Just like most movies, the protagonist enter a bar and find a seat near a counter.
“Insert alcohol name” on the rock, he said.
The bartender then pours the drink for the protagonist.
He will enjoy the drink lonely. After finishing the drink, he would not tell the bartender that he wants to pay the bill.
Instead, he put the money and the table and leave without noticing anyone in the store.
Is this some kind of Hollywood movie only scenario? I am just curious and wanna experience it sometimes.
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As far as paying, you can easily over pay and they keep the difference as a tip.
Yes, this is entirely plausible in America. If a person knows what their drink cost they can leave that amount or more for a tip. The bar will be fine with it.
No it’s not just a Hollywood thing, that happens here except the last part about paying. We usually pay for the drink when it’s given to us, unless we tell the bartender to put it on our tab, indicating we’re planning on drinking more than one drink.
It’s kinda a lonely thing to do, just go drink one drink at a bar by yourself. It’s better if you go and talk to strangers, IMO. Just strike up some small talk and have more than one drink
I’ve done this at restaurants if I’m in a particular rush. Just left enough cash on the table to cover what I knew would be the total, tip, and then some, and just left.
As long as you aren’t screwing someone over, you can pretty much do as you please.
I think a lot of posters don’t understand what’s (visual) storytelling shorthand and what isn’t. It’s a quick way of showing the character is lonely/in an antisocial mood/pensive, needed/*thought* he needed a drink, and knows events aren’t waiting for him to finish that drink.
Yeah, it’s somewhat unlikely, but tips (if not entire bills) get left, in cash, on many a table and bar.
Depends on the part of the country you are in.
Yes, bar culture is prevalent and just hanging out by yourself and then leaving cash is fine. Typically a person who leaves cash is a regular patron, who knows how much their drink costs and how much money to leave.
A part of American bar culture is being a “regular,” where the bartender knows your drink, and you’re a familiar face to the other customers. (Think the sitcom “Cheers.”)
In my Baltimore-region town, there was a dude who would pull up a stool in the local pub on Friday nights, sip a Rolling Rock, and silently plow through a seemingly bottomless pile of scratch-off lotto tickets. Winning tickets were calmly placed to one side. When he was done, he’d place cash on the bar and leave.
Nobody treated this as particularly odd. He was a regular, after all.
I’m now a mom, who no longer drinks, so I don’t go to bars anymore. But I often wonder about that dude, and I hope he hit it big.
Ive done this before, never had issues or anyone chase after me or anything.
My dad owns a small town bar. He has 5-10 regulars that come in almost every day of the week. Each patron has a tab, everything gets written on the tab and they pay for it on Friday when they get paid.
The scenario you laid out used to happen all the time when I bartended nights in college. Old guy walks in, orders a whisky and a beer. Drinks it alone while watching hockey or baseball and throws $7 on the table to pay for them. Not everybody goes to the bar to talk with folks, sometimes it’s just a drink on the way home from a long day of work
The above could happen, though usually you pay when you get your drink or more typically give them a credit card at the end.
A new thing we have is breweries and brewpubs. These are bars or restaurants who brew their own beer, often on site. Most of them embrace a family culture and have board games, meetups, bands, etc. sometimes they have a kitchen and other times you can order food to be delivered to the brewery, or some even have food trucks outside. Often they sell merch for their brewery like Tshirts, keychains, glassss, etc. IMO breweries tend to be cleaner and nicer than a lot of bars, but typically it is only beer (or sometimes wine, seltzer). People at breweries often order a “flight” which is a small glass of 4-5 of the beers to try.
“Prevalent” as in common for most people? We all CAN do that (if not in a dry town) and no one thinks anything of it. But do we? For most people, not often. I think if people are depressed they’re more likely to take the bang for their buck by drinking at home. When I travel alone I may stop in at a bar and have a drink but not morosely like described. People at the bar usually end up chatting with each other or the bartender in a friendly way.
Just to give you an example of how prevalent it is, there was a recent topic about it on /r/Dallas
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dallas/comments/10536l6/im_sad_and_want_to_drink_somewhere_sad_dive_bars/
Not that common to see someone at the bar looking miserable and lonely but it’s fairly common to just leave the amount you owe and walk out, especially if you are a regular.
Done it many times.
I’ve traveled all around the world, and this behavior would be normal everywhere I’ve been. In fact, it’s more prevalent in many of the places I’ve been than in the US.
Yes, that’s just generally how it’s done in Hollywood to make scenes flow faster.
It avoids the extra time and trouble of showing them pulling out a debit card, and handing it over and signing a card slip etc., and the scene is also scripted and shot so the bartender never has to say anything. . .because if the actor says even one word they have to pay him substantially more.
Yea I’m sure it happens but for the millionth time, it’s a movie.