...I felt like I was dealing with professional drinkers and bartenders. They went all out. I was also impressed with how much a small bar in a pub could pour and the number of people they could serve. The crowds were huge and spilled out into the streets. I think that kind of situation would terrify most American bartenders. Just waves and waves of people coming at the bar with a thirst like they had been wandering the Sahara for months. 

In London, the crowd did not matter, you had a fresh drink in your hand in seconds. In the United States, no way that happens. Not with that many people attacking the bar at once. In that kind of crowd you would wait for ages. Your beard would grow to your knees and your toe hair would be tickling your nipples you  would wait so long to get a drink. Part of that is by design, we have something here called Safe Serve when it comes to serving booze and obviously that is not in effect in the Shire. 

Nor anywhere else in Europe I have been. They don't give fuck all how much you have had or how quick you have had it. Here there are many place where you can only have one or two drinks if you have not ordered food. Pretty sure that kind of thing would be laughed at on the other side of the pond.