When you go to bars, do you usually order a shot a beer? Makes sense, since beyond being a good way to start a night with two alcohols instead of one, it’s a tactic that at least feels like a deal if you get it for say, $5. Have you considered the meaning of a shot and a beer though? About how Joe Alcoholic drinks them at his dim, depressing House of Beer? Oh, you haven’t? Well, craft cocktail bars and the the New York Times have, and now a shot and a beer is being tarred as some fancy bullshit. Cheers!
Instead of just being a drink that you can get because you’re broke and you want to get drunk quickly because of life in general or a specifically bad life event, a shot and a beer is not a signifier that a craft cocktail bar “doesn’t take itself too seriously,” according to the Times. We mean, sure, you can still pay $17 for cocktails with names you can’t pronounce, but come on, how self-serious can a place be that offers to sell you a beer…partnered with a shot? It’s delightfully droll!
Some cocktail bars are trying to split the difference, and still make their shot and a beer out of difficult to pronounce ingredients like aquavit and Blanche de Bruxelles, or amontillado sherry and some ponies. Just in case you were worried, in the end, that a shot and a beer couldn’t just be a goddamn shot and a beer, the Times found a shot and a beer drinker to give them a ridiculous quote for a kicker: “It’s really simple and not pretentious in any way, and kind of old school.”
No pretension here, no sir.
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Got to say, I didn't realize how much Philly really has this down on lock with its "Citywide Special" until visiting a few weeks ago. It's $3 for a shot and a beer pretty much everywhere, which is a price I think you can only get at a certain comic-book themed Bushwick bar. And whoever named it the "Citywide" made a smart move by playing up an angle of civic obligation and Philly pride. Like if anyone tried to charge more, they'd be like "oh you're too good for the CITYWIDE??"