The May issue of Men’s Journal ranks Madison as having the most bars of any city surveyed in its “Best Places to Live” edition.

The magazine says, “Maybe it’s the German roots, or the short and bitter winter days, or that everyone builds up a thirst by playing outside and eating cheese, but whatever the reason, folks in Madison love to drink.”

Barb Mercer, president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, said she hadn’t seen the article and could not comment but that there are 13,000 to 15,000 bars in Wisconsin. Mercer said attributing the number of bars to cheese eating sounded like stereotyping Madisonians.

Dick Lyshek, member of the Tavern League and owner of Bullfeathers Pub and Eatery, said it was somewhat surprising the magazine ranked Madison high on the number of bars for cities its size. Men’s Journal said Madison had 45 bars for every 100,000 residents.

“Wisconsin often ranks high on these sorts of things because they use a number of varying criteria,” Lyshek said. “Often it’s measured per capita. In that case, it’s not unusual for La Crosse or Eau Claire to rank very high.”

Lyshek said German heritage was also too simple a reason for the high number of bars.

“It kind of does have to do with German heritage because that influenced the large number of breweries and small pubs in the state,” Lyshek said. “A lot of Germans did move to Wisconsin, and therefore it has always been a leader in the country in terms of numbers of breweries.”

Lyshek said the fact Wisconsinites drink more beer as opposed to wine and mixed drinks is more directly related to the German heritage of the state than the number of bars is.

Lyshek said while Madison does have a lot of drinking going on, it must be taken into consideration that it is a large college town.

“Madison is one of the biggest college towns in the country, and I think that is the point with the highest explanatory value,” Lyshek said.

One reason Wisconsin has a large per capita number of pubs and taverns could be its harsh and distinct seasons, when those in professions such as farming and construction have little to do for long periods.

“Something you see, and it isn’t as true in Madison as in other towns, is that during periods of seasonal unemployment, you see a lot of young, unmarried men who spend a lot of time in taverns,” Lyshek said.

In the winter off-season, bars often become the center of a small town’s social and recreational interaction.

Lyshek said winter is the season small-town bars do their best business and that even companies that sell dartboards and foosball tables to bars increase their sales in cold months.