Maybe I’ll just get the beer: The rising cost of Diet Coke at bars
Inflation has come for your formerly-free fountain soda at the bar
At Welcome to the Johnsons, Lady Gaga’s favorite LES dive, a can of PBR costs $3. At Two Doors Down, patrons can find $2 beer during happy hour. Pull up to Clockwork, and a beer will be $4. My question: Is it possible to find that kind of deal for Diet Coke?
Last month, after a long day of work, I took the F-train to Bar Revival for a long-anticipated girls’ happy hour. The three of us sat down, eager to debrief our days, and when the waitress came by, I ordered my usual: a Diet Coke. When I eventually paid the bill, I was faced with a five-dollar charge.
Stunned, I thought back to the years when Diet Coke cost next to nothing. It was a reliably cheap (or free) option at bars and restaurants until around 2018, when prices surged. Now, eight years later, the era of Diet Coke as a freebie is over. In some cases, it’s nearly as expensive as a drink with booze in it.
Curious about how bars price soda—and how bartenders view it—I spent the weekend bouncing around joints in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, chatting and learning that different bars have very different philosophies when it comes to a crisp Diet Coke.
The Dive: Doc Holliday’s — $5 Diet Coke, $6 can of beer
At Doc Hollidays, there’s a high chance that country music is on the jukebox. The bar brands itself as an “OG Honky Tonk,” and offers pool, beer, and a rowdy night, if that’s what you’re looking for. Francine Simmons, who bartended at Doc’s for a four-year stint nearly 20 years ago, returned in October 2023. It didn’t take long for her to open up about the changes she’s seen.
“Fifteen years ago, there was a lot of debauchery; everyone was getting really, really intoxicated and enjoying their time,” Simmons laughed. “Flash forward to now, it’s definitely a major thing happening — people coming in ordering nonalcoholic beers, Diet Coke, Coke, seltzer.”
When Francine returned to the bar in 2023, she was surprised to learn they had begun selling water bottles. She spoke with nostalgia of the days she used to beg barflies to drink water.
“Back in the day, if you weren’t drinking, people would be like, ‘What are you a pussy?’ Socialization is a little different now,” said Simmons.
While recognizing a shifting drinking culture, Simmons does not think it is necessarily the driving cause behind the uptick in Diet Coke orders. She thinks it is an economic change.
“I think the no drinking thing is people being cheap,” Simmons said, noting broader economic pressures. The bar recently raised the price of Diet Coke by a dollar to keep up with post-COVID costs, according to Simmons.
The Pub: The Long Pour — $4 Diet Coke, $14 cocktail
Just two blocks west of Doc’s lies The Long Pour, a neighborhood bar in the East Village touting a “perfect pour” certification for its Guinness. The bar is a destination for New York sports, and it feels like an upscale dive — Christmas lights, but with taste.
Pete Saverino, the weekend bartender, is an East Village native and has been bartending for over 20 years. He filled up my Diet Coke until it was nearly overflowing, and took a minute to greet the regulars before returning to chat. He knew nearly everyone in the bar by name.
“You do get Diet Cokes a lot,” Saverino said. “It’s annoying as far as, like if we’ve got a big game going and there isn’t much space, it's like you’re taking a seat away from someone who will have two, three drinks and you’re sitting there with your Diet Coke for two and a half hours.”
Saverino spoke about the frustration of the increasing number of patrons ordering a soda rather than multiple rounds of beer, but he said it isn’t really factored into the bar’s pricing.
“Normally, with alcohol, you go by the price per ounce. That’s how you price out cocktails, but for a soda, you don’t need to go through all that,” Saverino explained. To him, a soda is “just a soda,” and there’s no need for elaborate pricing schemes to keep up with a changing drinking culture or rising inflation.
The Pub Part II: Donnybrook — $3 Diet Coke, $14 cocktail
Donnybrook, with its outdoor, fold-down wooden tables, is both an LES after-work classic, and a Saturday-night go with a DJ and a bar packed with young professionals and college students from around the neighborhood. It’s a spot where you could order a cocktail, beer, or glass of wine, without risking judgment from the hardened regular two seats down the bar.
Despite mid-tier pricing for alcoholic beverages, Donnybrook has a relatively cheap Diet Coke. It even beat the $3.50 Coke from Remedy Diner — my unofficial control for this experiment, where soda is not priced with bar margins in mind, and there is plenty of food to counterbalance beverage sales.
Kate Mooney
The Rooftop: 230 Fifth — $6 Diet Coke, $16 cocktail
The trendy penthouse bar with rooftop views of Midtown is a great spot to impress tourists, but not a great spot for a cheap Diet Coke. You’re better off staying on the ground floor while you hydrate.
The Lounge: The Craic — $5 Diet Coke, $17 cocktail
While high-end cocktail bars like Tigre and Superbueno did not offer Diet Coke on their menu, instead offering elaborate mocktails, this Brooklyn gem isn’t afraid to keep the classics.
Stefan Walsh, the owner and operator of both The Craic and nearby Oberon, said that while his Diet Coke used to be $3, he raised the price to $5 in recent years to account for rising prices across the board.
“I don’t think people are drinking less,” Walsh said. “There definitely are pockets of people that are going out and not drinking and getting Diet Cokes — but they’re kind of looking for a place to more so catch up with each other as opposed to experiencing a night out.”
For Walsh, patrons nursing a Diet Coke are not a problem. Few people come in alone and go the nonalcoholic route, Walsh said. If there is a group of people drinking Guinness and one person is drinking soda water, Walsh sees it as a non-issue.
He does wonder, however, if Diet Coke prices are higher in younger neighborhoods to account for sober-curious Gen-Zers.
“People 23-26 are definitely not drinking as much,” Walsh observed.
What this means for the Diet Coke lovers
The rise in Diet Coke prices is not just a trend in New York; it's a truth across the U.S. Square found that the average price of Diet Coke at bars and restaurants that use the platform rose from $2.05 to $2.77 between April 2018 and October 2023.
Kansas City suffered outrage over the McDonald’s Diet Coke prices back in the summer of 2025, and unfortunately, New York bars are not immune to the price surge, especially not in the city’s most expensive neighborhoods. At neighborhood dives farther from Manhattan’s core, a free refill or a no-charge soda still isn’t unheard of, but in the city’s most in-demand zip codes, those courtesies are increasingly rare.
The cause? A lethal dose of post-COVID inflation, rising rents and labor costs, and sober-curious culture keep Diet Coke prices climbing. Plus, the ever-present seat-tax that bars charge for the vibe and “third space” they provide.
For now, at many of the city’s dives, a Diet Coke is only a dollar cheaper than the cheapest alcoholic beverage. If you're choosing soda to save money, the margins are shrinking. The Diet Coke discount has all but disappeared.
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