Photo by JP Valery/Unsplash
Audio By Carbonatix
We’ve all been there: It’s Friday night, and your friend suggests grabbing a quick bite before you head to the bar with your full crew. You go for it, snagging a last-minute reservation at whatever Bib Gourmand restaurant you can manage to get.
By the time you’re seated and the waiter tells the group that they serve “shared plates” that come out of the kitchen “as they’re ready,” you’re emotionally preparing to pay at least $60 per person, excluding drinks, and still leave hungry. Of course, you have a drink, so your part of the bill comes to $95, including tip.
Then the group makes its way to a “speakeasy,” which means you’ll be sipping on $20 cocktails. (Remember when you could get a $4 beer at Zeke’s Roadhouse on Lincoln Road?) You limit yourself to two drinks because rent is due next week, but the bill still comes out to $55.
But the night’s not done. The group wants to go dancing, so you take an Uber to whatever Wynwood nightclub everyone agrees on. Nobody knows anyone at the door, you get stuck paying a $20 cover charge to listen to a DJ butcher Bad Bunny’s music catalog as you sip on a watered-down rum and Coke that costs $15.
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It’s not exactly news that going out with your friends in Miami is pricey, but a survey by online casino JB affirms the sentiment. In fact, the platform concluded that Miami is the most expensive city to go out with friends. It arrived at that conclusion by calculating that the average local has a monthly disposable income of $237, but spends $278 on social activities — a differential JB calls the “friendship affordability ratio.” Miami’s came in at 117 percent.
Coming in second on the list is, no surprise, New York, with an affordability ratio of 86 percent. Honolulu (73 percent), Los Angeles (59 percent), and Portland, Maine (27 percent) rounded out the top five. Yes, that means Miami is the only city on the list where you go broke to have a social life — possibly the most Miami news we’ve heard all year.
Other interesting facts JB uncovered: Miamians pay an average of $3,850 in rent, while dinner at a typical Miami restaurant costs $30. (Which restaurant is that? Even a McDonald’s meal creeps close to $20 these days.) JB also claims the average drink price in Miami is $9, and that “even grabbing coffee here costs more than $5,” leading many to skip social plans in favor of saving a few bucks. FOMO
