Checkmate Inn

It's just fun.  It's the bar equivalent to the gym to which you can go and exercise in your pajamas, not some $400 sports suit.  Real fireplace.  Need I say more?

Ah, The Checkmate Inn.  I can't leave a partial review for this place, I'm biased.  I can't even begin to tell how many great nights I've had here.  Should be the model for all dive bars.  Buck Hunter, darts, and other games they rotate in.  I'll just say, cheap beer, cheap drinks, awesome staff, and the best bar popcorn this side of the Mississippi.  It's a great place to start or end your night.  Go often and everyone will know your name and your flavor.  Make sure to hit the Halloween party on the Saturday before the 31st, It's always a blast.  An absolute gem in the middle of the woods in Setauket.

After hours of being out and drinking at various Port Jefferson bars, I was satisfied & relaxed with the idea of our sober driver dumping our carload off at the home where I could call a couch bed at a fairly reasonable hour (1am?) on a Saturday night.  

Oh no no.  Just you wait a minute.  Someone in the carload of dum-dum drunks has *INSISTED* we go to the Checkmate for another drink.  ***INSISTED***.  That's hard to refuse, as I don't want to gain the reputation of the 'boring guy nearing 40' - so, whatever...let's go.  Great.

Bite my tongue.  Drive through a grove of trees and land here.  Immediately outside, a large SUV suddenly pulls up and does a 60-second drive-by-steal of a couple of fold-up tables sitting overnight for a weekend festival.  Really?  Those were probably $60 at Costco.  Random.  

Inside - dive bar land...Not bad at all, actually.  The bartender was really nice (looked like something out of the early 90's with her stone-washed jeans, etc...you can picture it)...but a night tends to go downhill when it nears 2am anywhere.  I think last call might be 4am in New York?  At that point you are really out too late - cell phones get lost, girls start crying, guys start fighting & you tell yourself - I *KNEW* it - we all should have been in bed at least an hour ago.

Call it my 40-year-old wisdom approaching.  Sober driver TAKE ME HOME!