Here’s a page from my website 
Hope it’s alright to post a link here.
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Scoma’s is a good tourist trap for me, with good food.
My family is from the East Bay, and our friends in the sleepy burbs use Scoma’s as an anniversary restaurant.
Tourist trap isn’t always a bad thing for me.
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I am actually ok with what you’re paying for Eggs Bennie or the latte/breakfast sandwich as I know food prices have gotten crazy. But a $14 dollar mid-shelf Manhattan is a 467% markup at supermarket prices (and more likely 700+% based on what bars/restaurants pay for it). Moreover… the market price of bottom to mid shelf spirits have not changed much within the last 10 years (in fact, many have gotten cheaper). So a $7 cocktail of ten years ago is now $14. This seems more about what the market will bear, based on/opposed to the increased prices of good food.
So to me, it says they are looking to extract every dollar from my wallet they can rather than a quality product at a fair price. I get that the restaurant bar has always been a cash cow, but the absurdity of current pricing over the last few years has me avoiding them. When I can cook a meal and serve cocktails to guests for less than my restaurant bar tab would be… and have a billiard table, along with a state of the art music system adjacent to my kitchen island bar, why go out? (c;
Booze in liquor stores costs a lot more in Canada, than it costs in the States, so a $14 Manhattan is not a 400 % markup.
I live alone - I go out to see people.
I don’t drink at home unless I have company. I haven’t had a party since Nov 2018- so I’ve basically only had cocktails when I’m out. On a patio the past 24 months.
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So sorry to hear that… but you get free health care, right. (c;
Just curious… I love Canadian whiskey, does it cost less in the U.S. than Canada?
I thought this was apropos given we are talking about tourist traps …
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Yes, it costs less in the States. Your taxes don’t pay for healthcare, education, roads and other stuff our taxes are set up to pay for. So you get cheaper booze and smokes.
13.5 percent sales tax on chocolate milk, soda, chips, nuggets up here in Ontario .
Our $14 Manhattans also tend to be weak compared to what gets served in the States. Bartenders don’t free pour here. 1.5 ounces of booze per cocktail up here.
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Wow… a $14 1.5oz Manhattan is crazy. BTW… unless you pay double for rye/bourbon than we do, it is definitely 400+% markup.
I live alone too. Invite those folks over for an amazing meal, cocktails and more. If you make it they will come. (c;
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I have an immune condition so I can only meet people outside.
I organize meet-ups, and meet up with people outside. The last social I organized was a cookie exchange last Dec. One dude who posts here occasionally even receives vegetables from my garden.
I like driving the economy and helping local businesses, so I’m not complaining about the prices!
I’m okay with the patio premium! 
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Wow… with the exception of the bitters, those are indeed almost double what I pay. )c:
Outside is good too… especially BBQ and grilled!
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For those old enough to remember, Mamma Leone’s in NYC was the definition of a tourist trap.
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The old Tavern on the Green in NYC comes to mind, although I liked the food & found the whole thing mesmerizing, TBH (full disclosure: I was with my GF & only 25 or so 
).
Being currently in Lisboa, I don’t understand the folks who eat at exactly these places smack dab in the middle of the main drag. I mean… there are pictures of the food on display. Yikes.
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FWIW, in the UK, both the Martini Rosso and the Bitters are priced at £10 in my normal supermarket
Or 15.87 CDN and 12.28 USD
Maybe my whole country is a tourist trap.
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Always a bad sign.
FWIW, the food at my favourite Sichuan restaurant in Chinatown deteriorated at the same time they started putting pictures on the menu.
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And why are the pictures always so very, very bad? My iphone takes food pics that are, quite frankly, often print-worthy – thank goodness for tekkmollogy’s progress, cuz it sure as hell ain’t my talent 
None of these “advertisements” are ever appealing.
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Yes, and definitely meets my criterion of being Disneyfied. Although I did like that you got an entire pound of free mozzarella with the bread basket.
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Wait. I don’t think that’s right. I believe in California, taxes on booze and smokes actually pay for some education and healthcare. I could be wrong. But I don’t think so ( From Monk!).
Which taxes are we talking about? Federal? State? County? City? Property? Sales? Nevermind. Probably getting political.
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It is, but our taxes most definitely pay for education and roads.
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Edited to say…How about this weather? Oops. Maybe also political.
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I’m generalizing, and I’m not American. ( I have no idea how your taxes work- sorry for anything I got wrong)
I’m sure some of your taxes go towards health, state schools, etc.
There’s both provincial and federal sales tax on booze, cigarettes, junk food, processed foods up here. And gasoline.
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