I mean i guess it IS efficient, but man.. just not anything ive ever seen at a bar. Just weird in there

Man, your post reminded me of how good AS220 burritos were back in the day.

Bomb mac and cheese too!

This generation is SO fucking socially awkward.

This post has me dying

This is common on the West coast (CA in particular) for some reason with younger groups. Don't let it happen here!!!

wait, i don't understand why this is a bad thing

Oh like we aren’t?!

That and the fried chickpeas kept me alive for years.

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Only place I’ve seen it was at a bar where there are only a couple seats, so you get a drink and go to a table

Also very common in Oregon. Several bars In Portland have signs that say “do not line up” because people just will otherwise

All these old commenters hating on something different just cause they didn’t do it like that themselves. Damn, I would honestly rather wait in a line. Better than a bartender saying they’ll be right with you a million times as they keep missing you time and time again.

How is lining up for something socially awkward!?!?

It's like crazy smart and actually pretty fucking respectable if you take one minute to think about it hahaha

Totally agree lol. I feel like it's just better in every way.

Take me back 😢

A line would gum up the room. Nobody wants a line in the middle of a bar. Also if you're spread out across the bar you have a place to take your time to pay, a place for them to put your drink down. Things would take much longer if each person had to wait for the person in front of them to move. You spread out and let the bartender do their thing more efficiently than the line can.

I do not think it's more efficient.

It’s a bar

I think this is a brewery culture thing.

Think about it. Yes it is. With people spread out at the bar, a bartender doesn't know if you're just sitting out waiting to order and they also don't know what order you arrived in, so you might be the second person "in line" but keep getting passed over because they're taking care of the people who are leaning into the bar without a seat.

It's similarly inefficient to the way Dunkin workers refuse to use the order number printed on every receipt. Instead, they announce "egg and cheese" or "coffee extra extra" as if literally everyone in the joint doesn't order those things and then freak out when the wrong person claims the item.

Lining up at a bar is maybe unexpected, and it definitely gums up the room (but not the bar), but it is absolutely NOT inefficient.

A bartender usually knows what order you arrived in. When you get passed over it might make you wait longer but it is not inefficient for the bartender. And they know you're waiting for a drink because you're looking at them waiting for something.

This is hilarious

Meh, when I was tending bar, if I was getting rocked and could talk to the next customer I would take their order as I made a drink. Can't do that really with a line.

Wait, no. As a bartender I love this for a high volume venue 🤣 can we please start this practice

I was in AS220 a couple weekends ago, I’m 42… I thought people were lined up but they weren’t. I took my drink up to the improv show. Sometimes I stay near the door cuz I’m headed upstairs, or I get behind my friends or people I recognize who I know are also headed upstairs

The above probably isn’t super relevant but I thought I’d share 😂

Did we really forget 80s goths or 90s Jnco kids? Every generation is weird because it is new and unfamiliar.

Oh come on man, we all had to learn these unspoken rules at some point. Don't be so hard on em.

"usually" is the key word. With a line, there's no guesswork

Yeah so? Lining up for shit is good lol.

I can believe that people are upset that people are voluntarily making the right and respectful choice to line up. And calling them socially awkward for doing it?? Crazy world y'all live in hahaha

> Things would take much longer if each person had to wait for the person in front of them to move.

Would it though? I could see if there are many bartenders yeah a single file queue would get clogged pretty quickly, but if there's only one person serving they'll only have so much power to get so many people's orders out the door before moving onto the next person. I can't imagine it taking longer/shorter if there were an organized queue or not, there's still going to be time taken to take the order, get the drink, open/close the tab and move on. It's unorthodox, sure, but it doesn't really feel like this should be something worth calling out tbh.

Again, you might occasionally get passed over and have to wait slightly longer as a patron, but for the bartender doing this night after night it's much more efficient.

and the metal concerts

I get it but to actually see people being polite/patient is SO refreshing

I think this is just groupthink mixed with the fact that no other place do we operate like we do at bars where we just casually walk up to the general vicinity of the register and wait for the customer service person to come to us as opposed to the other way around.

Patiently queuing is the natural, organized way of things in nearly every other aspect of life when it comes to goods and services, so it only makes sense that younger folks who haven't regularly been to bars to drink yet would do the same after every other place they've been to in their life so far has insisted on single-file queuing in order to pay for things.

