@h1nch
Either this is a joke question or you seriously need to evaluate your relationship with alcohol?
No, it's not a joke. The way I labelled the vote has nothing at all to do with my opinions on alcohol.
Did you read at least some of the thread? There are a surprising amount of people who would flat out refuse to dine at a dry restaurant, no matter how good the food is. I do find that surprising, but at the same time I don't. I think a lot of people like to kid themselves that they always pick a wine that compliments the food because it improves the meal when in reality 95% of people pick the wine they drink/like the sound of the most, or even the one that's cheapest, in my experience.
Personally, I don't think a dry restaurant is viable, at least not as an evening/dinner place. Breakfast and lunch, sure, but unless you are in an area with a large non-drinking population (which is usually for religious reasons so you would have to cater with halal rules etc. in mind) I think you'll be hard pressed to get the foot fall in the evenings, especially at the weekend.
Most restaurants fail in their first year, for a variety of reasons and I do think alcohol sales are, with their huge markup, a great way of making money. It's about an 80% margin, whereas food is generally 60-67% margin. Even if you only have 10 customers one night you'll barely even break even on the food but if they're buying mixed drinks or wine by the glass then you'll most likely have most of your wage costs for the night covered.
Discussing this with friends who are also in the industry it was pretty evenly split between "I'd only go if someone else chose it" and "food is what matters". Whereas amongst the general public I think it's a definite "Nah, especially not a weekend!" despite what this vote shows. You could have a beautiful restaurant in a great location with amazing food and an exciting soft drinks menu and still lose out to the place with the mediocre food and bad service just because it has a wine list and 30 gins.