I was watching an old James Cagney movie, set in the 1890’s. In one scene they were in a barrom, and the patrons were drinking and eating a free lunch-food offered by the bar as an inducement to buy a drink. When did this practice end? My father said that free lunches were made illegal in the 1950’s, as they were thought to encourage drinking to excess. So, is it illegal for a bar to give you a snack with a drink? 
There was a bar in Laramie WY doing that in the late 1970s. I think it was called Garvis Henry’s at that time. It was on 2nd Street next to the old Fox Theater- it’s called The Cowboy now.
The practice became rare after Prohibition.
Well, bars regularly give pretzels, peanuts, popcorn, stuff like that today. Not the same as a ham-on-rye, I suppose, but no one is shutting these places down.
My understanding of this (and I don’t have a cite) is that many of these laws were enacted prior to prohibition because they encouraged drinking period (all drinking was thought to lead to excess). They were still on the books after prohibition ended, so unsuspecting bar owners might have run afoul of them.
However I believe that at least some states have laws that mandate that bars must offer some kind of food (not necessarily free). Again, no cite (hey, it’s Sunday morning).
There’s a place around here (The Map Room) which regularly has free lunches on Sundays (and like good lunches, like pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, etc. They rotate with local restaurants providing the food.) Also, I believe on Tuesday nights, they give away free dinners, as long as you purchase two beers for yourself. So, it’s not unheard of these days.
Seems sort of similar to the blind pig bars during prohibition that would charge the patrons for an “animal show” or something similar but drinks were on the house.
Well, at my restaurant (it has a full bar), appetizers are 50% off during happy hour. Hey, it’s something.
Reading the thread title, one has to wonder if there’s any connection to the old line, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Perhaps samclem will weigh in on that.
Are you looking for the origin of the phrase or what made it popular?
The popularity of the Phrase and very similar phrses came about from Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” 1966 and economist Milton Friedman. His book was “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch” 1975.
Jim
For more on where it came from: http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorf.htm
Your WAG was right on the money.
Jim
The “free lunches” were conditional upon the purchase of alcohol, as other posters have noted. The alcohol’s price was generally inflated to cover the price of the meals. I’ve been in several bars that had free appetizers, which were generally pretty salty, which theoretically made people thirstier.
I slogged my way through The Jungle again last month, and Sinclair made mention of the free lunches, and the bargain and trap they were for the working man.
OK. In New York City, the free lunch at a bar was hardly a free lunch.
At one point, a law was passed allowing alcohol to be served only where a meal was served. To get around it, the bars started offering a “free lunch.”
The lunch usually consisted of a sandwich in the middle of the table. An old sandwich. A very old, dusty sandwich. And, if anyone tried to eat it – getting over the fact that it had been there for weeks – he would get a strong talking to by the bouncer (who would let his fists or club do the actual talking).
Eugene O’Neill discusse the practice in The Iceman Cometh, calling the “free lunch” nothing more than “a noisome table decoration.”
theedollhouseraleigh.]A strip club around here gives actual free lunches.
I think it probably depends on the state. I know in Ohio, I used to often get free food at bars I went to. I haven’t seen it in Texas, however.
No, in Virginia bars must make over 50% of their sales in food. The free lunch is often leftovers from last evening’s buffet.
I am 74 but I do remember way back when in the small towns the first thing that tavern owners did in the morning was to clean up the place. The next thing was to go to the local butcher shop and buy a lot of lunch meat and from there he went to the local bake
ry and bought fresh bread.farmers came to town with their grain to be ground or whatever. While they had to wait a beer was called for. If the tavern did not have free lunch they would go to one that did. Free lunch was a very big deal for the farmers that may have to wait many hours for ther grain to be processed.
There’s a bar in Annapolis, MD has a really fancy free lunch spread on weekdays. Not just peanuts, either, but beef sandwiches, mussels, wings, etc.
While working there one summer, that food kept me alive.
STill, in some places the lunch was a genuine lunch.
I know at least one bar in my area that puts out reasonably substantial free snacks during happy hour.
That reminds me, I stopped in for a dozen oysters and a gin and tonic at Monty’s, in Woodland Hills, and an oldtimer told me they used to have all-you-can-eat oysters for free during happy hours.