I'm not yet finished with my copy of Tyler Cowen's Discovering Your Inner Economist (it's very good, though!), so maybe this is included deeper into the book. But given that Cowen upholds that expensive drinks subsidizes food, particularly at fine restaurants where they make hefty margins off wine, etc, do we have any data on what the average mark-up is? If it's high, presumably the most cost-effective strategy be to forego drinking in fine establishments -- what you can't get at home is such fine cooking, and this way it's being subsidized for you. If it's relatively modest, there's certainly some added utility, even if it's partly imagined, to pairing a nice meal with good drink, so maybe it's worth it.
