10/29/2026
Could meeting for drinks after work actually be good for you? We're all aware of the adverse affects of too much alcohol, but could a little be beneficial to your mental health?
Source: The Spirits Business
October 29, 2026
“When was the last time you left a bar and thought, ‘That was really, really good for my health’?” asked Claire Warner, founder of Good Measure Guild, during the opening talk at Bar Convent Berlin 2026. “We don’t often talk about health and visits to bars, pubs or restaurants in the same sentence. We often think of visiting hospitality venues as something that’s pleasurable or nice to have, but not necessarily something that’s good for our health. That is really, I think, all set to change.”
Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a ‘landmark report’ on social connection, highlighting practical, scalable solutions to strengthen social connections to improve people’s health, and combat isolation and loneliness, which have ‘serious but under-recognized impacts on health, wellbeing and society’.
“We’re now entering the era when we’re starting to recognize that the third pillar of holistic health is social health. Social health has really lain pretty dormant over the last few years, and we’ve only really started to have this conversation about what our relationships mean to each other since Covid.”
WHO data from 2025 attributed more than 871,000 deaths a year to loneliness.
Warner cited further insights during the panel talk, such as people spending almost half as much time with friends as they did 20 years ago, and under-25s losing face-to-face social time with each other.
“The headlines I would really like to see in the next 10 years are that we’ve got doctors actually prescribing the pub as a place to go for social connection, and particularly with all the wonderful work that’s being done in the world of moderation, there’s no reason why those social hubs can’t be the places that we go to connect,” Warner noted.
Desire for time away from phones has also grown in recent years, and phone-free events increased by 567% globally in 2025. In the UK, this was even higher at 1,200% more events, the panel shared.
