Yvonne's wants $20 for a gin cocktail. Trophy Room in the South End wants $15 for most of its signatures. Some are $14. Neither number is a scandal. The question is what the extra five dollars buys, and the menus answer it if you read past the prices.
Sometimes the premium is the work: clarified milk, a nitrogen infusion, a syrup made in the back. Sometimes it is the chandelier. Every price below comes from the venue's own posted menu, and where a place posts no price we say so and stop there. Menus change, so treat these as a snapshot from the checked date at the top.
What you are actually paying for
A beer is a product. A cocktail is a product plus labor, and the labor is the bit that varies. In our own Beer Index data (checked on the date at the top), the typical standard beer is $9 across 51 bars. A cocktail at the bars below is a multiple of that, which is why the question of whether it is worth it deserves a real answer instead of a shrug.
Our rule of thumb, and it is only ours: pay more when the drink needs skill you cannot do at home, and pay less when the price is mostly the view. Yvonne's lists a bourbon drink with clarified milk in it. Hecate marks drinks as nitrogen-infused. That is work you can see on the page.
Alibi: the Jail Bar at the lower end of serious
Alibi Bar and Lounge sits inside the historic Charles Street Jail, and it plays the theme hard. Its large-format drinks are an upgrade that serves 2 to 3 inmates. Its menu lists a house signature, Folsom, at the cheaper end. Most of the signature list runs a little higher, with Guilty as Charged among the espresso martinis.
Alibi also posts a zero-proof section, with an Elmira at $16 the same price as the booze. The room's own homepage gives its Friday and Saturday hours, which makes it one of the later rooms on this page.
Our opinion: it is the best price on this page for a themed room, and the theme is the point. Go for a group, for the novelty and for the setting. Do not go for a quiet two-person conversation.
Yvonne's: the expensive one that earns it, mostly
Yvonne's charges the most on this page, and does not pretend otherwise. A cocktail like the Le Magritte sits in the middle of its main list. Its favorites section is a bit gentler, and a drink like the Passion Fruit Mule is the way in.
Spirit-free drinks get their own section, with the Lilikoi a few dollars under the cocktails.
In our arithmetic two cocktails at $20 each come to $40 before tip. Put that next to the budget nights in our night-costs guide before you decide. Our opinion: this is a once-a-month room, a date or a promotion, and the Passion Fruit Mule is the smart order if you want the room without the full price.
Trophy Room: the value pick that most lists skip
Trophy Room in the South End is not a craft cocktail room, and it does not price like one, which is exactly why it belongs here. Its menu lists the Trophy Sangria at the low end. Signature cocktails run from $14 to $15 in our reading of the same page. A smoky finish is on offer for any cocktail. Its spirit-free drinks are $ 7, half the price of a signature.
Our opinion: you give up the clarified milk and keep five dollars a drink. For a second round, that is the right trade.
Hecate and Offsuit: the rooms that post no price
Hecate lists its cocktails by ingredient, with lines such as nitrogen-infused drinks, and the posted page shows no price at all. We will not guess. It lists its opening hours.
Offsuit posts no cocktail prices on its home page either. What it does post is a promise of no password and no dress code. It also says it offers reservations every night and takes walk-ins.
For both, ask the price before you sit. A menu without prices is not hiding anything sinister, but it is not doing you any favours either.
How to read a cocktail menu before you sit
You can tell a lot from the page. A short list with a house syrup in every second line means the bar makes things. A long list of famous spirits with a splash of juice means the price is the brand.
Look at the zero-proof list too. A bar that charges the same for a zero-proof drink as for a spirit drink is telling you the labor is the product. Alibi does exactly that: its zero-proof Macarena is $16, priced like the cocktails around it. Yvonne's and Trophy Room charge less for theirs, which is the friendlier deal if you are not drinking.
Look at the glass, the ice and the garnish when the first drink arrives. And order a house classic once, an old fashioned or a daiquiri, because that is the drink a bartender cannot hide behind a list of ingredients. One good drink tells you more than three average ones.
Reservations, in one paragraph
Alibi puts a Reserve a Table link on its homepage, and Offsuit takes bookings as well as walk-ins. Our advice: book if you are four or more, or if it is a Friday, and walk in early on a weeknight. Our bar ID and cover guide covers what you need at the door.
What to do with this
- For a group and a story, go to Alibi.
- For a date that has to land, go to Yvonne's and order carefully.
- For a good drink at a fair price, go to Trophy Room.
- For the craft rooms, call ahead for prices and a seat.
Whichever you pick, set the ride home before you order. The Last Train page shows the live times, and the Eat Late page lists kitchens that stay open after the cocktail rooms thin out. If you are skipping alcohol tonight, our no-alcohol nights guide has more.
Why the bars close when they do is in why Boston closes at 2 AM. Why a discounted round is hard to find is in the happy hour ban explained.