Hard to do in a town with no late-night taxi service, and the town also being the county seat with a local state trooper post patrolling.
Not goods odds in your favor, boyyyyyyy! 
When I drove, that was, which I no longer do. And before I re-married, I drank alone - at home. 
Not a good thing to do when you’re already depressed.
Q
I don’t go to bars any more at all but one time when I was stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina and my brother’s wife went to a conference in Savannah Georgia, I and my wife and infant son went to Georgia to be with my sister-in-law for a while. I found that Savannah was a perfect place for men and women (with a child) to explore together.
River street in Savannah has one side with shops and the other side is open with no buildings at all but open views of the river. So my SIL and wife (with baby in stroller) would walk down the street and enter every shop and browse or buy. I would tell them to pick me up at the next bar ahead of them. The bars were spaced about every third or fourth shop. Then we would do the same thing again and they would pick me up at the next bar.
Nice town, Savannah.
Sure is, T. I got river-faced on Shit Street once. :)
Q
I used to have meetings at 2030 once a week during grad school. Since I usually started work at 0630, I’d duck out at 1900 with some articles to read and have dinner and two beers at a nearby bar. It was nice and quiet.
Rarely, but yes. I have a lot of friends who like to drink. I like to drink. We tend to go out at least twice a week, and I used to spend a few evenings a week at a friend’s place having a some beer.
I have a loose rule that I don’t drink alone…sort of my proof that I drink because I socialize, not because I need alcohol.
That being said…I’ve been known to have a beer at a bar in the airport or hotel. No big deal.
One year, I did go to my regular bar alone on Christmas day. I’m atheist, and the holidays tend to be very quiet and lonely - my friends are all out of town or doing family stuff. Back then, I didn’t live in the same town as my family. So I went to the bar just to socialize. I’m friends with the bartenders and wait staff - at the time, I had been going there for close to 10 years, at least weekly. It was a nice way to pass some time.
-D/a
Do you come here often, Senator Craig?
I’d have no problems going to a bar/restaurant and having some dinner. But going to a bar and sitting there by myself? No. Not going to happen.
I do it, I’m a woman btw. Usually I’m having something to eat at the bar but sometimes I’ll have a glass of wine or two because I have time to kill between being one place and another. I wouldn’t feel comfortable hanging around for any length of time though.
I’m a single lady who does not even drink. But if I want to go into a bar for a non-alcoholic drink, there is no law against it.
If you are in a friendly town then you can probably start up a conversation with someone sitting at the bar. If you are in a unfriendly town then it’s a great place to have a drink, take in the atmosphere and be left alone.
I’ve never liked bars, with or without friends. But a nice cafe that also serves beer is a more wholesome environment for reading, writing, or even socializing. A local coffee roaster/gourmet shop also has a wine and craft beer tavern/shop – it’s a nice enough, wholesome enough place.
If I want to go to the bar for a beer and/or a snack, I go to the bar. It’s never really entered my equation as to whether I have someone available to go with or not. I’m the same way with restaurants, and it strikes me as slightly odd that people have reservations about this.
I used to do it, pre-baby. Sometimes in a bar where I half knew there’d be someone I knew there I could talk to, sometimes not.
I think people’s reservations have to do with being percieved as a loser/alcoholic/hooker. It really depends on the venue - I live in a tourist town and a lot of the bars are as wholesome as the coffee houses.
I don’t see any problem with it. Like last night, I didn’t feel like going out and my SO did. So he went alone and it was no big deal.
Well, I have nothing against it, but I would usually prefer to go with people!
It also has a little to do with perhaps feeling “loserish”. Or at the very least, a bit bored. When I go to a bar alone, I have trouble figuring out what to do with myself other than sit there getting wasted. Especially if everyone there is in groups of people.
A lot of it depends on the bar though. College bars are tough because they are noisy and usually consist of small groups of 20-somethings getting shitfaced. Then again, if you go to the college of the people who frequent that bar, chances are you will know someone there or at least wont be perceived as a weird outsider if you don’t.
Meat market bars are sort of the same. But one advantage is that people are there to pick up people so it’s not totally weird to have a stranger strike up a conversation.
Quiet pubs, whisky bars and such are probably the best if you just want to have a drink or six while reading the paper.
Ideally though (and this may be more of an urban thing), you want to find a local bar where you can just go and become a “regular”. So even if you go there alone, there will be someone who recognizes you.
I only did it regularly in Tokyo. Saturday night, in particular, most of my friends were home with their families, so I was often out and about alone.
I enjoy going to bars alone. My last summer in college, everybody I knew had already left for the summer (I took classes in the summer but no one I knew did), so I would go to the neighborhood bar every evening to have supper and some beer. It really staved off loneliness. I am not a talkative person and barely spoke to anyone there but it helps to have people around you.
Since finishing school, though, I haven’t gone to a bar alone… It is much easier and more enjoyable when you can walk to one. I hate driving back from bars.
I had no idea this was a problem. I’ve done it once or twice, when I was younger. I stopped doing it only because I realized bars are pretty boring for someone like me (and back then, everyone was still smoking in bars and it smelled awful) but I figured other people did this all the time.
Oh, surely. There’s a couple places in my suburb that me and the mister regularly frequent, so I’d go there alone no problem. There’s also a couple places downtown that I’d go alone to as well (again, because we tend to go there frequently.) No so sure I’d go to someplace else (one of the big box, take all comers, like BW3) all by me onesies and sit in the bar area, though I did go to BW3 just last week by myself and sit in the restaurant area.