Club owner: LI social life down dramatically
After weathering Christmas and New Year's Eve, Long Island nightclub impresario Brian Rosenberg is ready to concede that the business has changed - forever.
Gone are the days when nightclubs stayed open until dawn, did little but play loud music and freely serve drinks. And, Rosenberg said, the number of such clubs on the Island has shrunk dramatically, from about 50 two decades ago to a handful today.
Rosenberg, owner of one of them, Sugar Dining and Social Club in Carle Place, said the business is under more pressure these days even than during the Son of Sam scare of the mid-1970s, when few ventured out for fear of the .44-caliber killer, David Berkowitz, who stalked clubs in the city and on the Island. Or, after the 9/11 terror attacks, when people feared being in crowds.
What's left, aside from Rosenberg's club, is Carlyle at the Palace in Plainview; Four, in Melville; The Crazy Donkey, in Farmingdale; Silk, in Hauppauge; and a few others.
The business "can't be 'open the doors, boy-meets-girl, put on the lights' and that's it," Rosenberg said. There has to be entertainment, food, service and even transportation for those who imbibed too much. The tough anti-drunken-driving laws have begun to change peoples' consciousness about alcohol consumption, Rosenberg said.
"DWI laws are a major factor" in the change in the business, said Rosenberg, a backer of tough measures for drunken drivers.
"It sounds all doom and gloom," he said. "But if you adapt, you can survive."
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