My sims drink nectar, and they also woohoo. This is a PG 13 game. Big deal.

I believe the base game bars do not spawn a bartender, the Uni bar (neon, tropical/flower power themed) is the first one which does. I know there is only one bartender in my megahood, because he has a custom bandanna hairstyle. He's also the one you can hire, I think, but I have the mod which prevents creating more than one NPC unless another is necessary which may have melded the two types.

That's interesting. I too have Pescado's antiredundancy, which I think is the usual hack to prevent unnecessary NPCs being generated, but have both kinds of bartenders in Veronaville. I've just checked in SimPE and the for-hire ones have an NPC type of 0x0002, while the community lot ones have an NPC Type of 0x0001 (which is the exact opposite of the arbitrary ones I gave them in my last post ). From now on I'll use these "official" NPC Types to distinguish them. It's certainly interesting that the community lot bartenders have an NPC Type of 1, although they didn't appear until University or Nightlife; maybe they were supposed to be in base game, but they weren't ready in time.

No one in Veronaville has ever hired a Type 2 bartender for a private function, and as result, none of them knows anyone, whereas my Type 1 community lot bartenders know all the regular drinkers in their bars. All three of them have a reasonably good relationship with Mrs. Crumplebottom, but then that worthy defender of the public morality does spend a remarkable amount of her time hanging around in bars!

In my custom island neighbourhood, there are as yet no bars, so there are no Type 1 bartenders, but a couple wanted a bar at their wedding, so the game generated a Type 2 bartender called Jill King. I think I'll build a lot with a bar there, and see whether Jill can do both jobs, or if a new Type 1 bartender is generated. While I'm at it I'll try different kinds of bar and see which ones get bartenders.

I originally intended to create this thread in the tutorial forum, but the site wouldn't let me.
I did the next best thing, I started the thread here and "Reported" someone's post, simply asking the admins to move this thread to the tutorial forum, but they haven't acknowledged.

So, could someone please "Report" this post and ask the admins to move this thread to the tutorial forum. I think that's where it belongs. Thanks.

I always have a "Bar" in my Sims game room / let get together room for fun or conversation, to have a good time at home. For a home bar I use "Retro Lounge Juice bar" or "Black Lacquer Bar".
I don't understand who would place any bar up against a wall, I always place my Sims Bar just a small bit away from the wall, so that they can go around it to make drinks.
( In my imagination it could be juice or alcohol being made it depend if it is a teen or adult Sims. )

And after they make the drinks ( 4 glasses ) they come from behind the bar and stand and enjoy having a conversation with another Sims while drinking.
I only use the big "Double Wood Bar" at my community Club where the Sims go out to dance and have fun. I also use it at certain "Dining Places." ( In my imagination It is alcohol in those two places. )

Even with that you need to "not' Place the bar up against a wall, it need room or space behind it for the "Bartenders" and also if it is a restaurant with a bar, beside the bartenders the waiters also will go behind the bar.
Sometime to take food orders and to bring food to Sims that want to be seated at the bar. So either way you need to have a good space from the wall for a bar at home or community lot.

Reporting something more times does not change outcome or make it faster, it's just being annoying.

Oh so that's it. I noticed that sims throw a tantrum when trying to get a drink from some bars and being unable to. But I assumed it was a glitch in my game.

Found this fix for some bars: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=284916

Interesting find, but although it does not seem to address the specific issue over which I started this thread, the issue it does address is probably related, especially since it deals with the same 3 base-game bars.

A number of you seem to be hung up on the word "bar", presuming that it automatically means having a space on both sides, one side for the "bartender" and one for the "customer".
I, otoh, am thinking more along the lines of a liquor cabinet.
That's what I mostly interpret a home bar to be, although a player could certainly make a more "proper" bar too, the way some of you imagine them.

Here's how some of you seem to interpret a home bar, to the exclusion of anything else:

or this:

While I'm thinking more like this:

or this:

It is with a bar that is up against a wall or other obstruction?
If so, then simply exchange your bar with one of the 17 listed in my OP.
Glad to be of help, that's the whole point of this thread.

There is also a chance card in the polictal career which says
The senator was supposed to speak at some event so you could choose whether the Campaign manager sim should cancel it (the event) or make some strong coffee for the senator, but I forgot what the outcome was. I have Random Chance cards by Cyjon also so there is always a 50 % chance to choose the right card.

That isn't a bar though. That's a liquor cabinet. The Sims 2 bars are made to look like bars. Although, seeing those pictures Maxis could have made a lot prettier bars!

I was thinking the same thing as Charity. The reason I perceive them as your first example, is because that's how they look. If it was a cabinet, with an obvious back-side, I'd place it that way :P

Thank you very much for the information. My problem was a bit the other way around, namely that people would insist on going on the "bartender" side to pick their drinks. Now I placed a doublewood bar instead, and the problem is solved.

