Have you ever took a break from going to a specific bar or restaurant?

[Anonymous]

like took a break meaning you didn't go there for a while , like longer than say 1 or 2 weekends like a couple months or more.

for whatever reason decided it might be best to not go there for the time being , was some reason you felt it might be best to not go to that specific bar.

how did it go , did you eventually go back there? what was it like on return?

[_Maya_]

There are a couple local (not chains) that just fell apart over the years. I liked going there and whatever happened…happened. I don’t know if it was the pandemic or mismanagement but they were just crap all of a sudden and stayed that way. So I can totally relate to what you are asking. Most of the chains are just blah anyways so I don’t go there much. There are some really consistent restaurants where I live that I can always depend on. Some are very old clubs that my parents belong to. Others have just been established for long before I was born. Either way they always do well. It is the ones that were so good and just went terrible that make me wonder why. It is a shame 99.9% of the time because they were nice places and someone ruined it.

[Asker]

there was this seasonal restaurant here , before covid it always had really good bar nights every Thursday during the summer. then stopped during covid

and wasn't until last summer that bar night resumes however they weren't the same , did live music instead of a dj which was ok but not the same club vibe. also didn't do any drink specials like before so prices were way too high for a bar night , you like couldn't even afford to buy someone a shot , was over $20 before tip just for 2 shots and no specials on beer either

not sure if they plan on doing bar nights again this summer or not but hope they learned from mistakes and have some drink specials this summer or no one is going to come out.

[Asker]

before covid on there bar nights always had a can of tallboy beer that was on special so people could afford to drink there rather cheaply

[_Maya_]

Aww see that sucks and very similar to some places I liked. The club I bartend at was unchanged and still thriving but some of the hotspots we would go to folded. I hate that. You get used to the vibe of places and match it to your mood when you go out. Damn.

[Asker]

some restaurant here also reduced hours during covid so they'd close earlier like at 9 or 10 pm

like my hometown despite being 20,000 pop. on weekends is only 2 places that are open late , a pub downtown and a roadhouse style chain restaurant.

the other chain restaurants , micro breweries , restaurants downtown all close early

the bar scene in my hometown needs a serious revamp , not really sure what could be done but needs something.

[Asker]

i was at a sports bar downtown last Saturday , i asked bartender when it closed and they said 10 pm and that was on a Saturday night. it was also like empty , but maybe everyone came out Sunday for superbowl instead

[_Maya_]

So I am in a city about 100k. It is pretty good for colleges and bars, etc. I have worked at the same place for over 3 years now while I go to school. The one thing I see at our place is consistent management. Quality and consistency. Staff and product, vibe, tunes and so on. Sounds like your town needs someone to come in with an idea or vision and shake things up.

[Asker]

bar scene tough here cause there isn't a lot of singles , people always seem to be married/in relationships. although during summer is more young people around and some singles , which is when in the past was a bar scene during summer

when i was younger used to be more bars there and they'd be busier too , like Friday night everyone went to this pub/restaurant downtown and Saturday everyone went to another restaurant that had a patio on the water and did a bar night which had a small dance floor. but that places closed around 2014 and is now a chain restaurant

the place people went to on Friday still open but not as good as it used to be , bar nights there really struggled last summer , tried to do theme nights but only one that was busy was country , others all failed miserably they tried " barbie " "beach party " " apres ski " ( weird as it was summer and not 1 person came out dressed for it other than staff ) " wear your jersey for homecoming " on Thanksgiving also no one came out in jersey

[_Maya_]

Successful bars don’t do theme shit. They are successful on their own.

[Asker]

note they also did a " neon " but did it on Saturday for some reason , it was actually kind of busy but odd crowd none of the local party people came out , was full of like summer staff from camps though , like camp counsellors and such

[Asker]

the theme parties were kind of weird as they had never done them before and they were not even well advertised.

like i'd ask the bartenders on say Thursday what the theme was and they'd claim they didn't know. and only posts online about them would be like 1 tiny instagram story on bars page. like they were not advertised well at all , no wonder no one came out dressed for them as no one even knew they were going on

whatever reason the country one was packed , maybe country just more popular here or it was advertised better or people talked about it through word of mouth. but it was the only one that was actually busy and resembled a successful theme night

[_Maya_]

Dude theme shit is stupid and indicative of bars that can’t make it on their own. They gotta have some stupid gimmick. That is the sign of a failing bar, which is pretty evident by what happened to them by your own words.

[Asker]

that place seemed to have a wide variety of problems last year , hasn't really solved them yet either. think its in for a tough ride this year , could get even worse.

its weird the manager is oddly not qualified to run a bar/restaurant of that size , but she does have a diploma in advertising yet does not know how instagram / social media works. all she posts is food posts and very little about bar. the facebook page has like no new posts at all , i actually wonder if they lost password or something cause it hasn't been updated in like 2 years now

[_Maya_]

Does he hire only hot girls too?

[Asker]

to explain the bar that did Thursday night bar nights is a different bar in another town , not same bar it does hire hot girls during the summer but also has male bartenders and guys work there too.

the Friday night bar in hometown is the one that only hires the hot white girls 18-25 with hot bodies , the posts about it and all its the same bar. the owner is obviously girl crazy , i heard a story about him once from a girl who works at the other bar in the other town , she was like 21 at the time and told me how he came there once and talked to her and told her about how he owned this restaurant and left her a huge tip ,

so was talking about a couple different places

[_Maya_]

Not going to go through this again.

[Asker]

fair enough , kind of hard to believe so many hot girls want to work at a bar that is obviously failing , maybe they make enough money when its a restaurant during day they don't care about bar nights

or its at least better than working at wal mart or mcdonalds or the various chain restaurants in town

[BoopBoopBeep]

Most chains were struggling before COVID, profit margins are so slim on restaurants... they had to cut to survive, then most of them never un-cut when covid... ended? whatever we're calling it.

I'd only be dragged into one if a group was going that I hadn't seen in a while, in which case the venue doesn't matter because we could have fun lighting a dumpster on fire and hanging out by that if nothing else was available.

As for the bar scene, that lost appeal to me around 30-32. I can drink better stuff with whoever I want at my house and save the hassle of parking, uber, whatever. I've got 5 bars in my house... we're not running out and there's probably something whoever likes. Now a nice martini bar or a wine bar, yeah I'm there, but any place that makes most of its profit off beer (which I can't drink) and 3 house wines along with the typical 5 college mixed drinks, there's just no incentive to join that crowd for me.

[exitseven]

There are still a couple of restaurants that we went with our kids when they were little that we still are not allowed to go back to.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[ab2shifty]

A lot actually, im tryna eat healthy 🤣