Daas Yochid, I apologize for my tone before since you are obviously also knowledgeable in the sugya. But my point was just that since ????? ???? it is ????, it is wrong to say that he did something assur. Since, as you pointed out in your post, some ??????? use various forms of recommendation to be ?????, it can by definition at most be called a ?????.
Regarding a lounge having the same status as a pub, that is highly debatable. As is clear from the whole ???? with all of its details, the idea is to prevent social drinking which leads to socializing and worse. Sitting with a date in the same room as the place you purchased a drink can hardly be considered ???? ???? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? (if you disagree you obviously have no clue what social drinking is), and most likely fits perfectly into ???? ?????? that the SA says is fine.
As always, any ????? that is ???? ????? should be directed at one’s LOR.