Damn, did you know back in the day tons of bars just gave you food for free?
Damn, did you know back in the day tons of bars just gave you food for free?
A lot of old-timey saloons would just put out a lunch buffet and as long as you bought one drink you could take what you like. Pretty good food by some accounts.
I talked to my Dad and he claimed this was still a thing in a few places as late as the early-80s, there were places with "happy hour" where they would put out a small buffet like once a week. He said in college he'd go to them and buy one beer and fill up.
lol at "no such thing as a free lunch" being completely untrue lies made up by neoliberal ghouls
Sharing food with others, one of the most common human group activities over the last couple of thousands of years?
No such thing as a free lunch
You should attempt to brush up on your reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. If you're required to make a purchase to get free shit, the free shit is actually just shit you paid for. Might be cheap, but it ain't free.
You should brush up on your reading comprehension because the lunch was literally free, people did not pay for lunch or, if we consider your view, far less than what the lunch is worth. The point is that you could pay only for the cost of beer and the lunch comes free. If you bothered to read the Wikipedia article you would see that "These establishments included a "free" lunch, which varied from rudimentary to quite elaborate, with the purchase of at least one drink. These free lunches were typically worth far more than the price of a single drink.[1] The saloon-keeper relied on the expectation that most customers would buy more than one drink, and that the practice would build patronage for other times of day."
It was a marketing strategy for bars, sell at a loss and gain a profit another way. The point remains however that they would literally give you a lunch for free, something that I did not know actually happened.
The nearly indigent "free lunch fiend" was a recognized social type. An 1872 New York Times story about "loafers and free-lunch men" who "toil not, neither do they spin, yet they 'get along'", visiting saloons, trying to bum drinks from strangers: "Should this inexplicable lunch-fiend not happen to be called to drink, he devours whatever he can, and, while the bartender is occupied, tries to escape unnoticed."
FreeLunchFiend sounds like a fun username.
NYT has not changed at all in 150 years.
Today I learned: there actually used to be a "free lunch". They lied to us!
That's what they do.
If you're in college and pay attention to staff, faculty, and alumni event schedules there still can be.
CW: seafood.
Old bay seasoning was developed to get Baltimore bar-goers thirsty after loading up on free crab, so they’d buy more beers :::
pffft, I can get free crabs at the bath house!
That was basically a similar thing in Wisconsin back in the day. But like, we kinda fished those lakes to death. Now the fish ain't so cheap.
This is still a thing in Mexico, and to a certain extent in many Mediterranean countries in Europe. In Mexico, the more you drink, the more/better food you get. And in the Mediterranean countries you always get some snacks like olives or potato chips, plus some bread or cheese.
If you order a beer at a bar in southern Spain, they give you a free tapa.
Good deal.
Still a thing in Northern Italy, called Aperitivo.
The snacks vary from place to place, from olives and breadsticks up to pizza
I know, right? I will never cease to be amazed at people being surprised by this. I'm Spanish, and the concept of "tapas" has been twisted when exported to other countries. You don't pay for tapas, tapas are the free food you get with the drink you order. The food you order to share are raciones. Don't get me wrong, tapas aren't a big thing everywhere in Spain (they're amazing in Granada for example), but I cringe at being amazed at discovering that this is an alien concept for many people...
in new orleans during football games on sundays, some bars will put out a spread of food for people. it's great food too because it's new orleans.
I've never been to a strip club, but my brother has said there exists strip clubs he's been to in Texas? I think that have buffets.
Fucking GROSS. I'm not eating a god damn thing in a place where there's people flapping their shit meat under the same roof.
And I live in Houston, working in Beaumont right now..
If the billboard can be believed, it definitely used to be a thing, but isn't as common now. I think you still had to pay entry or for the buffet tho
I have no idea wth is going on here but
The concept of a free lunch is critiqued in the phrase "no such thing as a free lunch", popularized in part by authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and Milton Friedman.[2]
Hahahahahaahhaa
retrvn
Someone already mentioned tapas in Spain but i wanted to elaborate. I spent the most time in granada but it was also the case in other cities, but in some places you go into a bar and order a half pint (for like 2 euros, about the same as a bottle of water in the convenience stores there) and they bring you a little plate od food. For your second drink, the food is different, better and more filling. For your third, fourth and fifth, sixth, whatever drink, the food keeps getting better. You could go sit down in the afternoob and walk out a few hours later with a full stomach and a nice buzz, it was great.
And everyone could use them, right?