Walking and hiking are great healthy ways to have group chats. I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours I've spent having good conversations while out and about. Rain and heavy wind is about the only thing that gets in the way of it. Works really great at night on a full moon too. Bonus if your friends really want to drink: walk and drink. Take a camera, coffee, a dog, a skateboard, binoculars, a radio scanner, a pwnagotchi, a flipper zero, Pokémon Go, an rc car, a drone, a map of little free libraries, a map of geocaches, etc., and you can always find little activities to do while you walk and talk. I've found soooo many cool hidden spots this way.

But yeah, only going to a bar sounds like a lot of potential fun is missing.