Alls to say, we all had to learn these unspoken rules at some point. Give the young people a break, we were all there at one point or another 😊

Yes it would take longer. At a full bar while you're gathering your drink and your wallet and maneuvering out of the way, the bartender has typically already taken two or more orders from the people waiting nearby. Watch a bartender work and they're rarely if ever dealing with one person at a time. And again, no bar needs a line in the middle of it gumming up the flow of the room.

Fair points. Never considered the overall inconvenience of a physical line cutting through the middle of the room like that either haha

Tell me how

what you're describing is creating a line because people see that whoever is nearby to who you're currently serving gets served next because it's convenient for you, so they all queue up in that area. the only difference is they might be to the right or left or wherever they can fit

They wait on more than one person at a time. The line prevents them from being able to do that their way. A bartender might get 3 orders and start the one that makes the most sense to start first, do something else while the head is going down on a beer etc. While waiting for you to gather up your wallet and drink and get out of the way they're talking to 3 more people to your left. They don't go from order to change one person at a time while they bartend. It would take much longer.

Who’s we! 😂

Ostia burrito with verde and a limeade please .

I think this requires profoundly underestimating bartenders

The only other place I’ve seen it is a casino bar where the seats are filled with people playing video poker or whatever.

I see why its weird for a quiet night, but I'm totally fine with this practice being adopted at a busy bar. Have at it, gen Z.

I don't need to spend any more of my life squeezing in between two barstools and trying to catch the eye of the bartender before the five other people also waiting.

They are the same people who line up at a museum to see a painting.

Well, not really, because bartenders mostly notice the order in which people arrive, and I have a neck that can swivel 180 degrees, enabling me to address different people. The only line it creates is a horizontal one in front of the well/taps, which does not create a long tail that disrupts the barroom. I also can take orders as I run drinks to other parts of the bar.

Yes but it's a bar. It's like a horizontal line....with seats...and a place to lean.

A bartender can serve five customers getting bottles or cans in the time it takes to serve one Guinness. Not to mention the difference between people keeping open tabs vs the people who are closing after each drink.

Lines encourage one at a time and it fucks up a system that’s worked fine since the invention of bars.

There is a line, and bartenders are keenly aware of people trying to cut "the line" (with aggressive flagging) to get their drinks in. They serve you in the order you arrive. They don't make eye contact on purpose until its your turn. Someone make a tik tok idk.

Back when they had the Taqueria Pacifica counter? Absolutely excellent.

Thanks, that makes sense. I guess I just have that "fuck this guy in particular" look to me that gets me ignored

I agree. It feels more “fair” to line up but I’ve always found that people take their time moving out of the front of the line once served. They’re signing the credit card receipt, putting their wallet away, etc. No line means the bartender can just move on to the next customer without waiting for them to move.

Every industry is short staffed, if they didn’t have many staff behind the bar then a single line would be better than having a dozen people around the bar.

This has got to be the weirdest "kids these days" post I have ever seen. 🤣

I bartended there for years and recently went to my first show there since Covid. Such a sad husk of its former self.

And lining up makes that... Better? What's the issue lol

It makes it worse for the bartender who tends to interact with more than one person at a time. As someone else said they can serve 4 people cans while they're waiting for a Guinness pour from a tap. They can do it their way which is never one person at a time.

This whole thread is like a microcosm of things I notice in my 20 year old son and his generation. Occasional inexperience with the unspoken social rules of in-person interactions, healthy questioning of the usefulness of those rules, and the ability to hear another point of view and change their mind without being a total dickhole.

Yea im with you for what its worth. Sure a line “makes sense” but it’s a BAR

It’s honestly just a weird vibe. That’s really it

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It's pretty common in other cities I've been too. I prefer it. There have been nights at my work that I have suggested to customers that they line up. It's a lot easier and a lot better. You order your drink and get walking. And no one's yelling or waving money in a bartender's face becaue you all know who's next in line.

This is how a lot of breweries operate but hell, this ought not spread

Every bartender I've ever met has said they would prefer a line lol

Welp there's at least one bartender in this post saying that's the way it is and apparently several bars where there are signs not to do this. There might be some logic to what I'm saying.

I think you are seeing an influx of people that just turned 21 and have never been to a bar before.

I’m the bartender at AS220 and I die a little every time a line forms at the bar