Why Your Favorite Neighborhood Bar Is Going Out of Business

Where everybody knows your Twitter handle? JL

Catey Hill reports in Marketwatch:

Over the past decade roughly one in six neighborhood bars has shuttered. While about 334 new bars are opening every month, that’s far fewer than the 609 that are closing. One trend contributing to the decline of the neighborhood bar may be America’s seemingly insatiable appetite for establishments that also serve food in addition to alcohol
It’s getting harder to find a bar where everybody knows your name.
The neighborhood bar is disappearing, according to research released Thursday from Nielsen, which revealed that over the past decade roughly one in six neighborhood bars has shuttered. And while about 334 new bars are opening every month, that’s far fewer than the 609 that are closing at the same time.
“Last calls are happening across the country,” Nielsen reveals. “While consumers may love their well-worn, unglamorous neighborhood bars, they are going to have to start putting their money where their mouths are to keep them alive in today’s economy.”

And closures have accelerated recently. While an average of three neighborhood bars a day closed during the past decade, in 2014, an average of six did. “The day when a serious barfly won’t have a stool to sit on is (scarily) approaching,” a blogger on TableHopper.com writes.

While you may not be able to pony up to a (sometimes slightly sticky) bar down the street anymore, you will have somewhere (typically more upscale and with better food) to sit: In the past year alone, more than 6,100 restaurants have opened, many of them fast-casual restaurants (think the likes of Chipotle CMG, -0.25%  , Smashburger and others that serve alcohol, the Nielsen study said.
Also see: Will Starbucks become your new neighborhood tavern?
“One trend contributing to the decline of the neighborhood bar may be America’s seemingly insatiable appetite for establishments that also serve food in addition to alcoholic beverages,” Nielsen reveals. “In the past year, 6,185 new restaurants opened across the country. In addition, the rise of new casual dining options serving alcohol—such as fast “casual” food restaurants, brewpubs, as well as in-store dining and drinking options in grocery stores—are also likely contributing to the decline.”
Still, for those who frequent the beloved neighborhood watering hole, this trend is a sad one. When Milady’s, a decades-old bar in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City closed its doors last year, so many patrons packed into the bar to say goodbye that getting a drink could take 10 minutes.
But the owner knew it was time for it to go: “I serve burgers. A beer is five bucks,” the owner, Frank Genovese, told the New York Times at the time. “I can no longer sustain that formula. It doesn’t work anymore.”