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Some sterner souls want to deprive their bodies of wine, good food and other sensuous pleasures altogether. "The sixties generation is no longer engaged in political activity . . . People feel profoundly guilty and are directing that guilt against themselves," said Historian William Leach in a New York magazine article last year. "Running, fasting, enables them to feel whole and pure and clean again." Most people are not going that far, according to Cornell University Psychology Professor Michael Sacks, but he adds, "It has become a sign of status, as a whole, sensuous human being, to have the ability to control your impulses."
The new temperance is transforming a number of social situations and institutions. Bars and restaurant lounges used to be primarily for drinking. As customers taper off and new laws discourage happy-hour promotions, however, managers are pushing food to make up for lost liquor revenues. The China Rose in Arlington, Texas, replaced its traditional happy-hour offer with a 24-foot- long buffet stacked with Kung Pao chicken, Szechwan fish and egg rolls to keep customers on their stools. In front of the Long Beach Hyatt Regency hotel flies a flag emblazoned with a giant banana: the "fruit of the month" served at the hotel's jam-packed juice bar. "We're discouraging all- you-can-drink offers and free shooters," says Jack Burk, vice president of public relations for the hotel chain. "The emphasis is on social occasions and lower-proof drinks."
Does the loss of revenues in the lounge mean higher prices in the dining room? For a lot of places, the answer is yes, says Ed Moose, owner of the Washington Square Bar & Grill in San Francisco. While his touted fettuccine still goes for only $8, this may not be typical. "If wine drinkers spend 25 minutes over a glass, whereas the hard drinker orders more expensive spirits every 20 minutes, it changes the economics," he says. "You have to raise food prices."
Young crowds respond to limpid, sweet liquid mixtures. Singles now meet in health spas, but many still play the dating game in bars and clubs. A list of their favorite drinks reads like a dessert menu from the 1950s. At 104 TGI Friday's around the country, for instance, it is the pineapple fling (lime Calistoga water and fruit juices); at the Hyatt hotel in San Francisco it is "Remember the Oreo" (creme de cacao, ice cream and Oreo cookies). For guys, it is no longer considered wimpy to order a light beer. Says a Friday's vice president, Gregory Dollarhyde: "There's reverse psychology at work. You're going to be fat and unattractive if you don't (order it). Looking good is very key."
Image is an obsession. "There's no such thing as a fat yuppie," says Gene Street, principal owner of SRO, a fashionable Dallas restaurant and bar that features full-length mirrors in the men's lounge. "It's all part of a wave of self-love," says Author-Humorist Fran Lebowitz. "They've overweighted the sanctity of the human body. These bodies aren't temples. They're barely bodegas." Says Screenwriter Greenfeld: "It's fear of embarrassment. In Hollywood you can stuff coke up your nose until it falls off. But God forbid you should appear drunk in public!"