In the question of “go big or go home,” “Gen Z tends to choose the latter.
“I would say I’m kind of a homebody now,” Karson Krouse, a 24-year-old wildland firefighter in Washington state, told Bon Appétit. “There’s weird things that came out of the pandemic. I do go out a lot less. It would have to be really special occasions — a birthday or bachelor party.”
A recent study found that a growing number of American adults are spending time at home, approximately 10% more time than the same groups did in 2003. According to the study author Patrick Sharkey, a Princeton professor, it’s not just work that has migrated to the home but also activities related to education, relationships and, you guessed it, eating and drinking.
“It’s a dramatic shift in our daily lives,” Sharkey previously told the New York Times. “Almost every part of our lives is more likely to take place at home.”
And 20-somethings who turned legal drinking age during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns — dubbed the “homebody generation” and who apparently don’t know what “happy hour” is — have become accustomed to a relaxed Saturday night in, rather than out.
Instead of hitting up over-crowded dives or clubs, they’re throwing laid-back gatherings in their backyards or dinner parties in their living rooms.
Now, bars have become a source of social anxiety, forcing them to navigate socializing with new people and social cues, rather than a place to unwind.
Montana-based TaChanté Cole, 25, grew up in a small town with a population 1,500, making interactions with massive groups of strangers in social settings all the more nerve-racking, especially after the pandemic.
“By the time things were opening up again, I was uncomfortable with going out and needing to mingle with people,” the esthetician told Bon Appétit, adding that her upbringing created “a little bit of a barrier” in learning how to interact with new people.
According to Mara Stolzenbach, the director of strategy at the Gen Z research firm dcdx, the differing intentions of bar-goers furthers the COVID-creating feelings of “uncomfortability and uncertainty.”
They might be there to see friends, mingle with singles or drink alone — the possibilities are endless — and Gen Z, Bon Appétit reports, is scared to potentially misinterpret social cues.
Earlier this year, Axios noted a whopping 148% increase in searches for “dinner party” on Evite, as the so-called lonely generation spurs a dinner party boom, which also cuts back on the cost of socializing, Fox News reported.
Some bars, however, are attempting to recreate that same at-home comfort Gen Z is so familiar with.
At the Alabama wine bar The Carriage, co-owner Caleb Banks designed the venue’s ambiance to feel like stepping into a friend’s living room, much like a dinner party he would throw. Rugs are strewn on the floor, and patrons can kick back on the plush couches while sipping on their beverages.
The bar, which prints its menus on unassuming white printer paper, even offers a “living room pour” — a heavy-handed, 9-ounce serving of wine, nearly double the typical 5 ounces — which Banks says he would give to a friend.
Banks tells Bon Appétit that some guests feel a little too comfortable, becoming difficult for staff to keep an eye on.
“Almost to our detriment, they feel like it’s their place and not a bar,” said Banks, adding that people will also find “comfort” in a bartender who knows “what’s good” on the menu when patrons are “tired of making decisions.”
With technology at their fingertips to socialize digitally and anxiety on the rise among Gen Zers, it might feel like an insurmountable feat to lure Zoomers from their homes for a night out.
But experts say there’s always community about food and drink.
“People are leaning on food and beverage as the way through. That is what is promising about this,” dcdx CEO Andrew Roth told Bon Appétit. “We recognize, as a generation, that things like dinner parties and these spaces are the solution. We’re just not sure how to do it.”
