I’ve been going to bars for years. I’m bragging, but I’m also establishing motive and credentials. You see, going to a bar these days is unlike it used to be for many reasons of course but mainly because of mobile phones. I’m certain the generation that preceded me said the same things about the introduction of TVs into drinking establishments. Still, in both cases, technology has fundamentally altered the bar going experience.
I mention this because I just read an article describing a new virtual bartending technology sure to get all saloon purists in a drunken twist. It seems that a bunch of Italians (it’s always the Italians, isn’t it?) got together and built themselves a bartending robot capable of not just mixing and serving drinks but even remembering you and your favorite orders. Poor bartenders, you are about to be disintermediated.
I like bartenders. Except when I don’t need them. Which seems to be increasing with greater frequency since I started spending more time on my phone. I travel a bit, and the airport bartender is the most thankless job on the planet, as far as I can tell. You have no (or at least exceedingly few) regulars, and just about everyone you serve is frustrated, distracted, unsocial, and quite likely, already drunk. That’s no fun. Plus, only the savviest business expense account wielders know how to properly tip on a corporate card.
Tavern futurism is neither new nor particularly necessary. Drinking is and should remain as much as is humanly possible old school. But tell that to these Italians and their fancy automated mixologists. Maybe it’s not possible to go back to the good old days of locals and regulars and crusty bartenders who know your name, but if they still get your drink order right, maybe that’s all we need.