The $12 or $13 cocktail that Dumpling is talking about is usually protected by a clever process of making the most basic of ingredients sound rather special.
For instance, Boneta’s R.B.Y.C. Cocktail uses Flor de Cana Rum, Cointreau, lime juice and house-made falernum syrup. $12.
What is it? Nicaraguan Rum that is $1.30 more expensive per bottle than Bacardi – albeit much nicer (marginal cost/ounce = $0.96). Cointreau (mc/ounce = $1.34). Half a lime (mc =$0.13). Fancy sounding simple syrup that has extra flavour from spices like cloves and vanilla(mc = $0.01-$0.15).
Estimated cost per drink assuming 2oz of booze 3/4 rum to 1/4Cointreau proportions – very rough proportions as I’m no mixologist – $2.24-$2.39
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a perfectly nice drink. But you would have a lot more trouble charging $12 for a double Bacardi and lime juice, which has a very similar cost structure.
I don’t mean to pick on Boneta – I could easily do the same breakdown of drinks at places like Diamond, Refinery and George. I would also say that these places do make tasty cocktails. I’d just like to debunk the myth that premium cocktails in our city are priced on a cost plus basis. What’s far worse than paying a lot for a drink at a place like Boneta, is paying a lot for a drink at a place trying to be like Boneta, which is what I believe the Dumpling is referring to. The fact that almost every restaurant in the city now has a classic cocktail which is $12+ is a precedent that is absurd. Unless we are at the dawn of the Golden Age of Muddling, we should demand to be ripped off selectively rather than ubiquitously.