Seattle
Valued Senior Member
I'm reasonable. Sit the drunks for their own good. Am I right!
Vertical drinking ban? Stand against this.
- Thread starter TheVat
- Start date
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
In fact in London’s West End most of the stand up drinking is between 1800 and 2000, after work before the guys catch the train back to the ‘burbs where they mostly live. My brother and I used to meet at a pub in Covent Garden and nearly always found the place emptied out to a more reasonable level after 1930 or so. Then you could get a seat and start to hear yourself think. So we would pitch up at 1900, have one pint standing and bellowing at each other, then find a table, get another pint or two and have a more civilised conversation - before moving on to one of Soho’s Chinese restaurants.
TheVat
Valued Senior Member
"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain..."
Hahaha! A lot of it, yes.
Given, as noted, that alcohol tends to volatilize out of cooked foods, the post hoc syringe approach seems workable. Or unbaked desserts, as Pin mentioned. I wish alcohol and heavy sugar didn't make me barf (I could never stomach rum and coke, e.g.). Swedish potato whiskey (Aquavit) seems like something to inject into french fries, the potato harmonizing with the potato. Or not.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
When I make a vanilla sponge cake with strawberries and cream, as I sometimes do for a birthday or something, I drizzle 2-3 dessert spoons of kirsch into the sponge when assembling it after baking. It seems to give it a bit of a lift. And my son puts amaretto into tiramisu, which is the only dessert he makes. So yeah, in cold desserts maybe.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Look I'm not looking at alcohol though rose tinted spectacles, it has it's downside too, a little bit like heroin.
In some places, incredibly hard. And in some places it is the fact that a place is busy that attracts: if it was a shit pub, especially in London, why would it be busy? People want the crowds, it adds to the atmosphere. If you want a quiet pub to nurse a beer, find one, and don't complain that some are popular and busy.
Why? I'm not saying I would want to stand, but some have no issue with it, even when the pub isn't busy and there are seats available. Why should they be required to move elsewhere if there are no seats? You don't need a seat for drinking, do you? Back in the 90s the popular pubs I frequented were nearly all standing-room only at their busiest. Great places. If we couldn't get seats, so what, we'd stand around and chat.
And if a pub doesn't want people "vertical drinking" then they can say so, just as some put up signs to not distract the bar-staff when busy.
Some do, sure. Some are more than happy to chat as long as they can still do their job when required. At least in my experience, and especially when you're a "local".
People who insist on talking to bar-staff when it's clear they're too busy, sure, that's just rude. But a barperson is more than just a person working in a shop. Or at least they have been in my experience. Some places make it more impersonal, others are more chatty.
Every pub is different (maybe not Wetherspoons, or the other big chains). Each tends to have its own character. If you don't like one - whether because you don't like the drinks they offer, or you dislike "vertical drinking", then, as you suggest: "... read the room and go to an old man's pub."
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Yeah I get it, I've been an old man since my 20s in this respect. My thing with mates or alone was find a pub, quite seat table relax. A busy pub a few at the bar is fine but by the time it gets to a few deep im off.In some places, incredibly hard. And in some places it is the fact that a place is busy that attracts: if it was a shit pub, especially in London, why would it be busy? People want the crowds, it adds to the atmosphere. If you want a quiet pub to nurse a beer, find one, and don't complain that some are popular and busy.
Why? I'm not saying I would want to stand, but some have no issue with it, even when the pub isn't busy and there are seats available. Why should they be required to move elsewhere if there are no seats? You don't need a seat for drinking, do you? Back in the 90s the popular pubs I frequented were nearly all standing-room only at their busiest. Great places. If we couldn't get seats, so what, we'd stand around and chat.
And if a pub doesn't want people "vertical drinking" then they can say so, just as some put up signs to not distract the bar-staff when busy.
Some do, sure. Some are more than happy to chat as long as they can still do their job when required. At least in my experience, and especially when you're a "local".
People who insist on talking to bar-staff when it's clear they're too busy, sure, that's just rude. But a barperson is more than just a person working in a shop. Or at least they have been in my experience. Some places make it more impersonal, others are more chatty.
Every pub is different (maybe not Wetherspoons, or the other big chains). Each tends to have its own character. If you don't like one - whether because you don't like the drinks they offer, or you dislike "vertical drinking", then, as you suggest: "... read the room and go to an old man's pub."
Yep. Most of the bars in Boston were standing room only on Friday and Saturday nights. Often Thursday and Sunday as well. We'd have a good looking woman from our group push to the front to get us drinks (for some reason they'd pay more attention to her) and we'd stand around in a cluster afterwards anywhere we could find room.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
Yes I agree. Pubs are for schivilished c-convershation over a beer or three. But one of my pub rules is that you always find a seat after a while, even if the pub is crowded. At least that seems to be true in the sort of pubs I like (the ones without music, without a TV screen showing a sodding football match, and which do not - sacrilege - refrigerate the real ale
). I think the reason one always finds a seat is because of the stand-up drinkers who don't take one when it becomes free. So I'm all for stand-up drinkers, so long as I don't have to be one of them.Speaking of seats and old men, I am finding nowadays I very often get offered a seat on the Underground, nearly always by some sweet girl. It alarmed me at first to think I look so old, but now I quite enjoy it. One of the small compensations of growing old (72 coming up) is that the girls are so friendly now. I suppose that to them I'm grandpa. (Perhaps this last bit belongs in your "kind strangers" thread.)
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