Bars, Pubs, and Taverns Welcome Customers and Offer Alcoholic Drinks (Jhon Smith Ben)

A common social practice is to go out for drinks with your friends. There are wide varieties of venues where you can get alcoholic drinks, sit and listen to music, or just enjoy the company of your peers. These venues have a specialized counter called "the bar," where a bartender and his helper work on preparing cocktails and pouring wine and beer. The "back bar" is an area behind the bartender that has the liquor stock and glassware. Many bars are highly decorated and very ornate. Others are understated. But all bars serve alcoholic beverages that are commonly known as drinks.

Tables, chairs, and stools at high counters provide seating for customers. Couples or a single individual are welcome to sit at the bar to enjoy their drinks and the company of others seated nearby. Large groups can sit at a table or in a booth. Depending on the size and layout of the bar or pub, cocktail waitresses serve the drinks that the bartender has made. Occasionally, in a smaller tavern, the bartender does the serving.

Bar patrons may find themselves enjoying drinks in a myriad of surroundings. Dive bars, for instance, are usually frequented by local people who are only interested in getting an alcoholic beverage with their friends. Neighborhood bars may serve drinks to the same patrons nearly every night of the week. Other bars feature live music, along with the drinks. These bars frequently implement a cover charge or have a minimum drink purchase requirement. The cover charge is usually used to pay the live musicians; however, they gratefully accept tips, as well. Other pubs and taverns have DJs who play recorded music. Usually, a bar comes to be known for the type of music it plays. Some of these bars may have a small dance floor, but the focus of the business is serving alcoholic drinks. Cocktail lounges are frequently found in hotels and restaurants.

In many cities, laws are in place that prohibit minor children from entering an establishment that serves alcoholic drinks. Zoning and legal restrictions may state where these establishments can be located within a city or town. Some communities place restrictions on what type of alcohol can be served to patrons. For instance, wine bars can only serve wine and drinks that have an alcohol percentage not greater than wine. Many wine bars are quite elegant and most are quiet. Wine bars may offer a small tasting menu, with food selected to be paired with certain wines. Beer is served, almost exclusively, at beer pubs or small microbreweries. A person looking to have a drink made with vodka or Scotch would probably not go into a microbrewery for a drink. Many microbreweries and brewpubs serve food, as well.

Drinks have become very sophisticated, with cocktails coming in a wide variety of flavors. A cocktail is sometimes defined as an alcoholic spirit mixed with soda or fruit juice and served with fruit or herbs. Ingenious new concoctions arrive on the scene from time to time. Bartenders who experiment with flavors, mixers, and ingredients are now called mixologists. The techniques and recipes are known as mixology. In large urban areas, customers become familiar with what kinds of cocktails a certain mixologist or bar generally serves. For instance, martini bars are popular and the list of martini types is seemingly endless. Bartenders invent new combinations and offer them to their customers. The ones that taste good become popular; the drinks that don't are usually not seen again.

Drinks are not only varied, but so is the glassware in which they are served. For instance, fine red wines are ideally served in a balloon-shaped crystal glass. White wine glasses are more vertically shaped. Champagne flutes are designed to keep the bubbles in the glass until the wine is consumed. Martini glasses, highball glasses, pilsner glasses, beer steins, glasses specifically designed for ales or porters, and many others grace the back bars of nearly every establishment where drinks are sold.

Drinks have a long and colorful history. Some have been used for medicinal purposes. Others were invented in celebration of an important date or event. But the idea of going out for drinks remains a constant.

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