1) Change of scenery: Especially since I started working from home, I often need an excuse to "go touch grass".

2) Human interaction: At the very least, there's going to be a bartender, and most of the time at least one other person sitting at the bar. Not interacting with other humans face-to-face often enough leads to madness.

3) Variety: I don't stock every beer, liquor, and cocktail ingredient known to man at home (despite my best efforts).

And frankly, that "less risk of getting in a fight" comment is probably the biggest one. Not because I'm particularly rowdy, but because it's indicative of a larger theme: at home, drinking alone, I know exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to have 2 or 4 pretty good drinks, watch some streaming shows, maybe play some videogames, and go to sleep. A bar has the allure of entropy. Interesting things might happen. I might see a fight, I might talk to someone with an interesting story, I might taste something I've never tasted before. The lack of predictability is a selling point unto itself.

On the topic of the general appeal of a public watering hole, I’ll direct you to a passage from the intro music of the seminal sitcom Cheers (which itself touches on your very question):

Sometimes you wanna go

Where everybody knows your name

And they're always glad you came

You wanna be where you can see

Our troubles are all the same

You wanna be where everybody knows your name

Right but you don't got to a hotel bar for that!

Could it be coming from within if you get yourself in bar fights often enough to make it a consideration for not going out?

I've had my fair share of bars and clubs. Never once got remotely close to be involved in a fight, it's not something that even crosses my mind as a potential issue.

Maybe it's just luck. I could be in the corner of the room facing the wall, and I'll just attract trouble.

Half of going to a bar is to have a change of pace. Either to meet people or to have a separate place to contemplate and relax that isn’t at home.

It's much more preferable to drink alone at home than to go out to a bar. I understand people who wax enthusiastic about bars will disagree, and are far more likely to read the headline and post a comment here.

I've met a lot of interesting people just sitting at the bar by myself, it's a really low stakes way to meet new people.

It's a roll of the dice.

I'd rather pre-screen the people online first before I meet them, or meet people at special interest clubs or events. I'm way more likely to meet someone I have something in common with that way than meeting random people at a bar.

Not to mention that at a bar I'm much more likely to meet the kind of people that hang out in bars, which from my experience haven't been the kind of people I like.

You select people by picking the right bar. You probably won't get terribly interesting conversation in the Slug & Lettuce on the high street (although you might). I have had interesting conversations in little bars in the arty (or at least, pretentious twentysomething) part of town, or well-concealed specifically cocktailish bars in Paris.

Meeting people that you have very little in common with over a drink is one of the pros of these sort of low-stakes interactions. Sometimes it’s just brief pleasantries exchanged, sometimes an opportunity to learn something new, other times a new friend made for the evening or beyond.

Me too, but a lot of mad-as-a-badger nut-jobs too; not knowing which you'll get is half of the fun ...

Because your neighbours complain when you're throwing parties all the time or being loud at night.

That's why it's called a "pub": A public house. It's a place specifically for being loud at night.

If people didn't have neighbours who wanted to sleep, nobody would go to a pub, it would just be house parties all the time. In rural areas it is.

Their point was in the context of the article, which is about trying to find a quiet place to drink alone. How is that not "your own house"?

You're absolutely right.

They should've thought of that before moving next to a bar.

Maybe the bar opened after they moved in.

And some people don't have the luxury of living somewhere quiet, though they would much rather do so.

It's a bit more social - the local bars I go to I know loads of people who go, I know the bar staff. There's little-to-no risk of fighting and this is true for most bars here unless you really wanted to find trouble (i.e. you sought out a football bar and went in loudly declaring your love for Sparta Prague and calling the local team shite). Re travel time, where I go is usually about 10 minutes walk home ... but if I have my dog then this is no different from drinking at home since before bed I need to take him ~10 minutes around the block anyway after I was done for the night.

I appreciate that this isn't true for everywhere.

I live in a cramped pre war studio in Manhattan. There’s countless bars a 5 minute walk from me - including hotel bars.

What's the range of drinks that you carry at home? How many cocktails do you know how to make? Do you have the ingredients to make them? What happens when a drunk guest spills his beer on your carpet? What happens when some acquaintances bring acquaintances that bring acquaintances? How do you continue the party? Does everyone have to drive to the club? Isn't everyone drunk already?

I see plenty of reasons without even going to the fact that it's just about going out.

I get your point if your idea of going to the bar is to have a pint with your wife on Sunday afternoon, which is a valid idea of going to the bar. But it's just not the case for a lot of people, and not the topic of the article.

Bars often vary ingredients that I wouldn’t purchase for myself and therefore allows me to try a variety of drinks that I can’t make by myself. Also, alcohol and socializing is a positive feedback loop for many people.

Drinking tend to make a lot of people more sociable, and enjoy talking to others. By going to a bar where others are also drinking you have a place where there will be similarly extra-sociable-from-drinking people to interact with. If you’ve ever had a friend or family member who likes to call and talk whenever they are drinking and you are sober and find the conversation trying - you can understand the draw a social atmosphere where (most) everyone will be drinking.

Set and setting. The drug has a different effect in a crowd, in a small group, alone.

Sometimes I just need to get the fuck out of my place.

Bartenders are the cheapest therapist.

ChatGPT is healthier and cheaper.

EDIT: the parent suggested that alcohol and an untrained therapist is cheaper. I posted something that is cheaper and healthier since it wont ruin your liver. Not to mention, chatgpt is actually trained on CBT.