介绍:
20160606ou 一中两外锵锵三人行
今日话题：只有酒的酒吧
LW: Now, should bars have to accommodate non-drinkers as well? Now this has been interesting, from a food post blog that we saw recently that we’ve been discussing. Brian, maybe you can walk us through it a little bit.
BK: Right, so the blog post is from Food52, a food blog obviously, and it was talking about the idea of being more inclusive when it comes to drinkers and non-drinkers, but obviously there’s a degree of pushback for the story there. For example, a quote from one of the bartenders in the article is “The bar is where we go when we want a drink. As a value proposition, bars are absurd. I can get a six pack of Budweiser at the bodega for five dollars, but – or you can pay eight bucks for a Budweiser to drink it, say, in a fancy sports bar. In most basic terms, the service value added there is just opening the bottle. But it’s the other elements that we get in bars, the behavioral codes, social cues, interactions, expectations and conventions.”
LW: So what – basically what the idea is here, is there’s been kind of a movement or a push towards getting bars to be more inclusive when it comes to non-alcoholic drinks, but then, in return, with that, there’s been a pushback with bars where they’re actually, no, no we don’t have to do that, ‘cause this is a bar. If it was a restaurant or something else where the food is the main attraction then sure, fine, but where it comes to something being a bar, and holding that identity, it feels like, some people feel like they don’t need to necessarily cater to the wider public who might not want to be drinking.
BK: Right – some people do feel like that, but there’s a couple different elements to it. First I would say commercial elements – [LW: Okay] just the profit motive for businesses. By only offering alcoholic drinks, you’re losing a potentially sizable market share or at least clients, because sometimes, let’s say you got a group of people, and maybe one of them is a non-drinker, they all go out to the bar to hang out; non-drinker wants something to drink, they don’t have it, well, that’s potential money that you could’ve got that you didn’t. Or, perhaps, you have a group of friends going, they’re all drinkers, but because they’re going to be smart and safe people, and this is in the US where everybody drives, you have a designated driver – one who does not drink, that night at least, so that everybody else and one person stays sober so they can be safe on the road.
LW: Wu You?
WY: Well, besides the situation, if you’re a non-drinker, if you’re having a party and you need to be in there, besides that situation, why do you want to go to a bar?
LW: Okay, let me ask this question – just on top of the question Wu You just mentioned: if, for example, you were a vegetarian [WY: Yes, just like Brian is?] Okay, and you’re in a group of people, and you go to a steak restaurant, how do you manage that situation?
BK: Well, I guess I’ll answer since everybody’s looking at me here. Presumably, what you would do is have a salad or something, ‘cause presumably – at least in the US, when you go to a steakhouse, they’re gonna have things besides just steaks. Some may not; that is a thing, that does happen, but normally a steakhouse will have you know, mostly steaks, but they’ll have a couple other side items that may not have meat.
