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Does bar hopping even work? Or is it just a fantasy trope? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Maxwell Arnold, works in the Restaurant Industry, on Quora:
Bar-hopping usually goes something like this…
- A group of people (we’ll say six) decide to begin a night of drinking at a certain bar, but hop from one bar to another after that, and see how the night goes.
- At the first bar, everybody orders a drink, and the group of six is drinking and chatting pleasantly. The primary topic of conversation is where they’ll go next - which will involve such things as anecdotes to the effect of “there's this really great place down the street”, and looking on smartphones for bars nearby.
- At the second bar, everybody now has a decent buzz. The conversation will be about 40% about how great this place is, 40% where they will be going next, and 20% why they should have gone somewhere else.
- At the third bar, everybody is now tipsy. Wanting to talk about something else other than what bars to go to, opinions start to gravitate towards staying at this bar for the rest of the night. The realistic people say to stay at this bar because they'll likely be turned away at the next bar for having had too much to drink. The ambitious people are furiously Googling away and trying to find a cooler place, because a three-bar crawl seems disappointing.
- At the fourth bar, the group is now down to five, maybe four people. Someone has hooked up with someone, or someone has gone home because they're too drunk. By this time in the night, this group may have merged with other groups who are also bar hopping, making things both more fun and more complicated. This brings the group up to eight to ten members.
- At the fifth bar, any group members who are new to each other have added each other on Instagram, Snapchat, or possibly Facebook. Possible hookups are being cultivated at this time as well. There is also discussion about what places are serving food at this time of night.
- At the sixth bar, the group has likely been turned away at the door for being too drunk. Discussions of going to a take-away eatery or 24 hour place now begin, as well as “taking the party back to my place, I've got alcohol”.
It’s by no means a fantasy, as this stuff does actually happen on a regular basis. It “works” in the sense that it's a functional and enjoyable method of socialization. But it doesn't “work” in the sense that it virtually never goes according to plan.
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