Cheap Drinks to Order at a Bar, From Someone Who Used to Price the Menu

The cheapest drink in any bar is a well highball. One pour of house liquor. Mixer from the soda gun. A lime if you’re lucky. I set drink prices at a neighborhood bar for three years, and that math never moved.

Everything else costs more for a reason. Learn the reasons and twenty bucks goes a lot further.

Where the money goes

Bars price drinks off pour cost. That’s the liquor in your glass. Coke, tonic, soda water and Sprite come out of the gun for pennies a glass. They barely count.

So two things push a price up. How many bottles the bartender touches, and what those bottles cost. A vodka soda touches one cheap bottle. A Long Island touches five.

Labor counts too. Limes squeezed to order. A shaker that needs washing. Garnishes somebody cut by hand at four in the afternoon. You pay for that time, and nobody’s ripping you off.

Learn the word “well”

The well is the rail of bottles down at the bartender’s knees. House vodka, gin, rum, tequila, whiskey. The cheapest liquor in the building.

Say “vodka soda” and you get well vodka. Say “Tito’s soda” and you just ordered a call drink. That usually adds a couple of dollars, and it adds them every round.

Don’t write the well off, though. Ask what’s in it. A lot of bars pour a perfectly good house gin. One place I worked had a well bourbon that beat two of the bottles on the back bar. Nobody ever asked. So nobody knew.

Same logic works at home. Four decent bottles and a fridge full of mixers will cover thirty drinks, which is the whole idea behind our cocktails on a budget list. I keep my own shelf in CocktailBuilder so I stop buying bottles I don’t need.

My go-to cheap orders

All of these are one pour plus a mixer. Any bartender alive can build them in ten seconds.

Vodka Soda. Vodka, soda water, a squeeze of lime. Usually the cheapest thing on the board.
Gin and Tonic. Best value in the bar if the house gin is decent.
Cuba Libre. Rum, Coke, lime. Just say “rum and Coke” and ask for the lime.
Screwdriver. Vodka and orange juice. Fine from a carton.
Seven and Seven. Seagram’s 7 and 7-Up. Old school. Still on every rail I ever worked.

A few more cost the same and get less love. The Vodka Tonic tastes like more of a drink than a vodka soda because tonic brings its own bitter and sweet. A Vodka Cranberry is the bar’s default for a reason. Our Whiskey Ginger calls for ginger beer, but most bars hit it with ginger ale from the gun. Fine either way. And a Greyhound is just vodka and grapefruit juice. Salt the rim and it’s a Salty Dog for the same money.

Cheap tequila drinks

Tequila is where people overspend. The menu pushes a fourteen-dollar margarita and people just take it.

A well tequila highball costs what a vodka soda costs. Ask for tequila soda with extra lime. Or tequila with grapefruit soda, which is basically a Paloma. If they’ve got Squirt or Jarritos in the cooler, great. If it’s only the gun, tequila and Sprite with a lot of lime gets you close enough.

The Tequila Sunrise is cheap too. One pour of tequila, orange juice, and grenadine sinking to the bottom. Looks like it cost a lot more. It’s on our list of sweet drinks to order at a bar for the same reason.

Margaritas are the tricky one. The well version is tequila, triple sec and sour mix, and it’s cheap. The fresh version is Cointreau plus hand-squeezed lime, which means two pricier pours and real labor. Drink whichever one you like. Just know which one you’re paying for.

Why a Long Island costs what it does

Somebody asked me this every Thursday. “Twelve bucks? It’s iced tea.”

It has no tea in it. Our Long Island Iced Tea pours three-quarters of an ounce each of vodka, gin, light rum and tequila. Then an ounce of triple sec. Then sour mix and a splash of cola for color. That’s four ounces of booze. A normal highball has an ounce and a half.

So per ounce of liquor it’s no ripoff. Might be the best booze-per-dollar on the whole menu. It’s also why I’ve watched it flatten grown men who “only had two.” Want cheap and also want to remember the cab ride? Two highballs beat one Long Island.

Happy hour, beer, and the stuff that sneaks onto the tab

Happy hour is the obvious play. Usually that’s well drinks, house wine and domestic drafts knocked down for a couple of hours. Some bars run a late one too. Ask. Bartenders don’t always volunteer it.

Beer is the quiet winner. A domestic draft or a can of the local cheap stuff is often the lowest price on the board. Shot-and-beer combos are cheaper still. That pairing is a Boilermaker, whiskey and a beer, and plenty of dives sell the two together for one price.

Then there’s the stuff that quietly costs more. “Neat” or “up” often means a bigger pour and a bigger price. Red Bull costs the bar real money per can, so it costs you too. Doubles depend on the house. Some charge less than two singles and some charge exactly two. Ask once and you’ll know for the night.

What to say at the rail

Spirit first, then mixer. “Vodka soda, lime.” “Gin and tonic.” “Rum and Coke.” Done.

Asking the price is fine. Nobody behind a bar minds “What’s your cheapest beer?” I’d much rather answer that than watch someone flinch at the tab.

Skip “make it strong.” Every bartender hears it as “I’d like to pay for a single and drink a double.” If you want more booze, order a double and pay for it. Or just drink the Long Island and accept your fate.

One last one. Don’t order a cheap drink by its fancy name in a busy dive. “Paloma” might get you a blank look. “Tequila and grapefruit soda” never will.

Last modified on October 19, 2026