When Your Favourite Pub or Bar Shuts Down

This probably doesn't quite count, but I'm an American, we haven't got pubs and I don't much go to bars. My favorite hamburger place, the Blue Flame in Northampton Mass, went out of business not long after I started going there. They'd made the best burgers I've ever had at a restaurant, with patties about a third of a pound and twenty or so toppings available. The twenty toppings thing struck me as needlessly froo-froo and Northamptonesque until I realized they were pretty much all legitimate burger toppings, not crap like braised endive or caramelized swordfish skin.

They were one of the only hamburger places I've ever been to that offered chili on their burgers which was worthy of the name. It was chili particularly suited to hamburgers, not exceptionally spicy but easily spiced up with the addition of jalapeno or habanero chiles.

I used to get burgers once or twice a week there before playing pool and eventually remembering I probably had homework of some sort. When it closed, I kept wandering over there out of habit. A Mexican place took its place, and a Mexican place in Massachusetts is like tapshoes on a canoe.

Rumour is the legendary Miami is closed, but I'm afraid to check.

RIP Duchess of York, Leeds, ubiqutuous venue for many years

I was very sad when McGinty's in Santa Monica closed. Very sad. Now all that is left is the awful snobby fakey Olde King's Head --ick. Great Indian food, pool, darts, real beer on draught, real people not a yuppie place or pickup joint.

NOOOOOOO!!!! I would die. No, I would move. Seriously. The proximity of my bar is one of the few reasons I'm still where I am. But I don't think this will happen. It's the oldest bar in \Dallas and other regulars are already planning to buy it when the current owner is ready to give it up.

While the bar didn't actually shut down, it was bought by one of its competitors. The new owners completely destroyed the bar's ambiance — putting in windows, cleaning the place up, painting the walls, new furniture, etc. Fucking horrible.

the only really local pub which shut down was the Grandpont Arms. I only went in their once and got the "American Werewolf in London" treatment, everyone stopping and staring at me. Even the barman made it clear I wasn't welcome. It was quite unexpected in a way as the place was also a B&B, so I expected hospitality. So as far as I was concerned, I was not the least bit upset when it closed, or partcularly surprised.

But what of those ppl who stopped and did the staring? It was "their" pub. What do they do now? Have they switched to one of the other local hostelries, the Folly Bridge Inn or Berkshire maybe? Ppl tend to be a bit sniffy abt the "other" pub in the area. They may tell you "oh I don't go there because...2, whereas for a visiting stranger there may be little to choose between the 2 establishments.