By Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times –
LOS ANGELES — The coasts are for dining, but America’s heartland is all about drinking.
The metropolitan areas with the deepest concentration of restaurants are all on the East or West coasts, while booming bar scenes are mostly in and around the Midwest, according to a report this week from real estate site Trulia.
San Francisco is the top dining town, with the most restaurants adjusted for population. With 39.3 restaurants per 10,000 households, the city by the bay has nearly 50 percent more eateries than second-ranked Fairfied County in Connecticut. Long Island in New York is third.
San Jose, with 24.8 restaurants per 10,000 households, and Orange County, Calif., with 24.8 eateries, are ranked sixth and seventh.
New Orleans has the most bars 8.6 for every 10,000 households — followed by Milwaukee and Omaha. San Francisco is eighth on the list.
Living in an eating town tends to be much more expensive than in a drinker’s neighborhood. The only relatively affordable cities with top dining communities are Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Providence, R.I., with home prices per square foot averaging less than $200.
In San Francisco, the price per square foot is a whopping $459.
High-income residents tend to have more money to spend on dining out, so their communities are able to support more restaurants, according to Trulia. All but three of the top 10 bar towns, however, had home prices per square foot averaging less than $100.
