Poll: Drinking alone at public drinking establishments

I am in Chicago. I moved up here in 2013 because my wife is from here. I haven't found a lot of friends here because of several factors. Plus, I am your basic introvert. I am ok being alone. Now that I am working from home most of the time,on Friday afternoons, I will go down to my basement and have a few, listening to music or whatever. Every now and then I get out and go to a favorite local brewery or two and sit at the bar. Usually I end up striking up a conversation with someone there and end up spending a pleasant afternoon. But if I don't, I am perfectly fine partaking of the beers I want by myself. But that's me

 

I have no problem drinking alone in public...if I have someone with me great...if not I enjoy some alone time with a pint or two...I don't need company always to enjoy a beer and don't care what the stigma is.....I drink a couple beers most nights after work by myself at home what is the difference in the public? Just how I view it...

 

If you have a beer are you really alone?

 

"A pint of plain is your only man"- Flann O'Brien

 

Like others have said, I often drink alone because I'm stopping into a local brewery or bar to try something new (or something that's only on tap). Or on vacation, I'm having a quick flight at a brewery that I've never been to.

In both cases, I'll sit on my phone or strike up conversations. I don't feel stigmatized, largely because I'm not the only person at the bar doing the same thing.

 

Certainly have done it more than a handful of times and never felt uncomfortable in any way about it. Sometimes I would strike up a conversation with the bartender or the person on the stool next to me sometimes I wouldn't. These days though, if I'm out drinking, it's almost always with my wife alongside.

 

This describes me to a T

 

It was pretty common for some taverns to not allow women at the bar - there was a famous lawsuit against McSorley's Ale House in the 1960s and some towns also had laws against it, as well - like Jersey City just across the river, which as late as 1973 had a local ordinance that read:

Not that every bar obeyed. Some bar owners claimed it was aimed at preventing prostitution.

Even back in the 1940s during the War, towns and bars ran into conflicts about such prohibitions, some of which were newly created. Rosie the Riveter wanted - and deserved - a beer after work just like every other worker. In NJ, the ABC commissioner noted that it was perfectly legal to serve women in bars since there was nothing in the state regulations on the topic, unless there was a local municipal regulation which prohibited serving women.

Wasn't too long ago that lots of bars in older cities and towns still had 2 doors, the main one for the bar and a "Family entrance", often the signs still up.

@moodenba - Were you on the mid-80s Reading PA bar tour? There was a bar (maybe called Stash's or Stanley's?) that was known to ask "Ladies" to drink in the back dining room only. The women on the tour happily disobeyed.

Heck, even the early true diners sometimes advertised "Booths for Ladies" - but that was (I think?) more a factor that women in dresses didn't like to sit at the little round stools at the counter but it might have been otherwise...

 

I don't think I was on the tour that hit Reading, but I do have Suds and Dregs pamphlet that descrbes Stanley's. Some Canadian provinces had taverns that had two entrances, one for men and the other for women and couples. I went to a tavern in Chatham, ON, in the 80s that still had two rooms (not sure about enforcement then).
About McSorley's: I was home laid up with back problems one weekday in about '86, watching the noon NYC news. That program had a live remote at McSorley's of the opening of the women's rest room there.

 

Yeah, when I went in the 70s, women were being served without incident, but they still only had the one bathroom.

 

In my 20s for whatever reason I felt uncomfortable drinking alone. Nowadays in my late 40s it's totally different. I welcome it to a certain extent. Usually if I'm meeting people out, I'll get to the brewery 20 minutes early and have the first drink alone. Allows me to really think about the beer I'm drinking and also to check e-mails/sports news as the phone goes away once the friends arrive.

 

I'd say it's 50/50 for me. I drink the absolute majority of my beer at home, but the few times going out for beer it's been half alone, half teamed up.

 

I like to pop by taprooms/breweries to try new offerings at least once every 2 weeks or so. On a good week, I might do this twice. Nice way to catch new offerings and add them to the DB.

 

Rarely...maybe if I'm waiting for a plane or killing time before I meet someone and there's a game I want to watch. Sometimes would go to a pub when traveling for business. Drinking a beer should be a social thing. I do it with friends. My favorite is cooking out and having four or five couples over. They know I'm a 'beer guy' and will have some different beers to try. Often they bring over their favorites and we do an informal beer swap....

 

I’m fine with visiting a brewery alone. Sometimes sit at the bar and strike up a conversation with bartender or someone sitting next to me. Being a remote worker, sometimes if my work schedule allows, I could visit a brewery in the afternoon while still working on my laptop lightly (same concept as working at a coffee shop), just for change of scenery from my home office and try a beer I haven’t had yet. Sometimes visit with my wife and sometimes with friends or out with couples. Definitely like to visit brewery alone while on business travel. I’m all over the map I suppose.

 

I'm curious about this "stigma of drinking alone" to which people are referring. Is their a prevailing narrative that people who drink alone have an addiction to alcohol? Or is it that they don't have any friends? Both? Is it something else entirely? I get that someone who is alone, completely hammered, lip synching Aerosmith's "Dream On" into a bottle of beer with nine other empty bottles next to them might draw some judgement, but that's because of all the other details other than them being alone, no?

I'm curious.

 

I'm so used to being around people when I drink that it feels strange to be in the rare situation of drinking alone. Yeah, I could stay home and drink alone (empty nester and the wife is out of town), but I enjoy supporting the local breweries and feel comfortable going there, sitting at the bar and chatting it up with the bartender or others. Usually a meal is involved too, and I don't feel like cooking at home.

 

I think with breweries whether it is awkward or not depends on a few factors:
- Sitting at the bar anytime is fine/not awkward if alone
- sitting at a table alone while working on a laptop is not awkward, you demonstrate you need the space, need to focus and need to be alone.

-sitting at a table alone where there is no TV to watch, and you are left with nothing else to do but glacé around at other people can feel awkward and actually other groups of people may be judgemental about you as well (why is that guy alone and just looking around at people…he’s weird don’t let the children near him).

so to avoid social awkwardness, best bet is to sit at the bar when alone