Inexpensive way to go out for non-special birthday

[NotTheSlugandLettuce]

20 odd years ago when I worked in London and lived in z2 but many of my friends all lived out and trained it in, a good way to do birthday drinks was to reserve an area in a boring bar in C London like a Slug and Lettuce.
I would order some chips for most people and pay for those and buy a couple of bottles and then everyone got their own drinks.
Bit mainstream and basic but it worked - so I did it for about 3/4 years in my 20s

I am now older and have done more "generous style" hosting where people come and we pay for it all.

I am in striking distance of london and there are lots of people who I hardly see any more and I may like to do something similar (and in a similar way just pay for a few, not all of everyone's own drinks)
Is this a feasible option to do now we are older? if so where that isn't super basic and naff?
How would you do this?

Honestly, if someone invited me to join them for birthday drinks, I would never in a million years have expected them to buy me a drink for attending. I know it's a weird MN hang up that if you invite people, you pay for them. But in actuality, in all 25 ish years of hanging out with other adults, this has never happened. If someone invited me over to a dinner party, I'd expect they were providing the food and most of the drinks, but I'd bring some sort of drink to add to the stash. But if someone invited me to meet them out, I'd assume I'd be buying for myself, and I'd treat them to a drink as well as it's their birthday.

If it's really the norm in your circle, you could just start a tab for the table and all drinks at that first stop (1-2 drinks per person) are on you and then you move on to the next. The risk you take is that no one wants to move and you get the whole bill dropped on you at the end of the evening when most people have stumbled off home. Otherwise, maybe invite people, they get their own drinks, and you order some sharing plates of food for the table. Or if it was me, I'd expect them to get their own drinks, but MN probably thinks I'm the epitome of rudeness. 😂

thanks - i don't think you're the epitome of rudeness at all. I am also wondering whether I can deal with london drinks prices without fainting even for me and a couple of bottles, never mind anyone else 😬
I guess I'm also wondering if others do this and what's a good venue that's similar to the SLug these days>

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Not a birthday, but we were invited to something similar last weekend. The inviters named the time and place. There were I think 4 bottles of prosecco, 2 bottles of white wine and a selection of botttled beers in ice buckets on the reserved tables. A few people asked for Guinness which the host ordered. A couple of platters came out with sausages, prawns, chicken skewers. Once the set out drinks were gone, people went to the bar themselves. It was a lovely evening.

Yes that sounds great.
Anyone have a good venue

Nother bump

As pp said, as an adult I've never expected friends to buy my drinks. I highly doubt they'll be expecting a full night paid for.

We often do this for mine and DH’s birthdays. We generally either order a set amount to be put on the table as a previous poster mentioned, or set up a tab with a fixed limit on it, tell people it’s there ‘to kick things off’ and then the staff close it when it’s been spent. What works better totally depends on the bar itself.