Rather than derail that riviting discussion, I thought I’d start a new thread to ask my question:
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Do kids (people under 30 or so) no longer hang out at a bar with a bunch of friends and drink all night?**
I’m 40-ish and for most of my peer group, hanging out in a bar, pub, club, or beergarden on Thurs, Fri and Sat night was pretty much a regular occurance.
Or is it like the trailer for The Internship where we older people are like Vince Vaugn and Owen Wilson and kids now are all like the socially awkward Google nerds?
Of course we do. This is the SDMB where even vaguely normal social behaviors are met with bewilderment. My friends are by and large early 30s with some sprinklings of 20s and 40s (I’d say median age 31, general range from 27-35), and we all go to bars to hang out. And actually, one of our larger complaints is too many bars are full of damn kids, so we have to concentrate our evenings into bars that aren’t full of 20somethings fresh out of college.
Don’t know if young people go to bars? Go to any bar in Lakeview or Wicker Park here in Chicago on a Friday night, or any bar on the West Side or in Silver Lake back in Los Angeles. Or, any bar anywhere.
:rolleyes: If you don’t like going to bars, then you don’t like going to bars. That doesn’t make it passe and it has nothing to do with the size of city you’re in. Unless you live in New York, you’re not from a town larger than my home town and current town, and bars are very popular in both of those cities. They were also very popular in Minnesota, where I had the grave misfortune of living for a few years. They’re popular everywhere. People like bars and always have. This isn’t some fad that came and went. Pubs predate you and will be here long after you’re dead.
My friends don’t go to bars, but that’s just my group. When I was in the military we went to bars all the time. They were never really my bag but I was usually the driver.
Hermosa beach Ca. the bars are pretty well packed and the streets are busy with taxi cabs. The more inner city bars have really taken a hit the past 20 years as the DUI laws and enforcement have grown much tougher.
DC has an enormous bar scene. Happy hour is pretty much the standard invite for a social event. You’ll have work happy hours, alumni/school happy hours, networking happy hours, and of course happy hours with your friends. Before I got preggo, I was probably hitting three or so happy hours a week just fulfilling basic social obligations.
Usually happy hours are at relatively upscale establishments that also offer good finger food and a nice setting (in the summer, roof decks and patios are popular.) You can get away with not drinking at them, which is what I do now. If it’s a professionally focused event, it will probably happen during the week and wrap up early enough that you can get to bed on time for work the next day. Friday happy hours, however, are often the prelude to a full night out.
DC also has quite a few club districts, with different areas catering to different crowds. They are certainly popular with the many, many, single young professionals in the area. Some people are out twice a week, some just have a night out now and then. But it’s pretty normal to head to U Street or whatever on Friday night. Anyway, at night, the main club streets are shoulder to shoulder packed.
Bars around here often have two shifts. The old farts show up around 5:30, 6:00 and are mostly gone by 8:30. Then around 9:30, the youngsters start showing up.
Ever since I moved to Houston when I was 23, I’ve been going out to bars occasionally with my friends. Between the ages of 21 and 23 when I still lived in Oregon, I did go to bars sometimes with my college cohorts. I’m 27 now and it hasn’t changed. I don’t do it all the time, though I do know some people who make it a regular habit.
My sister who is 2 years younger than me goes out to bars very regularly and has ever since she turned 21.
On Fridays and Saturdays in my town, the bars are usually overrun with college kids, dads who spend too much time mulling over the merits of whatever craft beers are on tap, and shrieking bachelorette parties.
Unless a good band is playing at a bar, the Cool Kids stick to loft parties on the weekends, and hit the bars on weeknights.
My prime bar-going years were from 20 - 30 (I’m currently 35). Now all but a few of us are married with kids (and bought houses spread out amongst the 'burbs), so it’s very rare we do that anymore.
I thought it seemed like a bizarre statement. But I’ve spent most of my adult life living in Boston and New York. So I thought my experiences might be atypical. Heck, the town of Hoboken where I live now has something like 90 bars crammed into 1 square mile.
Over the past few years, I have read many articles that specifically claim that GAY BARS are starting to close and no longer as popular as they used to be.
Part of that is meeting/hooking up on the Internet, and part of that is because it is no longer that difficult to meet other guys in other situations/places.
Not that Gay Bars are extinct, but in many metropolitan areas there are fewer than there used to be and it is no longer the number one way of meeting other guys.
I also spoke to a friend in LA and we were talking about “the good old days” and he let me know that many of the places we used to hang out have since closed. He said a few still exist, but some now only do any business whatsoever on one or two days a week and are barely able to make ends meet. He also mentioned that it is far easier, cheaper and more convenient to meet people on the Internet than waste time driving somewhere and hanging out and hoping to meet someone - and that does indeed make sense.
So, for the purpose of heavy duty cruising as the sole reason for existence, Gay Bars are out. But as a place to meet up on the weekends and have drinks with friends (and perhaps check out who else is there) - well, I think they will continue to do well.
Forgot to mention that Gay Bars in Las Vegas have a slight advantage to staying open…all of them have slot machines! Don’t laugh…those video poker machines bring in enough bucks to make up for any shortfalls with actually numbers of people buying drinks!
Your old stomping grounds may have closed down, but others bars are alive and well. Hell, even some of the bars I grew up in (sniffle RIP Stabby Joe’s) are gone, and I’m fairly young, but others crop up and take their place. Basically, the old man bars are dying, perhaps because their clientele is too? But bars in LA aren’t going anywhere. Trust me on this one.
Edit: And even a lot of old places are still around, but typically your quiet dive has either been transmogrified into a hipster dive (Au revoir, King Eddie’s) or it’s been dethroned by a newer establishment. Some of the oldies but goodies are going strong though. That reminds me, I need to schedule a trip back to Los Angeles. I’ll bet it’s not raining there in goddamn June. I’m looking at you, Chicago. :scowl:
Oh, I don’t think the bars will ever close in West Hollywood…but my friend had a point about some of the bars that used to be popular, but were in “iffy” neighborhoods and set off by themselves. They used to be worth the drive to go to those funky places, but now are closing as nobody wants to drive 30-60 minutes to a bar to find three people sitting in there.
However, in West Hollywood (specifically Boys Town area), there are lots of places next door to each other, so you can walk from one to the next to the next - those will stay open as you have lots of options and one stop parking.
The idea of bars somehow being “out” or whatever strikes me as insane. I know people of all ages (myself included) who like to go to bars. Sports bars are a dime a dozen in Pittsburgh.
Sometimes I get the impression that people here on the Dope think that all bars are these seedy, dark, smokey dens where dangerous bikers hang out, just waiting to knife you in the back or something.
It was a very bizarre statement, not just you. Bars are as popular now as they have ever been, from what I can see. I’m almost 38 and I’m almost always above the median age of the bars I frequent, so it’s definitely not an “old timer” kind of thing.