You know how in all those Western movies the man walks into the saloon and orders whiskey. The barkeep puts the whole bottle in front of him and then the customer pours his own
drinks. Was that the usual custom before Prohibition? Are there now specific laws against serving alcohol in this way, or is it just a custom that went out of style?
I have no idea myself, but I have a vague recollection of a previous thread discussing this exact question. I’ll try search.
I cannot testify for anyplace but my state, but quite legal here in Colorado. At least, I believe it is. I have a friend that only drinks Chevas (sp) and when he goes into the local bar in town, he buys it by the bottle and shares it with his friends.
It follows that it is legal. Because I know that I often buy wine by the bottle when I go out to dine.
As for the custom before Prohibition, once again out here in rural parts, the local bar (saloon) doubled as package (liquor) store so, yes, it was quite common. It was also quite common for bar owners to have a policy of giving you (if you were drinking by the glass) worse and worse quality liquor as you became drunker. One way to insure against this was to purchase the bottle and keep it within sight at all times.
Of course, the way the bar owner would combat this was to mix up his own stuff in the back room and put it into a higher grade of bottle than his own stuff would usually go into.
TV
It must vary state by state, then. At bars in Virginia, it’s illegal for an individual to have more than two drinks in his possession at any particular time–if you want to order another drink, you gotta drink what you got first.
I imagine a whole bottle of liquor sitting in front of you would probably violate that law. On the other hand, rarely do I see a bartender be picky about giving a pitcher of beer to an individual (though technically that may be illegal too, I’m not sure).
Here in Washington, a pitcher of beer is fine, but a pitcher of hard liquor (even mixed) is not. At one much-frequented restaurant, we talked to the owner about whether he was skirting the law by giving a margarita pitcher to a group of people. He said, “Yeah, sort of,” and grinned.
(Just more anecdotal evidence supporting the “varies by state” theory, at least until an expert happens along.)
i know that where i work (hotel dupont) that if you wanted to buy say a bottle of jack from me it’s ok, just don’t sit down in my bar and drink it. usually the people who buy a bottle of liquer are guests in the hotel and want it for there room. now i dont know if it’s the hotel policy or the law that you can’t drink from the bottle you just got from me at the bar. i do know that it’s really expencive. we try to discurge buying bottles so we don’t discount for buying in bulk. you have to pay for each shot in the bottle. you do the math. i sold a bottle of macallian 18 about a week ago to a newly wed couple. at $10 a shot, where an ounce and a half is a shot, for a 750 ml bottle, well that would discurge me from buying a bottle of liquer from a bar anyday (at least my bar).
I had a few shots of Jaegermeister at Café Tu Tu Tango. They were $6.50 each. I bought a bottle of Jaegermeister at Trader Joe’s for $15. It came with two glasses of the same size and type used at the café: 2cl. Two cl goes into 750ml 37.5 times, so if I were to drink a whole bottle at a bar, it would cost $243.75. At the Dopefest at Jerry’s Deli, I had a shot of ouzo. I was surprized when the bill came that it was $9. Using the same formula, a bottle of ouzo would be $337.50. That’s why I mostly drink beer or tea.
(Hmmm… Jaegermeister and ouzo. You think I have a “thing” for liquorice?)
There are a few bars scattered around that will give you the whole bottle. The catch is, you have to bring it in with you. Then they put your name on it and keep it behind the bar for a “holding fee”. When you come in, they give you your bottle and give you the loan of a glass. It’s a way around the law in certain areas where it is illegal to serve/sell liquor. I always liked those just because of the Old West cowboy feeling of it.
Utah used to be exclusively as Turbo is describing it. You brought your bottle left it with the bartender and then they would charge you $2 for a glass or mix. This was on top of the membership fee. Talk about a racket.
TV
With the repeal of national prohibition, the United States Constitution was amended to provide that the “transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.” US Const, Am XXI.
This provision was included in the repeal of prohibition to afford independent authority to the various states to regulate the production and use of alcohol. Because the authority is specified in the federal constitution, it exists on equal footing with other constitutional provisions and is not easily limited. The resultant laws vary not only from state to state, but in some places, from county to county or city to city.
In Michigan, which is one of 18 states known as “control” states, the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is closely controlled, and every bottle which comes into the state is wholesaled by the state and is highly taxed. The legal drinking age is 21, with limited exceptions, such as certain educational and religious uses. MCL 436.33b(13). Generally, a business licensed to sell alcohol by the drink cannot sell package liquor (alcohol by the bottle to take home), and vice versa, and no alcohol can be brought into or consumed in a licensed premises unless purchased by the licensee. Further, the Dramshop Act makes a licensee (bar, restaurant, etc) liable for damages caused by an intoxicated person to whom it served alcohol. MCL 436.22.
I don’t know this to be the case, but my impression is that most western states are more liberal.
Depends on who is directing when I walk into a bar.
Howard Hawks - whole bottle
John Huston - single drink
George Lucas - brightly coloured mixed drinks only
Robert Altman - what everybody else is having
Frances Ford Coppola - the usual, already poured
Stanley Kubrick - depends on the background music
sheesh, man, it’s almost required that you buy a “keep bottle” in at least 5 bars around town when you live in Asia. They put your name on a tag and when you go to the bar, just ask for your bottle. Course ya gotta trust the bar staff not to skim off a bit now and then.
Been out with many an old drunk in various cities around asia, we’d go into some bar and the guy would invariably have a bottle with his name one it stashed away.
Don’t believe everything you see in the Western movies because Hollywood was great for twisting the facts about.
The only places around here which will hold a bottle for you are called ‘private’ or after hours clubs. Because the legal cutoff for bars here is 1 am, a few of these clubs exist for hard drinkers. You bring in your own bottle or buy one from them prior to the legal cut off and they’ll hold it and sell you setups at high prices. That way, you can drink in a bar after hours because the bar is not selling you any booze.
Of course, now days, the cops are probably all drinking coffee in the parking lot, ready to bag anyone who wobbles out of them because if you’re in there after 1, you’re pretty well guaranteed to be blasted when you leave.