Is Wednesday the New Friday for Happy Hour?

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, here's a different kind of question to end the show today. When it comes to happy hour, is Wednesday the new Friday? Crain's New York Business declares city bars have a new motto, TGIW, Thank God it's Wednesday. For the story, reporter C. J. Hughes spoke with bar managers, restaurateurs, and landlords, and they told him that while Fridays and Saturdays are quieter than they were before the pandemic, Tuesdays through Thursdays seem to be the new normal for an after-work happy hour. Hughes suggests remote and hybrid work are the most likely factors in the shift. I think that's probably obvious.

Listeners, here's the question, put some meat on these bones, how have remote and hybrid work schedules changed your happy hour habits or social life with your work colleagues in any way? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Bar owners or restaurant or bar workers, we want to hear from you too, help us report this story on changing habits for socializing with your co-workers among the office workers set. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Workers, if you're going into the office less than you were before the pandemic, of course, it's Wednesday, so probably nobody's listening, you're all at work right now, have you decided to forego the after-work stop at the bar all together? Maybe we should be doing this call-in on Friday. If you own a bar or restaurant that offers a discount on drinks during happy hour, how have you had to adjust to accommodate any post-pandemic changes in the way people drink and dine during the week? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

The story in Crain's that inspired this call-in documents one other relevant change. The reporter, C. J. Hughes, writes, "Across the city's business districts, the traditional time of discounted drinks has been creeping earlier and earlier since the pandemic, to the point where the old saying about it being five o'clock somewhere might need its time change to it's two o'clock somewhere." And he continues, "Whereas happy hour gatherings used to segue into long nights out, they usually break up at the end of the cheap drinks window, often so drinkers can catch trains back home." Listeners, tell us how this relates to your own lifestyle and socializing choices.

If you go into work in an office some days or if you own or work in a bar or restaurant, what has the reality of hybrid work schedules meant for the way you do happy hour or socialize with your work colleagues? 212-433-WNYC. Is this a good thing? Has it freed you up to go in your Please to socialize as well as to work? If you're a worker and if you own a bar or restaurant, what's changed about when people drink and dine at your business, and how are you making it on a three-day week if that's what you're now seeing in terms of your business peaks? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or text to that same number. TGIW. We'll take your calls right after this.

[music]

Brian Lehrer on WNYC, now to your TGIW calls. Thank God it's Wednesday. Is that replacing Thank God It's Friday in after-office socializing? Harold in Brooklyn, a bartender, you're on WNYC. Hi, Harold.

Harold: Howdy, Brian. Long-time [unintelligible 00:04:14]. I am actually right now covering a happy hour Wednesday shift. I'm normally a weekend night guy at bars for the last decade. I can definitely echo that statement that over the last year, especially this last year post-pandemic, drinking habits have really changed and drifted away from nightlife and late-night weekends into more happy hour stuff. I really look forward to covering these day shifts.

Brian Lehrer: Why do you think the late-night piece of it is falling away? If people used to work five days a week and would go out and hang out after work on a weeknight, having to go in the next day, why aren't they doing that now with fewer weekdays to choose from? Anything?

Harold: I've kicked this around with many other bar owners and bartenders. We've all kind of come up with theories here and there. I believe it to be some form of an amalgamation of things. I think it's a lot of people got a taste of waking up early during the pandemic that were staying up late in New York City. I think people's budgets have changed a little bit, and happy hour seems to be much more approachable. I think that there's also maybe a general sense of a shift in maybe how people see health, maybe in bars, and I see a lot more maybe responsible drinking at night.

Brian Lehrer: I guess that's a good thing. Have the tips changed?

Harold: They are worse than ever. It is so bad, but that's okay because I just work more hours. I also don't drink anymore, so I don't spend money on it, so I'm good.

Brian Lehrer: For you, at least, it evens out. Harold, thank you. Call again, Tom, in Bed–Stuy you're on WNYC. Hi Tom.

Tom: Hey, Brian, first-time caller. I can't believe you nailed a perfect topic for me this morning. Yes, I'm a bar manager at a bar in Clinton Hill. We open at three o'clock. Happy hour ends at six. I'd say we are definitely busier during that happy hour. People come in at 3:30 and we'll finish up their day with a cocktail on their laptop, which I am A-Okay with.

Brian Lehrer: Are you seeing lower levels of tipping as well, like the last caller?

