The person chairing the meeting has the perogative to establish the ground rules for the meeting. The meeting could(and should) be designated as a non-alcoholic event. There’s always times atferwards to drink. Alcohol does have it’s time and place, but a serious business discussion is neither, IMHO. Personally, I don’t see why anyone couldn’t do without a drink for a couple of hours, but that’s just me. If this is a situation that you know is going to be a problem, then the idea of going to a resturant probably wasn’t a good one. I was just thinking out loud about available venues.