Food and Drink in Virginia Bars

In Virginia, there is a law that any bar serving alcohol also has to serve food. That is, there are no true “bars”, only restaurants that serve alcohol. I also know that there is a certain percentage of sales that has to be food- although I am too lazy to find out the exact amount.

So, in pondering this- I wonder if it affects the price of either item.

Calculating this out, say food needs to be 40% of items sold- then I bet food will be discounted heavily to encourage purchase. However, the negative side effect of this is that the business proprietor will likely increase the price for alcohol in order to counteract the losses on food. So, you end up paying more for alcohol.

Alternatively, food could be marked up incredibly in order to match the high amount of alcohol sold. But, you have the downside that many people will simply choose not to eat- hardly helping to get to the goal. And you would probably have to lower drink prices to get the percentage correct. (Is this the reason for dollar drink night, and not to get more people in the door?)

So, since I don’t have alot experience with drinking outside of Virginia, can anyone in a different state who has gone to a bar in Virginia tell me what they think? (I’m looking at you W&L alums) Noting how many “dollar burger nights” or “all you can eat buffet specials” at bars, I’m going with the percentage method.

Perhaps the most obvious answer, moderately and competitively pricing both is the correct answer. But that is too simple and not fun at all. Certainly, bars in an area could work together to fix prices (not that I would ever suggest any kind of illegal cohesion).