Good morning, and welcome to my thread on booze, public health and the lessons of prohibition.

In 2020 we have learned that booze is evil. That is contributes directly to public health problems. That it must be cracked down upon. Unless ...

Let’s go back in time for a moment.

We start our story in 1896 in America. In their infinite wisdom they had foreseen the problems that lay 124 years in the future and decided that booze is evil. That is contributed directly to public health problems. That it must be cracked down upon. Enter Raines Law.

Raines Law was terribly clever, you see. It effectively limited who could serve booze (making it easier for the wealthy folk and harder for the poor folk), severely limited the hours people could drink in, and made it mandatory to serve something like a ‘substantial meal’.

...

You know what happened next of course. Everyone adhered to the spirit and letter of the rules, the stranglehold that the evil drink had over the innocents of America was broken and decency and sound physical and mental health was found everywhere across that fair land.

OK, that’s not what happened. It turns out that people were quite attached to their drinks and social lives. The rich did as they always do and went to places like fancy hotels where they could drink to their heart’s content with delicious meals and table service.

But the poor needed a little ingenuity to get round laws which prevented them drinking and socialising on a Sunday (for many their only day off), as the law only allowed hotels with 10 or more rooms to serve drinks with meals at any time.

Suddenly an industry pivoted (although of course they didn’t know they were pivoting as that word wasn’t invented until the halcyon days of March 2020).

Enter the most famous pivot of all ... the Raines Sandwich. Possibly the most disgusting sandwich in the history of the world (yes, worse than a Marmite sandwich or the hoagie that Homer stole from his work picnic and tried to eat over the next few weeks).

If you ordered a Raines Sandwich you got served an utterly vile sandwich, possibly made days or weeks before. You didn’t just get sloppy seconds on the sandwich, you probably got horrible hundredths, so many hands had it previously passed through. Yet they were *hugely* popular.

Why? Well, every time you ordered a Raines Sandwich it came with a perfectly legal glass of whiskey. And, after you’d had just about enough time to acknowledge the sandwich’s existence it was whisked away and served to the next punter.

What should we take from this séjour through time to pre-Prohibition America? Firstly, that rules that are unfair are seldom followed in spirit. Secondly, that politicians would do well to learn that before committing to even worse, more draconian legislation (hi 18th amendment!)

Thirdly, that we’re social animals and will always find a way to be together and enjoy ourselves when time allows. And finally, that the hospitality industry is pretty damned good at finding way through even when the lift of government is unreasonably set against it.