Published: November 16, 2006 02:19 pm      

Plenty of reunions (and drinks) to be had on Thanksgiving Eve

On the night before Thanksgiving, Cafe Etc. probably won’t have a band playing.

That’s because owner Steve Fournier Jr. doesn’t think there would be room for even the smallest of trios on what always proves to be the busiest night of the year, except perhaps St. Patrick’s Day.

“It’s one of those toss-ups,” said Fournier, who’s worked in the bar business for 14 years and opened his own watering hole on Third Street in Niagara Falls five years ago. “People are going to come out regardless, and you’d like to have entertainment, but it’s just too many people.”

The night before Thanksgiving — call it Thanksgiving Eve, if you’d like — has been a “big night out” for as long as most local bar owners can remember. But nobody can quite put a finger on when it started, why it happened or why it continues, other than some pretty educated guesses.

A co-worker who grew up in the South said the other day that she had never heard of this “big drinking night” until she moved to the region. Answers.com agrees with her, stating that the night before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest nights “in the northeastern United States.”

But dig around online a bit and you’ll find publications, bloggers and other digital scribes either describing or asking for submissions on what the best pre-Thanksgiving spots are in San Diego, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago.

MSNBC.com and Cheers Magazine, a food and drink publication, cite research by both Anheuser Busch and Miller Brewing that show big increases in wholesale purchasing by bars across the country leading up to the big night before the big meal.

A common theme behind all the quotes and anecdotes is people wanting to reunite with old friends when they head home for the holidays.

Fournier and other bars on Third Street see a huge influx of college students heading out for the night. But at Buffalo’s Lafayette Tap Room, owner JoAnn Maraschiello is preparing for her own busiest night of the year, the difference being that her crowd is mostly 29 and up.

“A lot of people have company from out of town, and they want to go out that night, show them the town, catch up on things,” she said. “There are probably people who don’t have to cook Thanksgiving dinner, so they’re free to stay out late and sleep when everybody else is cooking.”

It’s also worth noting that Wednesday night is the start of a four-day weekend for many workers.

Rock City Bar in Niagara Falls is in the rare situation of never having seen what the night before Thanksgiving will bring, at least under its current management.

“We’re having our house band playing, and we’ll probably put an extra bartender on that night,” owner Kathy Watson said. “I’m expecting a pretty big crowd ... there aren’t too many places that have room to dance around here.”

Andrea Ziehm, a 24-year-old Wheatfield native who’s now attending graduate classes at Canisius University, couldn’t exactly say whether it was an unexplained tradition or a genuine desire to head out that led her to Third Street and other area hot spots when she was home from SUNY Brockport around this time.

“People do just want to go out ... it just seems like you always end up seeing at least a few people you know,” Ziehm said. “I don’t know if I’ll go out this year, but it is a good time.”