Pubs and wine bars are businesses that sell alcoholic drinks for consumption on and off the premises. It is not always easy to distinguish them from places offering accommodation (hotels or inns), food and nonalcoholic drinks (restaurants and coffeehouses), or entertainment (dancehalls and clubs), but pubs and wine bars are fundamentally dependent on the sale of alcoholic drinks. This is significant because alcohol has a place in one of the classic accounts of consumption, in Thorstein Veblen's suggestion that drunkenness demonstrated the pecuniary strength of the drinker. The Temperance movement also represents an early example of a modern consumer campaign.

This entry therefore focuses on drinking places and particularly those of Europe and North America, though there are parallels around the alcohol-drinking world (such as the ...