Both "dry" areas and restaurants without liquor licenses remain common in this part of the world. My favorite Mexican restaurant didn't have a liquor license fro several years (until the profits enabled one), so we always brought a cooler of beer. Even now, two of my favorites, a Mexican seafood place and a Korean cafe, don't sell beer or wine, so we continue to bring our own. I don't think of wine with Korean food, and "Siete Mares" tends to overlook the $5 a table "corkage" for regulars.