A lot of restaurants built their margins around the second

A lot of restaurants built their margins around the second cocktail, the extra bottle of wine, the after-dinner pour. When people switch to one drink or skip alcohol entirely, suddenly the math on staffing, rent, and even how long a table sits gets brutal fast. The places adapting best seem to be treating drinks like a real craft category again — good zero-proof menus, better coffee, desserts worth lingering for — not just hoping booze sales bounce back.