$500 per ticket + drinks

Guests waited outside the Stamford Marriott to enter a fundraiser for President Obama Monday.

STAMFORD — Turns out $500 does not buy an open bar.

Democratic City Committee Chairman John Mallozzi told me guests paid stadium-level prices for alcoholic beverages at Monday’s fundraiser for President Barack Obama at the Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa on Tresser Boulevard. Only the soda, cheese and crackers were free.

“I think I spent $11 on a beer,” Mallozzi said.

That’s on top of the $500 entrance fee guests paid to for the reception, which featured remarks by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Congressman Jim Himes and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal as well as a performance by Ben Harper. President Barack Obama spoke for about half an hour on jobs, health care and foreign policy.

I’m assuming the $35,800 price tag at Obama’s follow-up fundraiser, a sit-down dinner at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s Westport home, included Chardonnay.

For more details on the costs of the president’s visit, check out today’s story by Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Ken Dixon.