At least in New Jersey, it is. Speaking as a person who paid $10.00 for an espresso martini last night, this article resonated with me:
Where Do Cocktail Prices Come From?
link via Maggie’s Farm, always my first read of the day
And I had that espresso martini in a burger joint in Bumville, NJ not in a swanky Manhattan lounge. I used my unofficial and uncredentialed but avidly pursued status as a Booze Detector to determine that there was precious little actual booze in the thing, if any at all.
That’s what I get for veering from my usual practice of ordering drinks made from nothing except booze and ice. Here’s last night’s photo of the boozeless $10.00 concoction.
We continue to go to that place because:
- Sami thinks they have the best burgers in NJ
- They make a Sweet Rob Roy on the rocks exactly as it should be and they do it without needing an explanation from us.
- It’s on our drive home from Philadelphia
Lesson learned. From now on, it’s an extra dry gin martini straight up in the approximate vicinity of a big green olive speared on a plastic cocktail stirrer. Maybe a bottled beer once in a while.
Cripes Suzette 
Seems to me that you can get a bigger malt for cheaper.
Pretty cheap and relatively sin free at the weakness of these cocktails.
Unless you mean the burgers in which case well yea! But worth it.
Beer. Drink beer (the good stuff though). Most good bears are well under $10 and you know it can’t be goofed up. 🙂
Good Bears under $10 are hard to find, eh Boo Boo? ;-D