Chicago Bar Sells $10 Cocktails, Staff Treated Like Financial Wizards
KEY POINTS
- •Nicole Yarovinsky and Joe Frillman designed The Radicle bar in Logan Square to keep cocktail prices at $10 despite rising costs.
- •They rely on a slightly higher pour cost target of 22% and include a 20% service charge to ensure staff earn a living wage.
- •Sustainability and in-house preparations help reduce ingredient costs, turning resourcefulness into a surprisingly affordable liquor lineup.
In 2025 Chicago's Logan Square went wild when The Radicle launched cocktails for a jaw-droppingly affordable $10, spearheaded by bar visionary Nicole Yarovinsky and Chef Joe Frillman, who once spent $600 on wine and a meal that didn't fill him. They bravely defied $20-$30 cocktail norms by juggling pricey Forty-dollar bottles like Monkey Shoulder and Diplomático Reserva amid homemade fig leaf cordials that cost less than $2 per 3-ounce drink. Pari passu, Radicle raised the pour cost target modestly to 22%, still industry-friendly, funded staff wages with a 20% service charge pooling into health, benefits, and camaraderie. Patrons sheepishly embraced adventurous cocktails named 'Rule of Three' after surviving sticker shock, turning cheap drinks into high-concept drinking therapy. Sustainability, once industry's luxury buzzword, became the secret sauce to under-$15 drink prices that somehow don’t starve the staff or haunt the bartender’s spreadsheet nightmares.
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(1 of 3)A $10 cocktail in pricey Chicago means juggling $23 Hendricks bottles and frozen fig tea while convincing bartenders they’re not underpaid miracle workers. Next up: internal KGB audits to track who stole the pour cost spreadsheets.
Here’s to charging $10 for drinks using bottles cheaper than your rent but still expecting bartenders to create magic without a wand or a decent paycheck.
When $10 cocktails come with $600 wine trauma stories and fig leaf tea kits, hospitality is really just midlife crisis cosplay with garnishes.
Source: Eater | Published: 4/6/2026 | Author: Liz Provencher
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