We walk into a dilemma

We try to be honest with you, and honestly, we didn’t feel like spending money at a bar this week. Maybe we didn’t think we ought to spend money on drinks this week. Either way, this is a good time to talk about the economics of going out to drink.

Money isn’t a comfortable topic -- it reminds me of the different approaches panhandlers take when drawing signs. The traditional sign read, “Will work for food.” Some take another route; I’ve frequently seen, “Why lie? I want a beer” on a panhandler's chunk of cardboard. I assume the writer wants people to think, “At least they’re being honest,” but it also raises the issue of where alcohol falls on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

More than once, people in bars have mentioned that it’s a whole lot cheaper to buy alcohol at BevMo! and drink it at home rather than going out to a bar. It’s even more the case for us this week; Safeway included an unrequested box of wine with our first home delivery order. Libations are obviously marked up substantially when you go out.

So people are paying for something else -- the social experience. That’s why we go to bars. Sure, it’s fun if there are games to play or the decor’s creative or the music’s more than decent. Mindy and I go to talk to people and write about it. If there aren’t people to talk to, we don’t usually have much to write about, and walking into a bar is just entertainment. Entertainment has its own place in the budget.

There are ways to economize when you go to a bar. You can go during happy hour. But happy hours are designed to bring in business during non-peak times, when people are at work or pregfer to stay home. Mindy’s working and commute times make the usual happy hour hours less than optimal.

Another thing that can make the bar experience better than drinking at home is getting a well prepared drink mixed by a good bartender. Obviously, a creative cocktail prepared by an experienced mixologist is going to cost a lot more than beer in a dive bar. (I know, I know. We’ve said many times here, we don’t even like beer.) Bars vary a lot, too, from the scary to the homy to the ritzy, and prices vary greatly between these choices. This part of West Seattle veers toward upscale.

Then there’s the issue of tipping. Some people try to save a bit on their tab by skipping out a tip. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that people in the service industry don’t look kindly on the practice. Most bartenders we’ve met consider the tip to be a standard part of a transaction. Don’t tell a bartender that the person who didn’t tip couldn’t afford it. “If they can’t afford to tip, they can’t afford to go out for drinks!”

We almost always give bartenders our card because it has the information about the blog. People are free to leave comments on the blog. In other words, we try to tip decently, and we prefer to tip generously.

During 2016, we were firmly committed to visiting a bar, a church, and a movie theater every week. We didn’t want to have to say, “We went to a bar in every state except Kansas (finding a bar in Kansas was surprisingly difficult). This year, though, if we miss a week, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

But if it matters to you, dear reader, there’s something you can do. When we have a week like this, a week when our budget or our schedule prevents us from visiting a new bar, you can buy our book, Cheers and Amen. Then you can have the fun of reading about a lot of different bars all over the country.

As a bonus, your book purchase earns us a drink. (We recommend buying three copies: one for yourself, one for your pastor, and one for your bartender. It's also available in a Kindle version, if you're traveling light and prefer e-reading.) Check it out via the links in the sidebar or at the bottom of the post, or contact us if you'd like an autographed copy.

Or, if you’d rather, use the money you would have spent on our book to go out for drinks. We understand. Really.