Lesson learned, aka take it like a man, Shorty

UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA:Redwood City, CA Icrontian
edited August 2009 in Food & Drink
I learned a thing today.

So I'm in New Orleans for SIGGRAPH 09. Nvidia threw a three stop bar crawl bash. Bandrik, Wahay, Genevieve, and our friend Camille went out. I owed Camille a drink, so we walked to the bar at the first stop.

They had sailor Jerry, this pleased me.

I decided to buy a jerry and coke for Camille, genevieve, and myself. Genevieve got hers as a triple. It's all good, it's SIGGRAPH, it's 'nawlens.

My tab comes back. $54.58. Fifty Four dollars. For three rum and cokes.

I don't care if that triple was a quad, you could never convince me that rum and cokes would cost that much.

Now, I don't make a ton of money, I save every bit I can. A tab like this though, I'm done spending money for the rest of this trip, it shut me down.

Fortunately for me, Camille is the take-no-crap type. She couldn't figure out why it was so dang expensive, and so we debated it with the bartender. We were fortuitous, for we talked the bill down to $30. :tim:

The bartender made a mistake, it seems she thought Camille's drink and my own were doubles. But still, that's irrelevant. For the price of the three rum and cokes I bought, I could have bought two bottles of Sailor jerry from a store.

I was glad to have gotten them drinks, but frick, sailor jerry spiced rum does not equate to any numbers that large.

So I learned a lesson. New Orleans is hella expensive, and you need to check drink prices before you throw down an order if your in unfamiliar territory.

Screw you, 'nawlens.

I can't be the only one who's amassed a huge tab from whatever number of reasons. Anyone have any stories from their own experiences of bar fail? I'd love to hear them, so my wallet doesn't feel quite as bad. misery, your name is wallet, and Misery loves company.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    I bought one $9 beer in Vegas and bailed on any alcohol that wasn't free for the remainder of my stay.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Alcohol's expensive regardless of where you go, my friend - especially when it comes to larger cities. Lesson learned :(
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Any city, any bar: $$$

    Just ask Pseudonym when he offered to pick up the bar tab for TheSMJ's 21st birthday...

    davebartab.jpg
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    I just never buy alcohol at a bar. Ever. I drink at my house or a friend's house or a hotel room or somewhere else where I can have a drink I bought at a grocery store. The mark-up at a bar is simply too high for me to justify.
  • AnnesAnnes Tripped Up by Libidos and Hubris Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    I tend to only drink at a bar during happy hour, or when there's a special.

    Also, I'm telling ya, Chart Room. Cheapest place to drink in New Orleans. Couple blocks off of Bourbon and quite enough to have a good conversation.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Lynx: Welcome to NOLA! Did you get yourself a true NOLA drink: The Hand Grenade? Then again, if you did, you wouldn't be able to respond to this for a couple of days.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited August 2009
    I had an $18 cranberry and vodka at the Bellagio in Vegas.....now that's depressing. It was a double shot of Belvedere, but still, $18?
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    I got a Johnnie Walker red neat for $6. A jerry and coke? ~9.

    I know cities are expensive. I've been barhopping at conventions plenty enough to know this already. Thought I just never expected such a simple drink to be racketed so high. With the exception of my $9 gin and tonic in LA, I've never seen prices this bad in cities. I found LA, San Diego, Chicago to not be nearly as bad. Maybe I just know the good places.

    I come to SIGGRAPH with the full intention of paying high for drinks. I get to hang out with some of my closest friends, many of whom I see but one week a year. We're generally in a new city, we always hit the street, try the local brews, whatever, so I plan on it.

    I just never plan on $54.

    Piggeh - I have not tried a hand grenade, though I see them all over. I did get Sazerac, which I can't get back home, and I was planning on trying absinthe, but after last night's roll out, I don't see that happening.

    and lol at Novac. classy move... so he thought.

