It’s only marginally more expensive compared to most Julian Cox-esque establishments ($15 vs $20) but about 100% more expensive compared to the next tier down (I think I paid $8 for a standard old fashioned @ Fat Dog)
I think its the price differential that’s the real kicker. I am really into cocktails, but my budget is more in the $10-12 drink range. The Walker Inn is very good, but is it twice as good? And that’s not including the fact that many of the good places in the $10-12 range have happy hours with drinks for $6-8.
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the kicker is they mark some of the drinks “low alcohol”
https://www.instagram.com/p/_f7NyOmwIPVv0RojzRa7J4_vB3JPggZqA0IMM0/?taken-by=sinosoul
(From my IG)
which is obviously the opposite of “much more booze”. so yes, one person can easily rack up a $100+ bill if you’re a serious drinker. i.e. when the new family doctor asks you “how much do you drink” and you answer with “do you mean daily, or weekly”?
the '16 “Alice Waters” menu looks redonk though:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBY-bdFJWqe/?taken-at=800409270
(jacked from someone else’s IG)
//edit for photo attrib
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too hardcore for my blood; thanks for the excellent info and pics.
I guess it depends upon whom we are talking about… the people going to the Walker Inn are the same people eating out at places like Bestia, Republique, etc… aren’t they?
The answer is yes. Walker Inn drinks are definitely at least 2x as good as any $10 cocktail I can think of having had. I would say more than 2x actually. I would say they’re even 2x as good as most $15 cocktails.
What are the good places with cocktails in the $10-$12 range with such low happy hours? I can only think of like, Osso, off the top of my head.
Some people like to go to Bestia/Republique, but can’t afford to do it all the time.
Ah fuck, I need to go again…
So omakase at the bar maens you can’t order Alice Waters stuff though right?
Well ok, but how is that different from the Walker Inn? If you’re hitting up the Walker Inn every single night, you’ll probably be dead in a month or two…
Speaking only for myself, I am willing to forgo more expensive drinks in order to eat at better restaurants.
I’m sure there are people who really love cocktails and feel the opposite.
Exactly! I am one of the opposite people. My SO and I go out for nice cocktails as a date 1) because we really love well-made and interesting cocktails and 2) because it’s much cheaper than going out for a meal at a place of similar quality.
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Using Megbeck as an example, a $5 price differential (ie Walker Inn vs Birch/Bestia) x 2 drinkers x 4 rounds = $40 on the night + tax/tip, multiplied by x number of date nights.
I’m okay with saving $40 and using that on lunch tomorrow.
As far as happy hours, BS Taqueria has $6 drinks at happy hour and Broken Spanish has $8 cocktails at happy hour. You’ll pay similar prices during happy hour at Redbird and if you are there on a week day, you can basically just sit and chat with Tobin Shea. Just recently hit up HH at Belcampo is Santa Monica and had a good experience as well.
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i love a drink, but 20 dollars is a little much compared to 15 or 16. i think i just paid about 17
in san diego, but that was on a rooftop in a mostly empty joint at sunset.
hell, the drinks at the hemingway bar at the paris ritz were amazing, but they still
weren’t worth no goddamn 45-50 bucks.
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Thanks @TonyC. I might’ve missed the thread, but why is Walker Inn so good? What’s their pedigree?
Just curious.
I had some great cocktails at Broken Spanish the other day. Classic margaritas (my favorite drink) and some other tasty concoction whose name and ingredients escape me.
The Walker Inn is a project from Death and Company in NYC. And they brought in very good east coast talent to get it going. Katie the bar manager came from running the program at The Hawthorne in Boston.
But I think what they are doing is more impressive than the pedigree. The drinks at Walker Inn, for me, are in a category with places like Canon in Seattle, The Aviary in Chicago, and Cafe ArtScience in Boston. These are drinks that are intellectually playful and have layers of complexity that create an experience within one drink (i.e. the drink changing in taste over the course of drinking it). Other places might try to do this, but it ends up gimmicky. Places like Walker Inn and the others I listed have the human capital to do it right.
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I went to Death & Co last May in NYC and loved the experience. Now I’m even more excited to try Walker Inn!
I went to Puzzle Bar in La Mirada tonight. On top of the fantastic whiskey selection, they make all of their bitters, cordials, and ginger beer. They also use organic herbs and spices, and hand carve the whiskey ice spheres. They love what they do and it shows. Cocktails were fantastic.
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