SamPratt.com

Last call

Another of Hudson’s more venerable bars closed this past week, as The Warren Inn served its last beer under its current ownership. The buyers are reportedly a hedge fund manager and his spouse, said to have managed nightspots in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district.

According to one former employee of the Inn, homes have been found for the bar’s various feline friends. And the new owners intend to keep much of the flavor of the place, including its shuffleboard table. We’ll see.

R.I.P., Don

Renowned newspaperman and Livingston resident (and fixture of The Cascades and Le Gamin in Hudson) Don Forst has died, according to The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/nyregion/donald-h-forst-feisty-newspaper-editor-dies-at-81.html

Don was always good for a contrarian take on the news of the day. Back in the 1990s, I had cause to interview him for a brief Intelligencer item for New York Magazine; at the time, he was said to be on the short list for NBA commissioner, an idea he found bemusing. It was a pleasure to get to know him as a neighbor instead of a boldfaceable name; he will be missed.