    Oh, and I forgot all about chart room :/ If we find outselves back on Bourbon, I'll see to it that we get there. We need a place like that right about now.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Not only could you have bought 2 bottles of the sailor for that, if you find the right party store you could get 2 half-gallons of the sailor, not just fifths. As for bars, I find that if you look for the podunk hole-in-the-wall bars, you can usually get cheap(er) drinks.
  • SPIKE09SPIKE09 Scatland
    edited August 2009
    hooters in FT Lauderdale at spring break 2004, $150 for some fizz and wings, the wings were awful but the 14 year old dom perignon was pretty good. I expected some Mumm Cuvee napa not the real stuff:buck:
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    This is why college kids invented pregaming.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Went to mulligans in Stuart Fl on the river, Good thing I got plastered because when i woke up the next day had saw the receipt was 185 I about cried! I haven't had more than 1 drink at a time since!
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    If you make it back to San Diego, there's a bar we frequent near the beach that has $1 you-call-it from 6-9pm we'll visit. Don't worry about the tab, my treat :wink:
    UPSLynx wrote:
    I got a Johnnie Walker red neat for $6.

    My father and I crossed the country and stopped in 4 or 5 states, I can't remember. Everytime we stopped, he'd ask for a J&B 'neat'. None of the places we stopped at knew what the hell 'neat' meant.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Vegas was expensive for me, too. Four rum and cokes was over forty dollars in NY,NY.

    Took me a couple days to find the cheaper places. The one dollar margarita shots at the skeezy Bill's were effective and affordable.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    NiGHTS wrote:
    If you make it back to San Diego, there's a bar we frequent near the beach that has $1 you-call-it from 6-9pm we'll visit. Don't worry about the tab, my treat :wink:

    Deal!

    Also, ordering neat is something I've only recently started doing, because I was n00b before :/

    But now I know, and knowing is half the battle. The other half? 25% red lazers and 25% blue lazers.

    There are cheap places here in New Orleans, we just keep partying at the expensive places because that's where the company venues are.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Oh, go to Janita's and if they ask you how you heard about, mention that you have a friend in Tallahassee that told you (the owner and head cook are from tally). Also, I am trying to get a hold of my friend who owns an Absinthe bar in NOLA, I'm pretty sure she would hook y'all up big time.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    pigflipper wrote:
    Also, I am trying to get a hold of my friend who owns an Absinthe bar in NOLA, I'm pretty sure she would hook y'all up big time.

    If you hear anything, lemmie know. Tonights our last night here, that might be worth checking out! Text me, my number is on my facebook
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    I can't get ahold of her and I don't know the name of the place so you could walk in and name drop to alcoholic oblivion, sorry.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Stay away from the touristy places where their motto is "We'll never see you again so bendovah"! Really some of the managers will admit that to you even if you complain about the cooking. Ask the locals where they go.
    For food my favorite place is Cresent City Bar where they make their own beer ...cheaper but don't complain or they'll tell you like it is.
    Also, my absolute most favorite restaurants are in Fat City. Drago's Seafood Restaraunt has the original grilled oysters on the half shell for appetizer. Most other restaurants only copy them and aren't quite as good.
    After that cross the street to Crazy Johnny's Seafood and Steakhouse. I prefer the BBQ Jumbo Gulf Shrimp (absolute largest shrimp on earth!) with dippin' french garlic bread (probably Joe Gambino's)and the Crawfish Pirogue is also good if you want to switch off. These are some of the few places outside of my home area where seafood is well prepared.
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    Haha, I love that you have that receipt saved!

    I always hate buying liquor at expensive bars, the markup is ridiculous. It does however, make me want to own a place like that.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    CS, Drago's is the top of my list. I have a customer in NOLA. Every time that i am there I take he and his wife out to dinner. Drago's is the place, and these people eat there enough that they worship her when she walks in. Nothing better.

    Expensive booze? You guys don't know the meaning. Try buying good stuff in Tokyo or Delhi. $25-30 a drink is typical. That is why I buy JW Gold or Green in duty free, $50 for a 1 liter bottle.
Sign In or Register to comment.