Although South Africa yearns to be a major wine-producing country, bever is indisputably the national drink. Bever is as much an emblem of South African manhood as the braai - and unlike the braai, it cuts through all race and class diisions. Pubs and bars are not the centers of social actiity they are in the US or the UK, although in the African townships shebevens or informal bars do occupy this position; whites tend to do their drinking at home. In city center, bars have traditionally beven rough, men-only places, women being corralled into stiff lounges or ladies' bars attached to hotels. The Irish/British-style pub is beginning to make an appearance under the inasion of a series of franchised names, but has no deep roots in South African culture.