Friday Night Bites

I am back at an old restaurant from a previous field note, number 3.  It try to sit in the same section as the last time in order to get a more repetitive perspective. I am sitting near the back of elevated seating area. The restaurant is more crowded than the last time. I am here at the same time and day of the week though. The area isn't as clean as the last time, perhaps the crowded dinner rush has left the establishment short staffed. Not incredibly unsanitary but there are dishes left on more than 3 tables near me.

The table at the entrance of the elevated section has a large family with two tables pushed together. There is a mother, father, three daughters and an infant that I believe belongs to the eldest daughter. The family appears to be Hispanic and from the vernacular used in the bits of conversation I can hear, they speak a Spanish-English mix. The father is balding with nice clothes on. The mother has her hair done and a fresh nail job; they are at least 2 inches long. They both appear to be in their late forties to fifties. The eldest daughter is talking to the parents about something that has to do with UTEP. The eldest looks like she is in her early twenties. The teenage sister to her left is consumed by her cell phone, she gives the impression of not knowing if anyone is around her. When the waiter comes teenage daughter barely looks up to respond. The final daughter is about 6-10 years old. She sits with pig tails and an El Paso Chihuahuas t-shirt. She is playing with what looks like her infant nephew.

The restaurant is clearing up after about half an hour of my note taking. The noise from the bar has significantly died down because of a large group of college football fans leaving. The kitchen has become slightly louder with the clanking kid dishes. But I could probably attribute that to the emptying of the store.

The table next to me that has filled up has a group of four. It looks like two couples. They both appear to be in high school because of their attire. Three of the four are wearing letterman jackets from a local high school. They are all talking about a football game that is being hosted the college stadium. Apparently they left the game at the half because they were hungry. The two girls of the table are talking to each other about something on a social media site. They are sharing each other’s phones and laughing.

My night here is over but people are still coming into the restaurant. The popularity may be from the family atmosphere and diverse American based menu, appealing to a wider range of people. This restaurant may have the most diverse ethnic audience. More than any of the other places that I have visited. 

The Happy Hour Chronicles: Hour 9

Well folks, bad news today. As you know this is Dr. Alan Coholic here, but please call me Al. The patio where I have spent every Friday for the last nine weeks observing people's interactions with each other while drinking cheap beer was closed for a wedding! Who has a wedding at a sports bar and grill? So my observations this week will take place from inside the restaurant in the bar area. The bad news is that my observations may be a little off because the atmosphere of the bar is very different than the patio, it is darker, louder, more cramped, and has several TVs showing various ESPN channels. I will do my best to filter out some of these atmospherics and just focus on the interactions of the patrons but it will be a little more difficult.  The good news however, beer is still $2.50 a pint, so the day isn't entirely lost!

It is a little after 1 in the afternoon when I am turned away from my patio and take a seat in a booth at the back of the bar.  It is substantially more crowded in here than normally, this may be due in part to the patio being closed off. The overall feeling of this crowd seems a little more rowdy than usual, this may also be due to the atmosphere of the bar. It is darker and louder, everyone seems to be trying to talk over each other.  I am going to pick a few of the more subdued tables to draw my observations from.

First off there is a table with two girls in their mid 20's chatting quietly. They are dressed casually and both have a backpack.  So these are probably college kids grabbing some lunch before or after class. Only one of the girls is drinking a beer.  Maybe she is cooling her nerves before a major exam, I know that always works for me. Even though the bar is pretty loud, the two of them keep their conversation quiet, they lean in to each other when they are speaking. Their postures are very relaxed and they smile a lot.  I suspect they are probably classmates and friends. The girl with the beer also pulls out and checks her phone periodically. It is less phone usage than I would expect from two girls in their 20's. As suspected they split the check when they are ready to leave.

There is a large group in the back of the bar.  Four guys and two gals are all having a very animated lunch together.  They are all in their mid 20's and dressed casual.  At first glance I thought they might be a study group but the two girls in the group were showing a lot of affection to the guys they were sitting next to. It is unlikely that two members of a study group would bring along two other significant others.  So I am leaning to this just being a large group of friends.  This seems confirmed by everyone interacting with each other.  They all seem very comfortable with each other.  No one even seems to mind the heavy PDA coming from the two couples. Unfortunately from where I was sitting I wasn't able to see if any of them had their phones out. I would suspect there was heavy usage of phones with that group based off of their age and outward appearances, but I cannot say for sure. The group was joined by one more guy also in his 20's and carrying a backpack, it would seem he just got out of class and is meeting up with his friends for a Halloween beer. This kid was either really popular or the group was inebriated since they all cheered and clapped when he showed up at their table. The latter seems more likely.

Sitting at the bar, there is a gal in her early 30's and a guy in his mid 40's. The girl is dressed as some sort of fairy or witch, I am not really sure which. The guys is dressed casual.  On first glance I would not expect these two to be together. Their age and difference in appearance makes me think they are only chatting together because they happen to be sitting next to each other.  But they seem to be having too good of time to only have just struck up a conversation.  It is possible that they may be a couple, or maybe co workers.  But I just didn't get that vibe from them.  The gal had her phone out fairly often.  She took several pictures of her beer, which is common for gals these days.  The guy never pulled his phone out while he was there, also which isn't very surprising. I was never able to figure out what sort of relationship these two had with each other. They did however leave together, I think the guy paid for them both.  I missed the actual transaction so I can't say for sure.  They may have been brother and sister, or maybe they were a romantic couple after all.  Weirder things have happened.

A single guy takes a table to himself and orders a beer.  He is dressed casual and has his backpack with him.  The idea that he is a college kid is reinforced when he pulls out a not book and some paper from his back pack and starts doing what looks like math.  He uses his phone sparsely.  This is not surprising since he is by himself, but I would expect a little more phone usage from him. He does seem intent on his work in front of him so that may be why he isn't on his phone more.

Well that is all I have for you folks this week.  Even though I wasn't able to do my observation from my usual spot on the patio, I felt this went well.  I was a little surprised there wasn't more people dressed up for Halloween in the bar. Let me hit a quick review for you:

• Crowd of mostly college kids with their backpacks.
• Just about everyone was drinking beer.
• Light to moderate phone usage across the board.
• Everyone was more animated than normal, this may be due to the overall loudness of the bar area, the fact that it was Halloween, because everyone was drinking beer, or maybe it was a combination of all three.

So all in all this went pretty well being inside, though next week I expect to have my usual spot back outside so I can keep up some continuity. Happy Halloween y'all. 

-Al