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For what it's worth, the pull of beer vs food has a long history in the English-speaking world. An English law of 1653 mandated that alehouses exist to "provide victual to bonafide travellers." In the postwar years there was a long struggle between most publicans, the ones outside city centres and tourist routes, who got by the law with crisps and maybe a display of pies, versus the licensing magistrates who wanted menus and meals. The latter largely won, and many pubs boast of roast wild boar and other allegedly traditional pub grub that had actually been nonexistent. In the interest of safer driving, Scotland repealed a blue law that pubs could only serve patrons from other towns.