On March 21, The Milky Way Lounge and Lanes  in Jamaica Plain will close its doors after more than two decades as a destination for Centre Street hipsters looking for a well-mixed cocktail, some lo-fi dub, and candlepin bowling, an indigenous - and endangered - New England pastime. The bar will reopen on March 22 on new premises next to the Sam Adams brewery.

 

"(The Milky Way) was one of the last places you could play candlepin bowling, but there won't be room for the lanes at the new facility," says Ryan Glass, a bartender at the lounge. He says the owner, Kathy Mainzer, was forced to the decision because the building's long-term lease ended this year, and the landlords imposed an 80 percent rent spike.

 

"I guess the economy's hurting everyone."

 

Though the new facilities are an exciting development to everyone, some patrons are less than enthusiastic about the change.

 

"I just think it's sad. There's so few local businesses left, and this was something really different you could come and do for not much money on a Saturday night," says Liz Bury, an Emerson grad student and candlepin bowling enthusiast.

 

Michael Dwyer, an alumni director at Harvard University, agrees. "It's hard to believe that a place as busy as this could be a victim of the financial crisis," he says, citing the crowds that habitually wait at the entrance to the lanes for the 6 p.m. opening time.

 

Glass didn't know what the landlord of the property intended to do with it once Milky Way had left.

 

"I just hope it's not a condo or a chain store," said Bury, who said she moved to Jamaica Plain in part because of the quirky locally-owned businesses. "It would really change the neighborhood."