If you go into a bar or restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages, you might notice signs indicating daily specials, with well drinks assigned one price and call drinks another. Most every adult is familiar with the term well drink, but call drink is a less recognizable term. It means a beverage where you say exactly what brand of alcohol you want, as opposed to well drinks, where you accept the cheapest version of the alcohol you desire in your cocktail or mixed drink (between which there is a world of difference).
Food Republic spoke with Will Patton, partner and beverage director of Press Club, a vinyl record-themed cocktail bar in Washington, D.C., about his preferences for calling out the brand of alcohol. “If I am ordering a negroni at a bar, I will normally call a gin that I am familiar with to make it easier for the bartender,” he told us. The reason it makes it easier for the bartender? They don’t have to guess what quality of spirit you want. Examples of ordering a call drink can be as simple as a Jack and Coke, as well as a Grey Goose martini, or a Tanqueray negroni.
When you should order a call drink
Of course, as with all things in life, there are times when you should choose one over the other. When should you specifically order a call drink? Will Patton told us that it depends on the bar: “I don’t want to judge a book by its cover, but if I see a plastic bottle in the rail, I’ll call from the back bar.” Plastic bottles, by the way, limit the shelf-life of the alcohol within, and can also leach chemicals that may affect the flavor; because of this, it’s highly unlikely that any top-shelf alcohols will be packaged in plastic — always in glass.
There is another instance where Patton prefers a call drink: “If [the bartenders] have something they like a lot, they can always recommend it, and most of the time I will take them up on it.” Chances are good the bartenders are not going to suggest bottom-shelf liquor, but instead their personal preference or a popular mid- to top-shelf brand. Of course, it’s important to keep your budget in mind because call drinks are almost always going to be more expensive than well drinks, especially restaurant cocktails.
