We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we dine out frequently - some +200x per year, and have done so for the last 10 yrs in our retirement. We hit all price points, and enjoy a wide variety of cuisines. We don't eat at chain restaurants, because out here you don't need to.
I love to cook, but I've been doing it for 55 years. I have always loved dining out, and this is one of the world's great areas to do so. Fortunately my DH loves food as much as I do, as does my entire family (who are also excellent cooks).
There are so many dishes I would never bother to make, or think to make, at home. Some dishes I've recreated at home - there's very few dishes where I can't figure out how it's made or what's in it - but in general dining out is simply easier and more fun.
Here's what we've observed, after so many changes in the San Francisco Bay Area dining scene since the 1970's:
>>1. The food business is rapidly turning away from meat.>>
True, for a # of reasons. There is still plenty of meat, but "small plates" dining has come to most restaurants. The list of starters and the (large sizes of) salads is usually twice the length of the entrees list.
Entrees have smaller sizes of protein, usually served with a double side of veggies. Sometimes a sauce, usually not. Most of the time, no starch - people are often doing Keto or Paleo. Carbs are relegated to a la carte side dishes, and often shared in a group.
Beef is a "loss leader". Period. I don't know a single restaurant, except for the few steakhouses, that doesn't acknowledge this. They MUST have a beef entree, customers do insist on that - but there is only one, and it is usually short ribs, hanger steak, flatiron - cheaper cuts. And often served pre-sliced, so the serving is between 3-5 oz.
We love beef - I grew up in the Midwest and beef was cheaper than chicken when I was a kid! But of our list of "A" restaurants (those we return to), the only two non-steakhouse places that offer what I call a "serious steak" ; e.g., a properly marbled rib-eye or a NY strip, at least 2" tall, are both.....bars. Really good, well-established, neighborhood bars.
So absolutely, yes, hard liquor subsidizes food. But sometimes, it allows a better quality. One of those 2 good bar/restaurants - we'll call it "LB", is less than a mile, straight down the street, from another restaurant we tried, let's call it "CW".
CW has only a wine/beer license, and focuses on being family-friendly. Not three days prior, I'd had the rib-eye at LB - sourced from Creekwood Farms, KS, certified Black Angus. It was 16-oz, boneless, and magnificent. The CW 12 oz. rib-eye was local and "grass-fed". It was also awful: a lousy cut closer to the chuck end, thin and full of fat/gristle....plus, the weight included the bone! Oh, and it was also $8 MORE than the better LB rib-eye.
>>2. Restaurants are having serious financial strains.>>
Absolutely true. The "time compression" is very evident here. It used to be if you could stay in business 3 yrs, you had it made. But the timeline kept getting shorter and shorter.
These days? Restaurants either ill-financed or poorly organized sink within 8-12 months.
Causes? Rents are expensive. Labor is high (remodeling costs). Permitting is costly. Interest rates have risen - not much, but some. Food costs have soared - the flooding in the Midwest is going to have serious effect on beef, dairy, and grain costs over the next couple of years.
Once a new restaurant opens, the market is crowded. SF is a tiny city only 49 sq. miles (I've walked across it East-West in less than 2 hrs). It has 8,000 restaurants in its borders. If you count the surrounding counties you are in the hundreds of thousands of eateries. You only have a short time to impress the critics/bloggers/foodies and if you blow it, the 2-star reviews will kill you.
The social dynamics have changed: people get a lousy 1/2 hr for lunch nowadays. People grab something and run back to their desk (keyboard crumbs abound, LOL). Commute times have increased. Dinner needs to be fast, simple, and easy, whether you cook it yourself, buy it ready-made (but you have to park, take a number, stand in line, get out of the parking lot, and collapse at home), or eat out (nearby, cheap, nothing elaborate as you still have laundry to do at home).
Thus: the rise in fast/casual. It's even come to the Napa Valley; a famed chef is opening a restaurant that will be fast/casual at lunch and full service dinner only.
Yes, DH and I mourn the fact that fewer and fewer sit-down restaurants are open for lunch (very annoying when we travel around the Wine Country). We mourn the passing of excellent service from waiters who were professionals, not college students or "between jobs" tech contractors. Fortunately, there are still many excellent places to dine, with meat or without.