well, people will eat and drink at a restaurant if the food and service are good. We once went to a place to see a friend's band play, and planned to eat supper, but the waitress never came, even though we repeatedly requested it. An hour later when she finally did come I didn't order anything because I didn't want to wait another hour for it.

There's another place downtown that has a minimum food & drink charge - it's not very high and can be easily met with coffee and dessert for two.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, restaurant owners need to make money if they're going to stay in business. But if they're losing money, they need to take a good look at why... there may be a really good reason why people don't want to eat there.