Tom: No, I think tips were way up for a while. I think now people are getting a little burnt out on the tipping being everywhere, so we're seeing a bounce back from the rise in tipping culture. Generally, people are having a good time. They're happy to be welcomed during the afternoon in a bright bar, get out of their house, finish their workday.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, and happy to get home earlier, it sounds like. Tom, thank you very much. Vanessa in South Plainfield, you're on WNYC. Hi, Vanessa.

Vanessa: Hi, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good, you work in a restaurant too, I see.

Vanessa: Yes, I work at an Italian restaurant bar. The only thing that I've seen change would probably be the time that people are leaving the bar. We probably close down around twelve o'clock at the latest. It's not anymore like the 2:00 AM, 3:00 AM. We're constantly busy for lunch, for dinner, and tips are up. I make a lot of money where I work. I don't know if it's the area, but people have money and they're willing to tip for a good service.

Brian Lehrer: What do you make of people going home earlier? This is a part of the Crain's article that we seem to definitely be confirming with this call-in because everybody who's called so far, who works in a bar or restaurant, says yes, happy hour and just the drinking generally has shifted to earlier, not just fewer days of the week. What do you think?

Vanessa: Honestly, I love that we close earlier. I'm already working seven hours, and then if people are still getting drinks for another two hours, that's just a lot on your feet. I think because of the pandemic, people have learned to stay home, drink at home, hang out with their friends at home. Yes, honestly, at our restaurant, it's always very packed, and people leave earlier, but they get those drinks in beforehand.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Here, I'm going to read you a text message that came in from a listener and see if you think that as a restaurant worker, you've ever seen anything like this, or maybe this can't filter over to you. A listener writes, "I'm a huge introvert and always avoided socializing with co-workers at work. Now that I work remotely, I'm open and sometimes even eager to get together with colleagues after work. I think I'm more open to connecting with people when it doesn't feel forced." Are you seeing anything you can read like that like different clientele coming in than before the pandemic or anything that would reflect on that text?

Vanessa: I could definitely see where she's coming from. It's like you go from almost having to socialize to not even getting the chance to socialize. I honestly don't really like to socialize, but at work, I love it. I don't know if it's because the people are tipping me, and that's what I'm making my money off of, so I really just give it my all.

Brian Lehrer: Vanessa, thanks. Good luck out there. Don in Spotswood, you're on WNYC. Hi, Don.

Don: Hi, good morning, Brian. I love the show. It's the best thing on radio. My wife and me, we have a different circumstance. She has to work three days a week in the office, and I'm remote all the time. She works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and we now refer to Wednesday as First Friday. [chuckles] We will have a beverage this evening when we get together, but one of the things that we did, and this is just to touch on what someone said earlier about being healthier, we did a dry January.

When we did the dry January, I drank non-alcoholic beer, and we are continuing to do that. Now, I will have my regular beer, but I keep the non-alcoholic beer around so I can have one. They're lowering calories, they taste delicious, and they don't have any follow-on effect. That's really good.

Brian Lehrer: It sounds like you could wind up drinking more on this schedule because if you call Wednesdays First Fridays, then it's almost like saying you have a four-day weekend every week. Does it tempt you to drink more because you're drinking on Wednesdays like you were drinking on Fridays, and so you're drinking on Thursdays, like you weren't drinking on Saturdays, and then comes the actual weekend?

Don: It doesn't work that way. I don't think I can tell you why. I think we are much more conscious of-- You know what, maybe the pandemic did it. Much more conscious of health effects of things that I do now than I have. I'm also 65 years old, that might have something to do with it. I love beer and on Fridays, we still have a thing where there's a local craft brewery that we go to and we'll have a couple, but it's earlier, it absolutely is earlier.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, it's earlier.

Don: We go right after work, and then we come home and have dinner usually.

Brian Lehrer: Don, thank you very much. One more text. Listener writes, "TGIW. I see this with my husband and our friends. They only go into the office Tuesday through Thursday and we live in the Jersey suburbs, and no one feels like meeting back up in the city for a Friday Happy Hour." Interesting. All right, more early birds. I don't know if that means you're catching more worms, but I think we've established that there are more early birds in the post-depts of the pandemic work world.

That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily politics podcast. We had Juliana Fonda and Miyan Levenson at the audio control. Stay tuned for All Of It. Talk to you tomorrow.

 

Copyright © 2023 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.