Bars without alcohol: it’s a trend
It seems to be a growing trend among young people:
Getaway is a sober bar, a new kind of dry nightlife option that is cropping up in New York City. The idea is to provide outlets for people who want to socialize in a bar-like location, but without having to drink alcohol.
So they serve funny drinks like the “shrub,” described in the article as “an acidic beverage made from vinegar, fruit, sugar, club soda and zero alcohol.” Since two of these and some bread cost the author $15, I’d say that’s pretty pricey for what is essentially a flavored club soda.
I’m also a bit puzzled by the entire phenomenon. As a non-drinker myself (or rather, as an alcohol sipper—a thimblefull is about my limit) and a lover of plain club soda or seltzer, I’ve never had any problem ordering my preferred beverage, festively adorned with a wedge of lime for the occasion, in any bar.
What is meant by having to drink alcohol? No bar forces people to imbibe it.
I think it means two things. The first is without having the temptation of ordering alcohol, which helps those who like alcohol (I don’t) to refrain from ordering it if they’re on the wagon. The second is without being subjected to other people’s drinking and drunkenness. And that latter phenomenon in turn reduces one of the problems that sometimes goes with drinking too much, which is the phenomenon of sexual encounters without consent or with consent that’s not remembered properly, and the consequent accusations that can ruin a life.
The article focuses on the wellness aspect of not-drinking (although, isn’t some wine still supposed to be good for you? or have I missed an update on that?), but it also touches on the sexual concerns when it notes, “one of the most common factors among the harassment complaints made today at Google is that the perpetrator had been drinking (~20% of cases).”
And it’s not just Silicon Valley types who are involved. I find this quite fascinating:
Last month, Liquid Death made waves when it launched. The startup applies the bold marketing of energy drinks to a water-in-a-can beverage. Its tagline is “Murder Your Thirst.” Like an alcohol brand, it has an age gate on its website that says, “This water may give nightmares to persons under 18 years of age.”
The idea is to make consumers look cool while they keep hydrated, and to the unsuspecting eye, one may never know they’re downing simple H2O.
The original impetus, according to CEO and co-founder Mike Cessario, was to cater to heavy metal and punk rock fans. But the ability to drink water out of a can (which is more ecofriendly than plastic) and look like you’re drinking a beer or an energy drink, has broader appeal.
Boy, am I ever out of it. I’ve been drinking water or club soda for many many decades, and I’ve never considered trying to hide that fact, or that there might be money to be made in developing a product that helps consumers hide that fact.
I guess that’s why I’m not a rich person, in addition to not being the life of the party.
I was under the impression those sorts of places were called coffee shops. I must be mistaken.
The last time I was in NYC (Dec 2001) and had a drink, it was $13. A vodka martini, shaken and “as dirty as you wanna be”. But that was at Club 54, which was then a theatre, and as such I presume a premium price.
I did a bit of digging on “shrub” and this is interesting. Its a food site, so they have additional recipes.
https://www.thekitchn.com/what-are-shrubs-and-which-ones-should-you-buy-for-your-next-party-242494
Once it was no longer possible to smoke in a bar, I stopped going to them. No smokes AND no drinks? Why bother? 🙂
That Liquid Death reminds me of the cars in the Kornbluth story, “Here Come the Marching Morons,” which have fake speedometers that show them going much faster than they are along with fans to blow in the faces of the passengers so they think they are going really fast.
“Boy, am I ever out of it. I’ve been drinking water or club soda for many many decades, and I’ve never considered trying to hide that fact, or that there might be money to be made in developing a product that helps consumers hide that fact. ”
You mean you could do whatever you think is best for yourself – for whatever personal preferences you might have – and to heck with what other people think!
More power to you! It seems if our snowflakes today don’t have the character to do that. They have to have the approval of the crowd – or they’re nothing.
We definitely have trouble coming.
Glad to see the rest of the world is catching up with the Latter-day Saints (**cough, cough**).
😉
Y81 – Kornbluth and some of the other Classic SF writers were sometimes pretty prophetic.
We could buy canned water about 20 years ago, and really liked the taste better than plastic; also easier to store and transport, and it fit in the soda can racks in the fridge. It didn’t have a fancy name and wasn’t marketed as faux beer.
So, they stopped making it of course.
Bars without brawls. Where will young men learn the proper use of a beer bottle?
I’d guess they allow, possibly even encourage, vaping instead of smoking, at these … neo-bars.
Part of me wants to make fun of these places, but a bigger part of me thinks it’s great as an alternative to the coffee shop. A coffee café is more for one or just a few friends, with very quiet and polite conversation. In the day. A bar is for more fun, after work, or at least at night. If younger folk can have more fun without alcohol, that would be a small plus.
Maybe even reduce the stupid, terrible hookup culture with actual meeting folk and having real world fun together before having sex?
(Steve Martin says: Naaaaahhhhhh)
Tom: Be even better if they are having real world fun together before getting married and THEN having sex.
So many of the complainants about the hookup culture and its disappointments for women (mostly, and also some men) are suggesting “remedies” that look an awful lot like old-skool marriage vows aka contracts, without the icky lifetime commitments and religious vibes.
Even if you don’t accept “God told us to do it this way,” there are lots of good reasons why all viable civilizations have (or had, before becoming non-viable) some variation of the highly-mandated man-woman-family commitment thing.
Why are so many liberals rejecting multi-culti diversity?
This is like Mormons and Prohibition put together.