A bar, also known as a saloon, a tavern or tippling house, or sometimes as a pub or club, is a retail business that serves alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, liquor, cocktails, and other beverages such as mineral water and soft drinks. Bars often also sell snack foods, such as crisps or peanuts, for consumption on their premises. Some types of bars, such as pubs, may also serve food from a restaurant menu. The term "bar" refers both to the countertop where drinks are prepared and served and also by extension to the entirety of the establishment in which the bar is located.
The term punch refers to a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruits or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from the Indian subcontinent to England by employees of the East India Company in the late 17th century. Punch is usually served at parties in large, wide bowls, known as punch bowls.
An izakaya is a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks. Izakaya are casual places for after-work drinking, similar to a pub, a Spanish tapas bar, or an American saloon or tavern.
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is a Crown agency that retails and distributes alcoholic beverages throughout the Canadian province of Ontario. It is accountable to the Legislative Assembly through the minister of finance. It was established in 1927 by the government of Premier George Howard Ferguson to sell liquor, wine, and beer. Such sales were banned outright in 1916 as part of prohibition in Canada. The creation of the LCBO marked an easing of the province's temperance regime. By September 2017, the LCBO was operating 651 liquor stores.
In a bar, a last call is an announcement made shortly before the bar closes for the night, informing patrons of their last chance to buy alcoholic beverages. There are various means to make the signal, like ringing a bell, flashing the lights, or announcing verbally.
A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style. American-style strip clubs began to appear outside North America after World War II, arriving in Asia in the late 1980s and Europe in 1978, where they competed against the local English and French styles of striptease and erotic performances.
BYOB or BYO is an initialism and acronym concerning wine, liquor, beer, or marijuana.
An airport lounge is a facility operated at many airports. Airport lounges offer, for selected passengers, comforts beyond those afforded in the airport terminal, such as more comfortable seating, quieter environments, and better access to customer service representatives. Other accommodations may include private meeting rooms, telephones, wireless internet access and other business services, along with provisions to enhance passenger comfort, such as free drinks, snacks, magazines, and showers.
A cover charge is an entrance fee sometimes charged at bars, nightclubs, or restaurants. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a "fixed amount added to the bill at a nightclub or restaurant for entertainment or service." In restaurants, cover charges generally do not include the cost of food that is specifically ordered, but in some establishments, they do include the cost of bread, butter, olives and other accompaniments which are provided as a matter of course.
Various unique terms are used in bartending.
A clip joint is an establishment, usually a strip club or night club, in which customers are tricked into paying far above market prices for low-grade goods or services—or sometimes, nothing—in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge inflated prices for watered-down alcoholic drinks, and then throw out customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money. The products and services offered may be illegal, allowing the establishment to maintain the scam with little fear of punishment from law enforcement, since its victims cannot report the venue without admitting that they broke the law. Even when victims have broken no laws, they may be too embarrassed to seek legal recourse.
A hostess club is a type of night club found primarily in Japan which employs mostly female staff and caters to men seeking drinks and attentive conversation. Host clubs are a similar type of establishment where mostly male staff attend to women. Host and hostess clubs are considered part of mizu shōbai, the night-time entertainment business in Japan.
A liquor license is a governmentally issued permit for businesses to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages.
An Australian pub or hotel is a public house in Australia, an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. They may also provide other services, such as entertainment, meals and basic accommodation.
A drinking establishment is a business whose primary function is the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. Some establishments may also serve food, or have entertainment, but their main purpose is to serve alcoholic beverages. There are different types of drinking establishment ranging from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed "dive bars", to 5,000 seat beer halls and elegant places of entertainment for the elite. A public house, informally known as a "pub", is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises in countries and regions of British influence. Although the terms are increasingly used to refer to the same thing, there is a difference between pubs, bars, inns, taverns and lounges where alcohol is served commercially. A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests. The word derives from the Latin taberna and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna.
Drinks containing alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered non-alcoholic.
A nightclub is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discothèque with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who mixes recorded music. Nightclubs tend to be smaller than live music venues like theatres and stadiums, with few or no seats for customers.
Claims-based identity is a common way for applications to acquire the identity information they need about users inside their organization, in other organizations, and on the Internet. It also provides a consistent approach for applications running on-premises or in the cloud. Claims-based identity abstracts the individual elements of identity and access control into two parts: a notion of claims, and the concept of an issuer or an authority.
A well drink or rail drink is an alcoholic beverage or mixed drink made using the lower-cost liquors stored within easy reach of the bartender in the bar's "speed rail", "speed rack", or "well", a rack or shelf at a lower level than the bar that the bartender uses to prepare drinks. In any given establishment, the rail/well liquors available may also be known as the "house pours", "house brands", "house spirits", "pour brands", or "proprietary spirits".
Bottle keep, or bottle-keep, is a service which is provided at some Japanese drinking establishments where a patron can purchase a bottle of liquor and have the unfinished portion stored until a later visit. A bottle retained in this manner is called a keep bottle. The service is offered by a variety of drinking establishments, from casual izakaya to bars in some first-class hotels. For regular customers, the system is less expensive than paying for single drinks. Some restaurants and bars outside Japan have also adopted the service.
