swimming anime posted:

This has come up before and it's a bit more complex but ultimately mind-boggling all around.

From the point of view of a bartender, terminology and ordering is very vague and nonstandard. it's different in every place. As an example of how we do things, the menu lists all of our spirits with a certain price. Say for example Bulleit Bourbon is listed as 10$. This is for a neat or rocks pour, which is two ounces for us. While for whiskey most people are drinking it that way, we'll always get people who look at the tequila menu, and then as for, say, 6 shots of Don Julio. The shotglasses aren't two ounces, so the price we charge is lower than what's listed. (Say, 8 dollars per shot instead of 12)

So basically the bar you went to assumes that most people who are ordering spirits are ordering shots, and thus lists everything on the menu at shot(1oz) prices, then upcharges for neat/rx pours. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to each strategy. The advantage of listing the shot prices is that it seems cheaper and so dumb drunk bros will be more willing to buy all their little buddies 10 shots. The disadvantage is pissing off people like you who are ordering neat but there's no indication anywhere that you'll be charged more. At my bar we list the higher price because it's just better service. Nobody will ever be upset to be charged less, but they will be upset to be charged more. There's plenty of ways that Smoke could make it better. List both prices in columns like DICKEL WITH MAPLE WOOD 8/10 with a header explaining... or having a "neat and rocks pours are such and such more" at the bottom of the menu or something like that. But menu design is hard and getting morons to understand what numbers mean is surprisingly hard, let alone drunk morons, so while you are totally right to be peeved at how they do things, understand that there are reasons and that likely for every comped drink they have to give you they probably sell 100$ extra patron with lime and salts.

E: Also understand that menu design is often done by people who are never on the floor, and confusing or lovely practices or design always just ends up being the service staff's problem. So try to be understanding if you can, as the poor server or bartender or manager might be getting yelled at over this multiple times a night, and the office manager who revises the menu once every six months will never know or care.