What ever happened to bars?

I've been in places that don't even have taps. It's just a refrigerator full of canned beer and a pool table. I've also been in little towns where the ratio works out to something like one tavern for every 30 to 40 people. I've done the math. I love our state!

 

Yes, how terrible to want to have food with your beer. Horrible.

 

According to an article I read recently my town in Pennsylvania has the most bars in the state per capita. I'm not sure how true that is but out of all the bars in town there are three that I go to that have a good craft selection for northeastern Pennsylvania standards. The trend also in town is that these bars rely more on their drinking patrons, like myself, over their dining patrons.

 

I like food with my beer! The one bar here with a great tap list that has no food allows you To bring food in. Very nice!

 

a problem is i live in a very rural area and there are no establishments, or spaces for a potential establishment, within at least 5 miles. with drinking/driving laws the way they are i won't risk going to a bar to drink then drive home. i know DUIs are much more common than people think but i won't put myself in a situation where it's possible for me to get one; and i think that is something on a lot of people's mind.

when i lived in Columbus, OH as a student of tOSU i never found a bar that didn't serve food. even the diviest of bars, which i love, served a small menu of food.

drink-only bars make more sense in densely-populated areas, aka CITIES, but serving food offers more potential for business.


BUT that doesn't mean I haven't visited bars solely for drinks. at school i only went to bars for drinks. i'm a simple man who, especially drunkenly, loves food trucks and street vendors as well as Taco Bell and other random food places.

 

My daughter just moved to Tulsa OK to teach, this is like 1/3 a mile from her house: James E. McNellie's Public House. This is what I think of when you say bar; has a bar on one side and a restaurant on the other. I am going to drive up there and bring her home for Christmas just so I can go hang out there for 2 days until she is out of school. Nice thing is it is within walking distance of where I will be staying. I would literally be in heaven if this place was near me.

 

Here in Connecticut to serve alcohol you also have to serve food of some sort. I have no problem with that, because there are some local spots with amazing bar food. Best of both worlds.

 

I have been in a lot of bars across this country and in Europe.
I have never been in one that makes you eat their food.

 

I like beer. I like food. Not sure what the problem is.

 

In Massachusetts if you serve alcohol you have to serve some food by law. My favorite bar, Moe's Tavern, has small bags of chips and some beef jerky you can buy. If you want a meal the owner doesn't mind if you bring food in and some of the restaurants will deliver to the bar.

 

Wow, never heard of this law before. Why?Why?Makes no sense to me.

Many of my favorite places in bavaria don't serve food, and encourage you to bring your own. I remember in my favorite Wirtshaus, the landlady takes orders from the Stammgäste and buys bread and sausage from the lokal bakery/butcher...
But they still have to bring their wooden plates and knifes.

Somehow I love reading about those vast cultural differences between countries,continents and cultures.

 

Don't assume that the same law applies to the entire US. Not all states in the US have such a law, but many do. While, the time of passage and the origin of such laws, where they exist, is varied, they often seem to have their roots in the thinking of anti-alcohol legislators and some seem to date back to the repeal of prohibition as a condition of voting for repeal. My guess is that the thinking seems to have been that a bar patron who is both drinking and eating is less likely to drink to excess and then engage in other excesses or to be driving inebriated.

 

It seems to me that as I travel around the country most places are not selling food and are opting to have food trucks show up.

 

Guessing you've not spent much time in PA. :-)

 

@Dave97 - not being critical, but just want to mention that you may possibly only be in need of acclimating yourself to VA and taking a few trips around to see what's in store. Here in the RIC we have a very nice locally owned chain of craft bars (Cap Ale), a handful of very good craft oriented bars (Sedona, Commercial Taphouse, Me Kong.....kind of won craft bar of the year award a few times...) and several, like seemingly a hundred general theme bars that offer local craft and Bud Light specials (sports, local flair, chotchke-esqu places, etc.,.) that also happen to serve food. Now if it's a dive you are looking for, and live in or near Central VA, as a fellow that has spent time rolling beer, I can assure you that without any doubt in my mind whatsoever, we have plenty of dive bars. They aren't screaming at you on the radio, newspaper, etc.,. but trust me, we have them. Period.

I've traveled around a good bit since I've been in VA and from a craft perspective, I cannot bitch one tiny bit. Great distro, great local breweries and plenty of places to have a pint.

 

Hole in the walls are still in all major metro areas if you look hard enough. Beer options are limited though. They go hand in hand.

 

Yeah, most of the individual state laws no doubt date from Repeal and many of them were designed by pro-Repeal groups as a compromise to appeal to those in the middle between the Drys and the Wets of the early 1930s. The pro-Repeal forces were aware even those who were against Prohibition as it had played out in the 1920s were often still against the return of the "Saloon" (recall that the eventual largest anti-alcohol group was The Anti-Saloon League).
Even FDR mentioned it in his proclamation made at the time of full Repeal of the 18th Amendment in Dec., 1933:

So, Repeal laws were created that mandated in many states that there were to be no licenses for alcohol-only establishments - and in the early Repeal era most on-premise beer was sold by already existing restaurants, etc. In some states, even the term "saloon" was illegal to be used in a business' legal name. It's why so many "bars" in many states are still called "Inn" "Hotel" "Bar & Grill", etc. Even the term "Tavern", which at the time of Repeal was a more innocent sounding name when compared to "saloon" - implying a family-oriented, sort of indoor beer garden.

 

I prefer to have food at bars. I don't see how offering food detracts at all from anything.

 

None of the craft beer joints around me serve food (except for pretzels/chips), but have no problem if you bring your own in, or order a pizza

 

the only one i can think of left in the People's Republic of Boulder is the Sundowner or Slumdowner as it is more commonly referred to.....the last down to earth outpost in an increasingly yuppie town