Its hard to find a quiet well-lit bar. Why is this? Does anyone like being in the dark unable to see or hear anything? I have the sneaking suspicion that many people would really rather drink in a pleasant atmosphere, but it is almost impossible to find.
Also, I can’t stand the fact that restaurants always dim the lights when the dinner rush starts. And there is always music playing in the background. Can’t we have eat and drink in peace and relaxation?
What’s your opinion?
Got to a pub … I go to a pub to drink, and to a bar to get drunk, dance, and look at/grope sexy women.
While I don’t go bars/clubs a lot, I have to concur. We periodically meet my husband’s colleagues for drinks after work every few weeks, and I hate it when its too loud in the place to talk without shouting. We found one bar in a nearby restaurant that was dim but not dark and played good jazz at a low-to-moderate level, but they’ve just closed down.
I was dragged to a noisy “Super Bar/Restarant” recently, and it seemed to echo everything everywhere. The noise from the kitchen could be heard two ballrooms away, as could the “casino” full of videogames and Pseudo gambling games (knock the row of coins out of a moving tray, to win more mindless plays to repeat).
They had 12 TV’s over the island bar, tuned to 3 different sporting events.
I just had to leave the others and wait in the car. Since they had come for dinner and gaming, I was going to be there a long time, so I left them a note and took a cab.
What a bust.
I don’t mind a restaurant or bar that is dimly lit, but I hate the noisy ones. I go to a bar or restaurant to socialise and can’t stand it when you can’t even hold a conversation with someone standing/sitting next to you because the music is so loud. you tend not to go back to these establishments.
I have a friend who opened a bar specifically to be quiet, well lit and not crowded. It has sofas, magazines to read, a free pool table, games to play and most strangly a libary corner. Folk groups come and play here (no money changes hands they just show up on Tuesday nights and if you want to play you do) and sometimes a few comedy acts.
It has been a long hall for him but after two years work it is now starting to pay off. He could have made a lot more money and a lot quicker going for the lowests common denominator but he’s doing what he is doing 'cause thats they way he likes it.
I wouldn’t by a beer any-where else.
Dim is okay, dark is not. Noisy is never okay with me.
Sports bars. Hate 'em! Don’t go there if you just want to drink and be social. Don’t go there if you want a pleasant meal. Don’t go there to meet chicks. Don’t go there at all if you don’t like sports.
I dislike sports. Especially baseball, football, basketball and tennis. I sneer at golf. Going into a sports bar during any sports season is to get blasted by umpteen televisions showing the same thing or 50 different versions of something else, guys howling, cheering, wearing team colors, squabbling among themselves, beer flowing, spilling, falling, and the ever present professional amateur who makes $10 an hour yet is absolutely certain he could have hit the ball, run the play, called the play or intercepted far better than the $10 million a year player.
Rock bars. Quiet until around 9:00, when you can drink, chat, listen to the juke box that the bar tender will turn down a tad for you if too loud, do a little dancing and have fun. Then the house band cranks up, turns their amplifiers completely to the right, where they have penned in numbers like 24 and you can’t hear the beer bottle break over the skinhead’s head standing next to you.
Expensive, dark dinner restaurants where one has to hold the menu over the table candle to read it. I think they often do that so you can’t tell what you’re eating. You can talk, listen to soft music, drink too expensive drinks and listen to other conversations. Don’t get drunk 'cause you’re liable to be spooning up your coffee and stirring the soup in the dim light, which might make your date get a whole different impression of you.
I’m ok with dim, but I really prefer to be somewhere where I can have a conversation with someone. It seems like all the lounges feel that it has to be so noisy one would have to yell to be heard.
I don’t like bars where the music or television is too loud, but if it’s loud because there’s just a lot of people there, then it’s OK. Actually I’d prefer a bar like that to a quiet bar (if I want quiet, I’ll stay home ;))
Well-lit is good.
I don’t know what it is about Oxford’s pubs and bars, but there doesn’t seem to be a single one that’s both well-lit and quiet. You get one or the other, and sometimes neither, but never both. Best bet is to wait till mid-summer and go to either a pub with outdoor seating or a bar like Cafe CoCo with large windows.
Dark and loud is OK when you’re a student, but after you’ve cast away studenty things, you want some peace. Unfortunately, since all the pubs around here go for the student market, even during the Long Vacation, I’m not going to get my wish any time soon. 
Okay, what irks me:
In a restaurant or sports bar - six different TV’s showing six different sports programs and not a one of the TV’s has closed captioning (henceforth known as CC)!!! I asked the manager to turn on the cc so we could know what’s going on, since they keep the jukebox on (LOUD!) and mute the TVs. He said it’s against corporate policy to have the captioning on. I’m still waiting to hear from corporate on if this is true.
CC is logical - yes it cuts out two or three lines of the program (and sometimes the spelling is really funny). But if someone in NASCAR crashes, rodeo rider falls, football player gets crunched - I wanna know some sort of update on their condition, not sit and wonder if the person is alright. CC lets me read the program and carry on a conversation. And the tv programs aren’t competing for my aural attention (unlike the d@mned jukebox).
Okaaaay, evidently smilies do not work in the ‘Post Subject’ line. Live and learn.
No opinion here…
People drink more when it’s dark.It’s an economic thing.They also like music. It used to be called mood music. Dunnow why it’s so loud.
Could eating out be a mood thing??? I think so.
I suggest you try Mc Donalds.