ZACKLY.
1 Like
I am so glad that I don’t really like wine, beer or alcohol. We may occasionally have a cocktail, but mostly not. It definitely adds up.
Boy, does it ever.
Unfortunately, we love wine, cocktails, and the occasional beer (mostly while in Berlin, tho), and a meal without it would be lacking for us. Funny, cuz we rarely have booze with dinner at home — we usually have it afterwards.
Coming in a bit late but in addition to high prices (ok its SF already) - we get hit with anywhere between a 6%-20% (yes really) service charge often also calculated on the 9% sales tax…all for giving food service workers their fair share- but they are currently making $20/hr “min wage”.
Their “employers” (eg restaurant investors) dont feel its their responsibility to provide for their employees.
Big revolt came on, lost despite a majority popular vote bc politicians surrender for the restaurant investors lobby.
That is always the case in the UK. Value Added Tax (similar to a US sales tax) at 20% is always incorporated into a published price, including menu prices. Service charges - usually 10 - 12.5% - are calculated on the full price.
Same. VAT (currently 19%) is always included in the prices.
I remember when you visited Toronto.
I think, the first night I dined with you, the booze was roughly half the cost of the total bill at Nana Thai, then we went for cocktails. The next night, I don’t think Fat Lamb Kouzina where we had dinner served booze. We went to Noorden, owned by a former Chowhound (who owns Little Sister, Noorden has closed), where the Dutch cocktails cost more than the family-style Greek dinner at Fat Lamb Kouzina had cost. Then onto The Oxley Pub where there were more cocktails, or maybe some Scotch. The food bill was lower than the booze bill those 2 nights. I remember you thought the drinks in Toronto were weak. And you’re right. They are weak and small pours relative to many other places.
I spend a lot more on chocolate and coffee than I spend on booze. 
4 Likes
I think that is a very fair characterization of BXL. The pictures make it look nicer than I think it is though I’ve only been at night when it is not so bright. More towards the divey end. On the divey side, when the city had first fully reopened after the Covid closures, I went there with a couple of other guys. We were at the bar drinking pints of beer. After the first round, the barkeep asked if we wanted another round. We said yes. So he took all our glasses and refilled the same glasses under the tap. Then he grabbed the metal bar that he used to wipe off the excess foam and swiped all our glasses at once and handed the pint glasses back to us. No way to know who got which glass back. We all toasted and said here’s to getting Covid again! Did that several times. 
3 Likes
You can tell it’s not a dive because of the metal swipe thing. A real dive doesn’t use those. That’s how you know it is just a step above.
Ok fair point. But it’s pretty divey to reuse glasses for a group where you don’t know who got which glass back.
3 Likes
I spend far more on booze than anything else that passes my lips. I know as the year end spending recaps I get from Amex shows me how much I spend on booze. I wish they would stop doing that. Makes it look like I have a problem.
4 Likes
It’s virtually criminal to do it in a pandemic.
3 Likes
I don’t drink much – I rarely order a cocktail – which keeps the price down. I live in a Bay Area suburb, and prices indeed have crept up, from entrees in the upper $20s to mid $30s before the pandemic, to mid $30s to mid $40s now. It still shocks me to see entrees in the $40s for a place that’s nice but not “fancy.”
Usually when we go out to a “European” restaurant someone else is paying, but if I’m paying, I’d probably try to keep it to $80/person. On the other hand, I racked up a bill of almost $100 at a hole in the wall Chinese place last night – that was enough food for four people, and some leftovers, but still seemed like a lot.
4 Likes
I recall a business meal in Sweden - the booze wa$ 2x the food…
and the food wasn’t cheap!
Huh. I’m thinking this piece was AI generated…
Same here. And when I did go out for a sit down lunch in a neighborhood bar and grill this summer, it was like I’d been pulled out of a coma and hurtled to some place 20 years in the future. I think the bill for the 2 of us, with a beer apiece, was close to $80. McDonald’s was a big shock, too.
2 Likes
On the other hand we have been eating out throughout the pandemic whenever it was allowed. Left NYC early on and headed out west where things never shut down. What a waste that was. Came back to NYC just as restaurants were reopening. So I have been seeing the rising prices all along the way across the country.
Dining out costs more but what has actually shocked me is the cost of eating in. Now that the various delivery apps all need to make money, they no longer subsidize delivery. With the various fees, add ons and tip, I am finding delivery orders are regularly pushing $100 or more now.
I have had takeout delivered 3 time in the last 5 years, so I can’t compare. Have done a lot of grocery delivery, though, and it’s definitely an indulgence. Of course, I tip generously, certainly more that what it would cost me to go myself. During the worst of the pandemic, it was a question of trying to ensure that I didn’t get sick, and I was grateful.
I’ve been recent7 tempted to do meal delivery, but it makes no sense for me.
