I ultimately dropped all my drinking friends, as none of them were close or long-term any way. My sponsor suggested I limit my hanging out with friends who drank socially to non-drinking things like movies, etc....until after I'd completed the steps.
That neutrality concerning booze comes to us as a 10th step promise.
true friends won't mind doing some different activities or will understand why you might not show up sometimes, or leave early, etc.
Hanging with sober people shows us that we can get out in public and actually have fun without being loaded to the gills. Once I'd done the steps, I did hang out sometimes with the few drinking pals I had left, and they either integrated with the new sober friends and all hung out together, or the drinkers faded away in time.