I was backpacking Europe. I had just left Amsterdam and gotten to Berlin. I ordered a Heineken on impulse and the bartender looked appalled and said no.
That is patently untrue. People drink piss in Berlin too, in fact, Berlin is a major tourist destination. Heineken is produced in The Netherlands and widely available and consumed throughout continental Europe. This idea that Europeans won’t serve you something they themselves wouldn’t consume, or find repugnant is also not true. But it sounds like a cool anecdote to someone who’s never been there and knows absolutely nothing about it. If you’re gonna tell that lie again, at least use Budweiser, or Coors light. At least that sticks with the theme of uncultured American faux pas, which is what your story was trying to emulate.
Literally going to be flying to Paris today.
Good to know I guess lol.
Just in case it’s your first time in France : say “bonjour” when entering a store/ restaurant or when passing someone in an elevator or a staircase. Say “s’il vous plaît” and “merci” every time you ask for or get something respectively. This will save you a lot of nasty stares and displeased reactions. Actually that’s one of the reasons French people have a mean / rude reputation…we are VERY keen on politeness and when someone fails to respect these basic rules, we consider them rude and act rude in return (this analysis is not mine, it’s from a foreigner who lived in France for several years but, as a native french, I think it makes a lot of sense to explain the french mindset)
Thanks for the info! hopefully my Elementary school French comes back to me. (From Canada)
Based
I’ll go ahead and recommend HappyCow for anyone looking for plant-based options outside of their home community.
They have a map where people can suggest places that have vegetarian or vegan options but are mostly omnivorous, or full on vegetarian or vegan restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, food trucks, you name it. I think HappyCow the company also verifies the places people upload so it’s somewhat vetted.
I find that starting with HappyCow and then cross-referencing with Google Maps or OSM gives me the best results.
For extremely busy restaurants / cafe’s where people are already waiting long periods, they probably don’t want to overcomplicate things too, and increase the risk . They’d have to keep 2 different milk frothing machines, and every time a customer got sick, risk getting sued, whilst slowing down the efficiency of orders.
Whilst it might increase the number of potential customers, in practice, it might only have negatives