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I will have to disagree with you on 2 of your items. The bowling alley one seems a long shot to be the fault of the smoking ban. The closing was probably in the works for a long time. Banks don't just up and decided to buy a building, wrecking ball it, and build a branch over night. That had been in the works for some time.

And the all you can drink special may or may not be related to the smoking ban. It is not all that uncommon for bars to have a one price, all you can drink night. The bars I used to go to in Buffalo were only $5!!! $10.95 is highway robbery!

OK, I'll give you the bowling alley (maybe), though it seems awfully strange to me that a long-time establishment just up and decides to close two months after its leagues stopped coming. Who knows, perhaps the owner took this opportunity to retire instead of trying to slug it out with one arm tied behind his back.

But a BAR having an all-you-can-drink night on a FRIDAY? I've never seen that, anywhere, anytime. Tuesday? Yup. Wednesdays have traditionally been Ladies Nights. I've even seen specials on Thursdays. But not on Friday nights -- and it's not just one Friday. It's EVERY Friday, and still they struggle. These places should be bursting at the seams with a deal like that, but they aren't. In fact, they are nearly empty.

When I think of the rents the bar owners must be paying here on Long Island, I just can't see how they will be able to stay in business much longer. We've been lucky, weather-wise, with unseasonably high temperatures, but just as sure as God made little green apples, the weather WILL turn ugly, and people will NOT stand out in the whipping winter wind and snow to grab a smoke while they're trying to have a good time.

But I'll try to find out for sure what happened with the bowling alley (I have to go to their former next-door-neighbor's pet shop twice a week to buy, of all things, crickets to feed my kids' TOADS. Don't ask me how in the world I got talked into THAT one...).

Regards,

PS: I know two of the places named on this list -- one of them, The Finish Line, was a little place that generally catered to the Belmont Racetrack crowd. It wasn't my kind of joint, but it's a shame to see it go anyway. It was there for a very long time, IIRC.