> modern obsession with cafes, restaurants, bars

Modern? "3rd places" have been with us... for a long time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

Granted, you don't want to eat out every evening, but one of the things I love about life in Italy is going out to have a few drinks with my friends and or family.

Thank you for providing the name for that concept ('Third Place'). It's been on my mind that these are becoming particularly important for people who work remotely and therefore don't even have a 'Second Place'.

Older public spaces and other third places were less consumerist though. Churches, clubs, parks, beaches, hunting/fishing cabins, etc. Not so aligned with urbanization.

Older? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taberna

No one says you have to go to bars if you prefer church socials or baseball games or whatever. But it's hardly a fad!

But there's a distinction between date of invention and impact in everyday life. City populations used to be a very small minority of people, until recently.

Yes, mass urbanisation is a modern phenomenon. But in the ultra-traditional English village of the past, the third place would be a pub.

We are social animals. Meeting other people is among our most important needs.

That seems like an overgeneralization. Some humans are more social than others. We're very complicated.

Not mine but you evidently feel free to assume it on my account.

Depends where you live. The relative costs of restaurants and similar food-preparation services vary wildly around the globe compared with the cost of buying food and preparing it in the same city.