Show me a dry town (one that doesn’t allow alcohol to be sold for consumption on site) and I’ll show you a town without an Outback Steakhouse. In fact I bet you find few restaurants at all, except for the Denny’s / Perkins type diners.
What I find bizarre about this pole is that anyone would think it’s odd to order a cocktail at a “steakhouse”. if this was thread about people ordering a Beer at Denny’s (can you do that at certain locations?) I would find it more reasonable.
You’re imagining cocktail drinking as something more rarefied than it really is (for most of us). And 5:30pm is like a dictionary definition of cocktail hour.
You don’t make your own sand? :dubious:
CMC fnord!
I make the most awesome Whiskey Eggs for breakfast for those special occasions.*
Step 1: Do a couple of shots of whiskey.
Step 2: Make some scrambled eggs. Do a couple of more shots during the cooking process to make them taste better.
Step 3: Plate and table eggs and do a couple of more shots.
Step 4: Wander off to the bedroom and pass out.
Step 5: Roommate wakes up and finds cat eating the eggs and the stove is on fire.
Step 6: Roommate puts out stove fire, throws eggs away and cleans up.
Step 7: 6 hours later wake up, wander into the kitchen and see it all nice and clean.
Step 8: Remember those delicious eggs you had for breakfast.
*Like Saturdays.
The local Denny’s will serve you a beer with your meal. Or wine, if that’s your thing.
Note, however, that this is the only Denny’s location I know of that does this.
Well, ignorance fought. I learned something today.
Didn’t realize I was that far out of touch. I order tequila sunrises when I do drink at a club. They are quite tasty.
Other: I don’t drink.
First Aceplace57 thread for ya, huh? 
Apparently had my hurp-dar down briefly and it got through…
Pretty much like every one of my posts with every one else here
While I don’t go to big chains like that often, if I do, it’s often on trips with family or business associates. I’m certainly ordering at least a beer with dinner or a simple mixed drink. I’ll often with lunch as well unless I’m with business colleagues who would disapprove.
If I somehow find myself in a major chain, I’ll generally order some ridiculous cocktail just for the over-the-top factor and as a consolation prize for not going to the place I wanted to go.
It’s very rare for me to go to a chain restaurant, and I’m not a huge drinker generally anyway. I generally don’t drink cocktails with food when I drink them at all - I’d rather drink wine with food, so if they have a wine that I don’t find repulsive, I’d probably drink that with dinner. If I drink something as a standalone before or after dinner, it might be a cocktail if there were something on the menu that caught my fancy, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I went to a chain restaurant that served alcohol.
If I hit a chain at all, it’s more likely to be something like Chipotle for a quick burrito if I happen to be hungry and somewhere where there are no independent restaurants that serve what I’m looking for. And that means it’s likely to be lunchtime, and a) I have to go back to work, so I’m not having any alcohol; or b) I’m in the middle of driving somewhere, so I’m not hanging out with a drink anyway.
While I don’t mind some chain restaurants, admittedly Outback is not near the top of that list.
Outback, and to a greater extent Applebees, exist to get drunk on cocktails and eat incredibly mediocre food 
. Honestly, the presence of alcohol helps make up for it, since to me its hard to make a bad cocktail vs a bad entrée. While I will grudgingly eat at Applebees, all their food tastes like TV dinners. But sometimes the booze makes up for the bad food. Isn’t that the stereotype about British Pubs? Terrible food, but there’s booze there, and a fun atmosphere.
Edited to add: If Denny’s ever added a full bar to their restaurants, they’d make a TON of money. They are already really popular with the bar/club crowd, particularly after 2AM (for obvious reasons). If you could get an Appletini there…hooboy!
This is one of the most bizarre questions I think I’ve ever seen posted here on the SD, and I have been here since the beginning.
There’s a bar. In a restaurant. I don’t like to drink alcohol at lunch, but after 4 p.m. I will have a glass of wine, sometimes a beer…is the question, would I have a cocktail? I don’t usually because I can’t think of a good one without holding everyone up! (The women I lunch with a few times a year put away an awesome number of bloody marys. If I wasn’t a designated driver, I might order one myself).
I haven’t been to a “club” or “dancing” in decades. I have no idea what THAT entails. Plenty of booze, I would think, and grinding? I dunno. I went to discos where I sipped weak screwdrivers or wine coolers, and actually danced.
Guys, guys, this OP is special. He ain’t quite right. Cut him some slack. 
#igotyobackacey
You only use sand? I suppose if you don’t care about Mother Gaia, that’s an ok substitute, but I make Soda-Lime Glass (with all natural sands I’ve harvested myself or made out of rocks I’ve broken down into sand over time, and lime–completely organic of course* that I’ve mined personally) so my glasses can remade if I want a change of shape or if they break.
I suppose there’s nothing…wrong…with your way, but it just seems so…odd…that one wouldn’t use the right materials to make glass. You don’t actually buy your sand, do you? Because that’s crazy-talk.
Organic, not in the bourgeois, dead-white-male “science” sense of being “carbon based” but in the “holistic” sense. Only holistic organic calcium hydroxide for my home-made goblets to drink my homemade wine and spirits from.*
**You…do grow your own crops, don’t you? I mean, you’re not buying supermarket rice for your homemade saki, right?
Years ago I had a margarita at Red Robin while dining there. It tasted like it had been made with rubbing alcohol, so I sent it back. The next one tasted exactly the
same. Still makes me shiver thinking about it.
On the other hand I used to frequent happy hour at a CoCo’s restaurant between work and the house. They had a dance club attached, next door. Coupla half price sunrises and all the tacos and enchiladas I could eat. Sunrises were decent, and dinner was free.
im kind of like that. If I’m at a chain, it’s cause I’m with my family and you’d better believe I’m drinking.
It only makes sense for the restaurant since the markup on alcohol is WAY higher than the markup for food. Also a bar takes up less floorspace.
Besides this is just the way things are turning. The days of “Cheers” style drinking only bars is on the way out. For a business to survive they need to serve food all day and then drinks all night. They can still do all the traditional “bar” stuff like host Superbowl or New Years Eve parties or dancing where they clear out the tables and setup a big party and dance floor but they also get ordinary restaurant business including families. Applebees is big on this. And yes often they still get guys who just want to go sit at the bar, talk, and drink.
One steak restaurant owner told me he makes WAY more money off of beer than he does steaks so often the steaks are a lower price to get people to come in and buy beer.
It also serves as a counter balance. If the bar business goes bad, then maybe the restaurant side will make money to offset this or vise versa.
I don’t really do cocktails other than the occasional margarita, but I’d certainly order a beer or a glass of wine. Why wouldn’t you?