An appreciation of the liquid lunch

It’s a classic image: Two men in suits having cocktails over lunch. It’s the lifestyle currently celebrated on Mad Men and seemingly yearned for by all the Mad Men viewers.

And yet the liquid lunch appears to have gone the same direction as the 1960’s: wistfully remembered and only seen on television.

Outside of Christmas parties, the idea of a beer turning into three beers happens with less frequency than in the past. And the reason isn’t exactly clear. The Guardian‘s Money Blog asks:

“So has the mood changed? Is it less socially acceptable than it was, or are we all just too busy?”

It’s not often that people have a beer with lunch these days. Sometimes a glass of wine or beer might be offered to a visiting client, but most workplaces seem to frown upon a couple of drinks if it’s a company outing. In large part, that’s because most bosses are thinking about getting back into the office rather than brainstorming over some Jager Bombs.

It’s probably no coincidence that journalists enjoyed a great tradition of liquid lunches, too. The Franchise, the seminal late-’90s story of Time magazine’s founding of Sports Illustrated, paints a picture of a magazine that never ran dry thanks to a working day spent in saloons. Writer Dan Jenkins captures the allure of the liquid lunch perfectly: 

“I don’t think any of us got drunk — we just got brilliant. More good story ideas came out of the bar than anywhere.”

We’ll drink to that.

[Image via Flickr: mooganic]