Ode to Sitting at the Bar

I love sitting at the bar.  So much so that the first line in my Bumble profile is, “prefer sitting at the bar to sitting at a table”.  This year has been rough on that front.  Even when New York was allowing indoor dining, it was table seating only.  I could only longingly eye my preferred bar perch from across a not very crowded room. So close, and yet so very very far away.

I have a definite preference in bar stools.  My favorite ones 1) have a back, 2) swivel! 3) are padded, and 4) have crossbars at a convenient level on which to rest the dainty feet that are at the bottom of my short legs.  I’m not saying I won’t sit on a stool that doesn’t have these features, but if any bar owners are reading this – back, swivel, padding, foot rests!!

When I want to get my drink on I want it now.  Sitting at the bar expedites this process.  Ordering a drink at a table entails the following scenario: my waitperson notices that they’ve got a new table, wanders over and grudgingly takes my drink order, visits several other tables, places my drink order, flirts with another member of staff, forgets that they need to pick up my drink order, and finally (finally!) brings it to me.  Ordering a drink at the bar means I just have to make eye contact with the bartender, rattle off my beverage of choice and voila, drink is on. Ditto for refills. Ditto for ordering food. Talk about cutting out the middle man.

When you eat alone, sitting at the bar signifies you’re the cool chick who just happens to be solo.  Sitting at a table signifies you’re the lonely lady who, after eating, will return to her hoarder style apartment and feed her two cats.

Eating at the bar with someone allows for many interesting options that are just not possible sitting across a table.  Thigh contact, spontaneous kissing, surreptitious food stealing and drink sampling, and, if your date is boring the crap out of you, much less need for eye contact and much more opportunity for striking up conversations with other, more interesting, people.  

Someone asked me the other day, “what’s the thing you want to do most when this pandemic is over”?  I’m a simple gal. I want to walk around the corner to my favorite local (shout out to Bodega 88!), sit in one of their padded, swiveling, high backed bar stools, set my feet on the conveniently placed foot rest, and order margaritas and tacos. Preferably with a friend, but solo is fine with me too.