Below is a photo of my tab from a recent trip to Bossa Nova, a tapas restaurant in Pittsburgh with a very large ‘chill’ bar area.
As I glanced over the tab, I suddenly realised that this place was pretty much exclusively a Martini and wine bar. My tab was labeled simply ‘Penn Pilsner’ because I was the only one in the bar drinking beer!
@ Conall
Did that beer come with a scoff or at least a raised eyebrow?
@ Mark
Not only did I get a scoff when I ordered a beer, it was almost a look of “I would expect that kind of order from someone like you”. (I was the only guy in the joint in a t-shirt — polo shirts and dress shirts all around.)
My casual outfit also got a dirty look from the bus-boy, whom I had stopped as I first arrived to ask if the kitchen was open.
From the reception I got, I think the “Penn Pilsner” on my tab could just as easily have been “That Guy”.
So, Conall, were you meeting people there or were you just after some tapas or what? If you just wanted a beer, why did you go to a cocktail bar?
How is Penn Pilsner, by the way? I’ve never heard of it before.
@ Liam
Lots of good questions:
(1) As a consultant on the road, I often eat dinner by myself, so I usually look for a restaurant with a bar, where I can watch TV or chat with the bartender.
(2) I went there because I wanted to try the food, but didn’t want a cocktail or wine, so beer it was.
(3) Penn Pilsner certainly is tasty. A local micro-brew, as you may have guessed.
http://www.pennbrew.com/data/english/beers_pennpilsner.htm
One used to think this sort of classist/ ‘other-ist’ treatment of a punter is the unique preserve of the British pub landlords in the country side. (If this isn’t true then I look seriously under-age!)
In America, you could easily have been a millionaire who could have bought the bar and the entire village and fired everyone for being like this, no?