As many of you are aware, some intimately, the right to get smashed on the ride home is one fiercely cherished and defended at all costs by Team CT Commute. It was something Metro North officials tried at various points over the last couple years to take away to no success. “They’ll have to pry this Tall Boy from my kung-fu like grip,” more than a few people slurred, getting confrontational. It also wasn’t enough to simply be able to purchase booze on board, but highly necessary to have the space to “stand around and talk,” mix it up with fellow financial services hacks and make new “business contacts,” rather than sit at banquette-style tables with some asshole you already know from work, a war currently being fought as designs for new cars and their bar cars are finalized.

Strangely, though, we’ve never discussed what exactly one is pounding in the 39 to 55 minutes you have before getting off. Luckily, the Times has investigated the situation.

In what should come as a massive shock, riders of the Metro-North are “rarely” seen knocking back a nice rosé, though, of course, sometime the situations calls for it. Usually, though, when wine is consumed, it’s white, “preferred at a two-to-one ratio to red.” Beer is the best seller and accounts for “more than half of all drink purchases,” with about 45% of those purchases being some sort of Budwesier. As for the hard stuff, one bar wench feared losing her job for divulging the trade secrets of her riders but took a risk anyway.

Vodka is far more popular than other spirits, making up half of all hard liquor sales. (One bartender, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing her job, confided that her stockbroker customers “all drink vodka,” while construction workers “are all about the beer.”) Gin and scotch are a distant second and third.

Drinks On The Train [NYT]

Comments (32)

  1. Posted by Shallow Thinker | September 28, 2010 at 7:45 PM

    They sell “nice” rosé on the train?

  2. Posted by Guest | September 28, 2010 at 7:54 PM

    2 vodka rocks for the boys, roophie colada for the blonde.

  3. Posted by Guest | September 28, 2010 at 7:56 PM

    Wut? no Colt 45 40′s?

    –Guy who gets a 40 in Hoboken for the NJ Transit ride home

  4. Posted by CoveredLong | September 28, 2010 at 7:56 PM

    Scotch, a distant third?

    That just means it’s a good buying opportunity. Long scotch/short sobriety – the crunk spread.

  5. Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2010 at 7:58 PM

    Is this caption contest Tuesday? If it is: “pull my finger and you can get a whiff of my rosé”

  6. Posted by TedSheckler | September 28, 2010 at 8:05 PM

    Bess, I would appreciate it if you didn’t post a picture of my father on the train home to drunkenly beat me with his shoe.

  7. Posted by PasteSpecialFormats | September 28, 2010 at 8:09 PM

    …and for the lady, a vodka tonic with a lime and a splash of DNA.

    -Mike Lallana

  8. Posted by Tax Chick | September 28, 2010 at 8:12 PM

    Those CT hacks have no idea how easy they have it. I have to get my G&T at the cart in GCT before jumping MetroNorth home to the Burbs.

  9. Posted by Yayhoo | September 28, 2010 at 8:17 PM

    By 5:07, I am all scotched out

  10. Posted by Mathman Prophecy | September 28, 2010 at 8:29 PM

    Uhh, hello, where’s the train? That’s a shot of the trader’s break room at UBS headquarters in Stamford.

  11. Posted by Guest | September 28, 2010 at 8:37 PM
  12. Posted by Budheavy | September 28, 2010 at 8:37 PM

    any man who does not love Budweiser is not an American in my books

  13. Posted by Dudley7 | September 28, 2010 at 8:41 PM

    Alot of drunken De Shaw people will be on the train tonight, watch out

  14. Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2010 at 8:42 PM

    Bess, I think have an ’09 Housing Crisis Zinfandel, grown on the weedstrewn lots of subprime-mortgaged homes in the Detroit suburbs and watered with the blood of union workers.

  15. Posted by Guest | September 28, 2010 at 8:46 PM

    Sweet pointy-finger action on the big guy: “I call this move the ‘Isaac, your Bartender’”

  16. Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2010 at 8:51 PM

    Since when is it un-American to not love the watered-down product of a Belgo-Brazilian conglomerate?

    -Yeungling drinker

  17. Posted by Lord Humongous | September 28, 2010 at 8:54 PM

    UBS and CT sucks

  18. Posted by Rho to Gamma | September 28, 2010 at 8:57 PM

    Do they accept EBT cards?
    -JPM Analyst

  19. Posted by indridcold | September 28, 2010 at 9:02 PM

    i thought deshaw quants were beamed in and out of the city?

  20. Posted by PasteSpecialFormats | September 28, 2010 at 9:04 PM

    America’s Oldest Brewery FTW

  21. Posted by ExtraOrdinaryPopularDelusions | September 28, 2010 at 9:08 PM

    If I put a Bud in your hand, would you drink it?

  22. Posted by ETGT | September 28, 2010 at 9:15 PM

    It’s a “2 Tallboy” trip from downtown Houston to the Woodlands.

    East Texas Gas Trader

  23. Posted by Shecky Buffett | September 28, 2010 at 9:21 PM

    I wonder if the blue-shirted dude is telling this story to the blonde lady:
    ******************************************

    “A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor’s office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it.

    “Impossible!” says the doctor. “Show me.”

    The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left breast and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed in even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.

    The doctor said, “You’re not really a redhead, are you?

    “Well, no” she said, “I’m actually a blonde.”

    “I thought so,” the doctor said. “Your finger is broken.”

  24. Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2010 at 10:03 PM

    Well I’d drink most anything if it’s free…

  25. Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2010 at 10:04 PM

    So what you’re asking for is one of these? http://www.bumwine.com/

  26. Posted by ExtraOrdinaryPopularDelusions | September 28, 2010 at 10:29 PM

    Correct response. You may proceed.

  27. Posted by James Dalton | September 28, 2010 at 11:30 PM

    Goddamnit New Jersey Transit doesn’t even have bar cars. I gotta brownbag mine like a fucking hobo.

  28. Posted by Josephmoore506 | September 29, 2010 at 2:26 AM

    Ironically, it is the same distance from Grand Central to CT – 2 Tall boys. Hopefully one of the AIG FP or LEH quants can model it up. – Fixed Income

  29. Posted by Lewis Winthorpe III | September 29, 2010 at 2:27 AM

    I wonder what the Latinas drink… oh, that’s right, there’s no bar car on the Housekeeping Local.

  30. Posted by Mathman Prophecy | September 29, 2010 at 3:00 AM

    You can still afford beer on NJ Transit? I can’t even afford the 25% fee increase just to ride the fucking train. Damn you, you rich bastard!

  31. Posted by ExtraOrdinaryPopularDelusions | September 29, 2010 at 4:53 AM

    The only thing remotely funny about that was that, if it referenced jews instead of hispanics, that you’d be moderated, which you won’t.

    -racist fuck

  32. Posted by James Dalton | September 29, 2010 at 6:58 PM

    $3.00 for a goddamn bud at that ripoff joint in Hoboken station is bad enough, brother. Governor Fatso should be handing out sixpacks at Newark Broad on a nightly fucking basis.

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