According to Alexandra Peers, the trendy way to economize these days is to increase Champagne consumption: at Art Basel Miami Beach, she says, "many events are doing just Champagne, to cut out the bartenders."
I can’t make the sums work here. Champagne at $30 per bottle works out at $5 per glass. A bartender serving 100 drinks an hour and making $40 an hour would cost just 40 cents per drink. Given that just about anything will cost less than Champagne when it comes to the per-glass cost of liquor, I can’t see how this is any economy at all.