CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — You may know or you may not know that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the biggest drinking night of the year.
Downtown Corpus Christi streets were quiet Wednesday afternoon, but the expectation is that the parking lots will be full, people will flood the streets all to fulfill an age old tradition at night.
“I definitely stayed in the past few nights and got ready for tonight,” Michael Cantu said, a bartender at The Gold Fish Bar.
Wednesday night is known as Thanksgiving Eve, Drinksgiving, or Blackout Wednesday, but anyway you spin it it’s the biggest drinking night of the year.
“Years past, it definitely picks up," said Cantu. "We get a pretty big push around like 9, 10 (p.m.) from 10 (p.m.) to 2 (a.m.). Very nice, nice big group a lot of people with their cousins, their family in town they want to hang out.”
“It’s not as like family oriented as Christmas per se, where people have to stay home and spend as much time with their family," said Casey Ortiz, general manager and event coordinator at Bar Under the Sun (BUS). "It’s like all your friends are home all your high school friends are coming back to town, like everyone. You have a little bit of time with your family and then it's like, alright let me go meet everyone I haven’t seen in a year.”
How will downtown bars fare this Thanksgiving Eve as money may be tighter and prices have been higher? Inflation has been the talk of the town for several months out of the year.
“I still think it’ll be good," said Ortiz. "I think bar prices have gone up a little bit, but it’s not crazy. And, a lot of us do specials and stuff like that for holidays like this, so it helps out.”
Wednesday night, BUS happens to be running a wine special that plays well into the theme of Thanksgiving.
“I think with tonight, we’ll be well as well," Cantu said. "From what I've seen past week or so, people are preparing for tonight. I think we’re ready for tonight.”
There’s a few reasons why this night gets busy for bars and restaurants. Many people won’t be working on Thanksgiving. Many don’t want to prepare a big meal when they’ll do so on Thursday. Many go out to see old friends who have come back in town.
Law enforcement encourages you to plan ahead and find a designated driver or ride share service if you plan on venturing out Wednesday night.
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