The absolute worst Portland bar foible. Everywhere else in the country figures this out. Much like Portland's inability to zipper merger or consider rental applications equally, this little bit of "Portland fair" just jams up the entire process.

So weird! Then again i don't (can't) drink alcohol so I wouldn't know about this. The only time I was in bar line was in the early '90s in college at the local bar we all went to where you stood in line to get your pitcher(s) because that was all they served.

America loves to que
stand behind your friend
for five minutes and in ten there'll
be thirty or forty lined up behind you guys.

Ha. Just like the guy above me stated, I had a similar thing happen at Rev. Hall. Everyone is in a line, the line was long. I saw the sign and went and stood next to the guy at the front of the line and was immediately served. Someone said something to me to correct my behavior and I just pointed to the sign. Idiots.

I hate bars with no lines. I often end up getting served after people that came in after me. Lines give order to an otherwise unruly place.

And if there's a sign that says "no lines" and there's a line and you bypass it then you just broke the spirit of the "no lines" rule by being served before people that were there first. Or maybe chaos is the theme of your bar.

No place that wants to serve customers fairly and efficiently uses mob rule to organize things.

If I'm there waiting first, then serve me first. The best way to do that is with a line.

@6 and yet every other place in the world manages to serve people at their bars without their customers waiting in line (my sister manages an Irish pub in MA and there is no line an if one were suggested whoever was suggesting it would be told to get the fuck outta here!!!). I lived in NYC and drank at places from tiny bars to mid-size bars to bars full of hundreds and sometimes thousands of people (depending on the music venue) and everyone got served and no one was ever waiting in a line. I'm with @1 on this. Just because Portland can't manage to do things (like zipper merge or serve up drinks at a bar) doesn't mean the rest of us are assholes.

I am a very short female. I can't count the many times I've had to physically push my way through patrons for a spot at the bar, get overlooked by the bartenders, and jump up and and down and yell to get noticed. I love lines.

I have found that doing lines at the bar is usually frowned upon.

"Queuing up is the actual chaos,
because it makes things far less efficient."

Then why do so many Americans
seem to Love to be in a line?

Can people not look around,
see who got there first
and take their Turn,
when it is?

Why is this so Challenging?

Oh, and one more I,A bitch:

When I hold the door open, for you, in a bank, say, or any place where you're immediately herded into a line, why not return the 'favor' and que up in order of arriving at said bank's (or post office's, or whatever's) door?

Why is this simple courtesy not contagious?

@14 You just went and IA posted this one. Also, the world isn't based on whose turn it is. There are multiple factors that make it easier for some to take a place in line over others. You not zipper merging, bar ordering, renter vetting, or eliminating any of the other lines the rest of the world has already eliminated is clogging up the works for the rest of us. Just pretend you live in a society for a second and stop mandating lines for everything.

"Someone who arrived after me was served before me!!!" Fuck you, you absolute child. The point of a bar is not to serve people in the order in which they arrived. It isn't a deli counter. You don't take a fucking number. A bar exists to serve as many people as possible in as little time as possible. If you're in a line uhhhhing and ummmming over your drink, that's like three drinks the bartender isn't serving. "Fairness" is getting the drink you paid for. It has nothing to do with order of arrival. A bar doesn't need line leaders and door holders like a second-grade class at recess: It needs grown adults who can be relied upon to act that way every so often and think of others (bar staff) before themselves (assholes).

@15 -- "@14 You just went and IA posted this one."

You noticed! THANK you!

"Also, the world isn't based on whose turn it is."

No, it surely isn't.
(Hillary was quite surprised to discover this, btw)

But the length of your (at times interminable)
stay, IN the bank, post office, whatever, IS.

"Just pretend you live in a society for a second
and stop mandating lines for everything."

So, anarchy?

Wait'll the Banks
post offices etc
hear about this.

Is courtesy contagious?

It's Endangered.

@17 Banks: I can deposit checks online now. Am I cutting the line every time I do so?

Post offices: You can meter your own mail and have your carrier pick it up. Is that cutting in front of everyone down at the office?

Surprisingly, all of the above didn't result in anarchy: It resulted in a lot more people being tended to quicker. That's what's happening at every bar in America outside of Portland: People are getting drinks in quick fashion and those pouring them make more money for their efforts. That isn't anarchy: It's efficiency.

The biggest argument against the Rose Quarter freeway expansion isn't community impact, public transportation, or anything else: It's that the choke point the city's addressing wouldn't exist if we zipper merged like everyone else. That, alone, would make an eastbound drive from the West Hills tunnel to I-84 take half the time.

@dug fir

Your willfull Obtusity is
(counterintuitively)*
almost attractive
and yet most
instructive.

Thanks!

*coun·ter·in·tu·i·tive (koun′tər-ĭn-to͞o′ĭ-tĭv, -tyo͞o′-) adj:

"Contrary to what intuition or common sense would indicate: 'Scientists made clear what may at first seem counterintuitive, that the capacity to be pleasant toward a fellow creature is ... hard work' (Natalie Angier)." --innernet

Ok, bartender here. Any bartender worth their salt will make their best effort to serve everyone in the order in which they were received. If you want to get a drink and sit at the bar, sit at the bar. If you want to get a drink and move to a table, get in the service line. And try to have an idea of what you would like before your turn
Have questions? Great! Avoid the line and sit at the bar for a moment, we'd love to help you. Do you know you want a whiskey and and IPA? Great! Get in line.
Do you want to jump ahead of everyone and get your drink first? No. We see you, and you're still 5th in line bro.

@21 Wow, you'd get eaten alive in any other city.

"Service line." FFS. Seriously glad the local doesn't subscribe to this shit.