A bottle of Grey Goose vodka, for example, costs about $28 in the stores. A corner bar might sell the 17 shots in the bottle for about $6 apiece, for a total of $102. Clubs such as The Underground and Manor sell a single bottle for $280 or $300, and at most high-end clubs, having a table means you’re committing to buy two or three bottles of alcohol at that price, which doesn’t include tax or tip. “An average table at a club on the weekend will run you about $700 to $800,” says Ryan Preuett, who used to be with Reserve, a trendsetter in Chicago’s bottle-service business. “Some nights are even higher,” he adds, referring to special events such as celebrity DJ appearances. (Preuett is now director of marketing for Gibsons Restaurant Group.)

The priciest of the pricey bottles are in another league entirely. At several top clubs, a rare Champagne is the most expensive bottle available, reflecting Illinois’s taste for the bubbly—the state is second (to California) in sparkling wine consumption, despite being sixth in total number of drinkers. At The Underground, a Marc Newson Limited Edition Dom Pérignon sets the mark at $2,500. At Stone Lotus, a Dom Pérignon Oenothèque is $3,500. At Manor, a Dom Pérignon White Gold jeroboam is $35,000—the most expensive bottle in Chicago. These prices have led to some eye-popping bills. The Underground’s self-reported highest-ever tab was $7,000; at Stone Lotus, $11,000; at Manor, $29,000.

The heady bottle-service prices include a leggy server who might shine your shoes, and sides like Red Bull and cranberry juice. Even with the extras, it’s still a hefty price tag for a weekly night out—and you don’t even want to think about what it comes to if you multiply by 52.

Photograph: Chris Guillen

By the Numbers

In spite of (or maybe because of) the high prices out on the town, Illinoisans’ consumption of alcohol is about average for the country. With the sixth-highest population of legal drinkers, Illinois ranks sixth in total beer consumption, sixth for wine, and fifth for distilled spirits. Here’s how we compare with some other states and the country as a whole on a per capita basis. Total consumption figures are in millions of cases, 2005.

Source: Adams Beverage Group publications

Drinking Duties

A big bite of the price of alcohol is excise taxes, or “sin taxes,” as they’re sometimes called when they apply to liquor. When retailers sell alcohol, part of the price is local, county, state, and federal taxes. Below we’ve listed the first three within the city, which are cumulative. (The federal liquor tax system is too byzantine to fit here.)

	Tax per gallon of beer
	Chicago	$0.29
	Cook County	$0.06
	Illinois	$0.185
	Tax per gallon of liquor with less than 14% alcohol
	Chicago	$0.36
	Cook County	$0.16
	Illinois	$0.73
	Tax per gallon of liquor with 14% to 20% alcohol
	Chicago	$0.89
	Cook County	$0.30
	Illinois	$0.73
	Tax per gallon of liquor with more than 20% alcohol
	Chicago	$2.68
	Cook County	$2.00
	Illinois	$4.50

Photography: (beer) Inhaus Creative/istockphoto.com, (wine) Plainview/istockphoto.com, (irish cream) Ivan & Monika/istockphoto.com, (whiskey) Floortje/istockphoto.com