Rachel's Fabulous Flaming "Happy Hour"
How much would you pay for a margarita? Back in my day, we'd congregate at El Sombrero in the LES & blow our paychecks on crack margaritas. I don’t know...what did they cost in 2003 LES dollars? $25 a pitcher? Whatever it was, no biggie. They had crack in them & you could get them to go in a Styrofoam cup.
I'm almost 40 now. El Sombrero has closed. These days in Park Slope, the equivalent is Rachel's...I guess. The lady friend, a mutual friend & a few other acquaintances have spent many day-off late afternoons/early evenings enjoying cheap, apparently potent margaritas beneath the tacky ass flames of Rachel's signage.
A week or so back, the aforementioned mutual friend had SHOCKING news to report...Rachel's had raised the price of EVERY SINGLE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE ON THE MENU. Bottles of Corona were now $11. Margaritas now ranged from $10-$13. To say the least, she was incensed.
I called bullshit. While mutual friend is a longtime friend, she occasionally fails to get the whole story. I turned to recent Yelp reviews. Big S. wrote "This place is just sort of weird. Why are bottles of beer $11 dollars unless you have a coupon in a cheap texmex joint?" Liz B. noted that "So.... There's really no $4 margaritas despite the huge sign that's permanently fixed above the entrance. However, the bartender seemed to take pity on us and give us $5 drink tickets that made our $10 margaritas half price... close enough.”