My colleague and friend Jeff Alworth recently proposed a novel alternative to Dry January he’s calling Pub January. I’ve never been a fan of Dry January. Taking an arbitrary month off from something that’s very enjoyable and brings me pleasure has always felt a little … well, stupid. I get the idea that after the holidays, when overindulging is common, many people think it’s a good idea to just stop drinking for a period of time, but the issue as I see it is that overindulging the other eleven months of the year is the real problem. Drink responsibly and in moderation all of the time and taking a forced month off becomes completely unnecessary.
In Jeff’s post, entitled In 2024, How About “Pub January?,” he brings up another great reason to ditch the dry month, which is that it inevitably does real damage to the breweries, bars, pubs, and restaurants that count on your business to survive the rest of the year. As Alworth points out, January was one of the worst months for beer sales already, and having large swaths of the drinking public decide to all forgo any alcohol during that same period of time is a terrible idea, especially in light of the recent setbacks due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Most breweries have not yet fully recovered, and probably won’t do so as quickly as anyone might hope. Take away one-twelfth of the income of every alcohol business, and what do you think might be the result?
So where did the idea of a Dry January come from? It’s surprisingly recent, having been cooked up by the British arm of the prohibitionists in 2013. It was launched by Alcohol Change UK as a “public health campaign,” whose primary goal, they claimed, was “to promote a healthier lifestyle by giving participants an opportunity to reassess their relationship with alcohol.” So basically it’s prohibitionist propaganda masquerading as health advice, an all-too familiar tactic of the many prohibitionist organizations who want to tell you how to live your life and demonize anything they don’t like. That so many people fall for this each year makes it very successful propaganda, but that doesn’t make it any better.
With all that as background, Jeff has an idea:
Make this month #PubJanuary. Stop in for a quiet pint, grab dinner out, spend the afternoon playing a board game. It doesn’t really matter what you do—you don’t even have to drink alcohol—but if people kept up their July pace of pub-going, it would make a big difference. We’re not talking the salt mines, either; going out is fun! Consider it a vacation in an evening. In fact, January is typically the deadest time of the year—a perfect opportunity to connect with friends. Enjoying other humans is good for your soul.
I don’t know if we could make this a movement or not, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. There’s certainly never been a better year. So let me exhort you all. If your life circumstances allow it, get out there and support your [local] beer businesses. It’s a win-win for the pub-goer and the pub. January can be a bit bleak. Sitting inside a pub with people you enjoy never is. Heck, you might even consider keeping it up in February.
That’s a idea I can get behind. It’s an idea whose time has come, I’d argue. The pub, despite the many cries of its detractors, has for most of its existence been a place of community, of families, and of fellowship. In modern times, many have turned away from that notion and became mere drinking palaces by prohibiting children, and thus families. But I grew up in the many such bars of my hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, and my stepfather — despite his many other faults — always knew which ones had the best food and atmosphere with diversions aplenty, such as pinball, pool tables, shuffleboard, stacks of games in a corner, and much, much more. A simple shift in our mindset could, I think, easily return us to a time when families were welcome again in most alehouses, bars, beer gardens, inns, lounges, pubs, roadhouse, saloons, taproom, and taverns.
So if you want to cut back or go cold turkey for the month of January, or any other period of time, I won’t try to stop you, even though I personally never would and honestly don’t think much of the idea. But if you really love beer the rest of the year, don’t stay home all month, and definitely don’t avoid your local watering hole. If you lack the willpower to walk into a bar and not order a beer, that’s a whole different problem you should probably be working on all year long. But for the rest of us, there’s quite a lot you can do in a pub that doesn’t involve drinking, not to mention it would allow you to keep hanging out with your friends who did not decide to forgo the pleasure of a beer this month. I can’t really understand why isolating yourself would be good for your mental health during a bleak winter January. You should definitely get out there and see some friends.
What else can you do in a pub while not drinking? Trivia nights are a great way to spend an evening. Gather a group of friends and match trivia-wits with other teams. Enjoy sipping a soda or water with appetizers and trying to win. Before I had kids, I was involved in a weekly trivia night at a local pub in the South Bay where I lived at the time. We had a large team of friends — our team name was “Abbey Something,” a nod to “Young Frankenstein” — that would meet every week to play. Not all of us drank every time we came. So what? It wasn’t the primary reason we all got together each week.
Many pubs keep a collection of games for patrons to play. Why not have your game night on neutral ground? I’m confident the establishment wouldn’t even mind if you brought in your own game. Those that wanted a drink could have one, and everyone else could just say no. And of course, there’s also darts, pool, foosball or the rare bar shuffleboard, a personal favorite of mine.
Seeing live music is yet another great reason to spend an evening in a pub. Or a book club meeting. Or most obvious of all, dropping in for a meal. Beer is usually the reason I go to a pub, but it doesn’t have to be the only reason. There are quite a few more things to do there plus it’s a great place to meet up with friends.
It looks like others are starting to notice that avoiding pubs for an entire month is also bad for business. The UK organization Campaign For Pubs, who cares a lot more about pubs and a healthy economy than Alcohol Change UK, is trying to combat this inanity. Their mission is to “Protect, Support and Protect Our Pubs.” They’ve launched their own rebuttal social media campaign with the tagline “Support your local this January!” And even if, as Alan McLeod points out, it looks like it was generated by AI, it still seems like a good idea. They’re not even trying to change anyone’s mind about taking the month off from alcohol, but just trying to point out the (hopefully) unintended consequences of further sinking a pub’s revenue and the effect it will have on pubs during what’s historically already a very bad business month.
And here’s another one reminding people that pubs and bars carry more than just alcohol.
So even if you choose to stop drinking this month, please spend at least a little time and money supporting your local bar this Pub January. “Don’t be a schlub, go to a pub!”
NOTE: I made the four “Pub January” banners above, and the one below, to fit as a Facebook Cover, but feel free to use them wherever you like to help spread the word. They’re exactly the same except for the type of beer glass so you can pick your favorite.
