Pub employees said they sold beer until the supply ran out around 8 p.m., and then prepared to close for the last time.

"It was a fun place while it was open," Cook said. "People feel they've lost a great place to socialize. The Bow was a great place, but now it's gone."

Grendel's owner, Herbert Keulzer, could only afford to reopen his establishment's basement bar--high rents forced him to relinquish control over his first-floor restaurant, he said.

"Rents have gone up so high, even in the past year," Kuelzer said in an interview.

Kuelzer blamed the flight of local watering holes on the influx of chain businesses like Peet's Coffee and Tea, a California-based chain that recently acquired space next to Grendel's.

With chains increasingly willing and able to pay higher prices for premium Square property, building owners often raise all tenants' rent.

"The changes [in the Square] are awful. Now we have a 24-hour Staples next to us, Abercrombie and all that...stuff," Kuelzer said.