The Silver Spring Penguin

It doesn’t matter where or when or who else is around. As long as there’s booze, participants in The Penguin’s Quality of Life survey will be there.

Respondents consistently voted bar service as the top amenity they’d like to see in theaters, restaurants and music venues.

“Silver Spring needs more places for young adults!” participant Katie wrote. “There aren’t enough things to keep a person in their 20s occupied unless all you do is eat and see a movie. Add more bars!”

“I love McGinty’s, but it would sure be nice if I didn’t have to trek to Bethesda to go bar hopping,” participant Pretty Brown Eyes wrote.

The bar option was offered under all three survey categories — theater, dining and music. Off-street parking was also an option in all categories.

About 40 percent of the 275 survey participants said they wanted theaters to provide bar service, compared with 4 percent of respondents who asked for off-street parking. The survey did not distinguish cinemas from live-performance theaters.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said Silver Spring’s music venues should have bars, compared with the 2 percent who wanted off-street parking.

To that end, Karen of Silver Spring suggested “a couple of old-fashioned honky-tonks for cheap drinks and good dancing.” (Fifty-four percent of respondents agreed that music venues should offer a dance floor.)

Under the dining category, 50 percent of survey participants requested bars in local restaurants, compared with the 1 percent who opted for off-street parking. Thirty-nine percent said restaurants should offer a wine list.

Despite the demand for bars in restaurants, only 27 percent of survey participants chose bars as a dining option. Instead, they went for upscale and casual dining (62 and 60 percent, respectively). Even coffeehouses (31 percent) and sweet shops (32 percent) scored higher.

“I would very much want a few regular bar environments that did not have the food-sale percentage requirement, where they act like restaurants first,” James Riley wrote. Under current county rules, establishments must generate no more than half their revenues from the sale of alcohol.

Beyond the survey’s three categories, one Penguin reader sought to expand the places where Silver Spring residents could imbibe.

“I am more interested than ever in Silver Spring having outdoor seating with alcoholic drinks allowed,” wrote Springvale Roader. “It is beyond ridiculous that a place like Adega (a wine store/restaurant) cannot serve wine outside.”

The Quality of Nightlife survey did not ask participants whether other entertainment venues should offer bar service.