Venues switching to wedding pricing
I plan a lot of "lowkey" events for a few different groups. Happy hours, family lunches, weekday networking events, bar birthday parties, etc. I'm noticing that in the past year or so, a lot of venues are trying to force wedding pricing on casual events. Even suburban, dingy biergartens and breweries are trying to enforce per head open bars and sit down, multi-course meal tiers, along with steep venue fees that don't come with anything. When I push back and re-explain that I want something more simple and explain my budget and needs, venues are increasingly unable to flex. Some of these venues that argued with me for months worth of events ended up shutting down due to lack of business, which is insane to me. They'd rather go out of business than allow planners to order simple packages like drink tickets and food platters, or even a beer/wine only open bar with attendees ordering more on their own tabs.
Is anyone else struggling with this is in their cities? How has your approach changed to work around this? Not every event has the budget for large fees, sit down meals, and open bar packages. I used to be able to secure semi-private side rooms with simple packages with ease but that's getting increasingly impossible.