Are you certain about this?
Until now, I naturally ASS-U-MEd that the 17 bars I listed in my OP allow drinks to be accessed from either side, but if what you say is true, it would mean that those 17 bars only allow access from the bartending side, while the remaining four only allow access from the customer side. That's even more odd than what I first thought to be the case with these bars.

Let me now test a few of those 17, to see whether what you say is true, that they only allow access from the bartending side.
Be back in a little while....

Edit: OK, back.
What you say did not seem to hold true in tests I just did. I tested 4 bars, including one of the "problem" bars listed in my OP, and, as expected, all of them allowed access to drinks from the customer side.
Specifically, what I did was have a Sim mix drinks and then move away from the area. I then placed obstructions (first chairs, then walls) on the bartending side of the bar. The Sims had no problem getting to the drinks from the customer side.

So whatever caused the behavior you described in your game does not seem to be caused by the bars themselves. I couldn't replicate it. My test Sims had no problem mixing the drinks on the bartending side, and then consuming them from either side. Even after placing barstools on the customer side, my Sims were still able to access the drinks from that side. (And just as a reminder once again, even if you have them sit on the barstools, they will still stand up to consume the drinks (unless you have a mod installed that allows them to sit and drink)).

I completed my testing of my bars to see which ones spawn an NPC bartender (NPC Type 1), when placed on an unowned community lot. Since I don't have all the EP's/SP's, I "only" have 8 bars, but the results are much as expected:
The following bars do not spawn a bartender when placed on an unowned community lot:
Bachman Busbar (base game) §600
Retro Lounge "High Liquidity" Juice Bar (base game) §800
Black Lacquer Bar Counter (base game) §1,000

The following bars do spawn an NPC bartender:
Party Hardy Open Bar (Celebration! Stuff) §1,400
"The Grease Stands Alone" Island Bar (Nightlife) §1,780
The Oasis (Nightlife) §1,850
The Impossible Mission Island Bar (OFB) §1,900
"Neonbar" by Neontrix (Nightlife) §2,100

This is much as expected: the base game bars don't spawn a bartender, but the newer (and dearer) bars do. This also correlates with ScaryRob's findings for bars you can't place against a wall. Would someone who has K & B like to test whether the Double Wood Bar by Romantic Notions spawns an NPC bartender?

My game spawned a new NPC Type 1 bartender (called Shaw Gilbert) to tend the community lot bars, despite already having a "for hire" (NPC Type 2) bartender (Jill King). I have Pescado's antiredundancy hack. @simsfreq, are you sure you don't have two very similar looking bartenders?

It turns out I was wrong there. My Sim had no other option than to juggle glasses. It looks like Maxis messed up bars completely in base game. They must have meant them to work on community lots, or they wouldn't have put that one in Veronaville Market. Unless... you need to be an adult to mix drinks? -- the Sim I sent to test it was a teenager.

P.S. I don't care what my Sims drink when they go to bars, as long as they don't get drunk and start fighting!

No, they were accessible from both sides, but that was exactly my problem. Half the people were going on the "bartender" side, which ended up blocking access to the stove/fridge/dishwasher/etc behind it.

Basically I had the lot set up to look like a bar, and I didn't want some people going behind the bar. Using one that forces them to only come from the front is perfect for my scenario. I didn't know there were 4 bars that forced people to behave like I wanted them to.

So thanks again for that info.

It does. I just replaced the ghastly neon bar at the Sugar Cube Bowling with a nice Double Wood one, and it spawned a bartender just fine when I went there.

Thanks! I'll need to send Gloria Jones there. She's been living across the road from Veronaville Market for over two years and never been in it!

It's two real years! Andrew Jones and his mum Gloria (the two Sims in my avatar) were the very first Sims I created, and they moved into 19 Chorus Court, Veronaville on 30th November 2012. (You may have seen them celebrating Thanksgiving.) I play with aging off, so, at most they can only be two years older. Of course I haven't played them every day, and I've lost count of how many in-game weeks I've played them for, but it's probably 6-8 weeks. It's certainly been long enough for them to settle into a comfortable routine of going to school and work, and Andrew enjoys his weekends off school. He has plenty of time to enjoy his life as a teenager and doesn't have to grow up to an adult in a fortnight like most Sims. I'm a bit vague about how my Sims' time relates to real time, and in practice I only tend to age Sims up when I think it's time. Anyway it's a playstyle that I like, and I think my Sims enjoy it too!

I have both the ability to have teens serve drinks and the ability to consume them from a barstool while sitting, so maybe it was added in an expansion.