So-called Black-out Wednesday one of year's busiest for bars

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Thanksgiving-eve is known by some as Black-out Wednesday - one of the busiest bar nights of the year.

“My phone's been blowing up all day, 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' It feels like Gasparilla,” said Tampa bar-goer Kyle Mastronardo.

“It is a marathon, not a sprint,” said his friend Seena Shanks

The night before Thanksgiving has become big business, with bars often seeing big spikes. In fact, beer sales can increase close to 300 percent and liquor sales up more than 100 percent, according to Upserve, a restaurant management platform.

“I think a lot of people are excited. Their families are in town so they use this as a time to drink and get prepared for that,” said Cassaundra Kennedy, a manager at the Lodge on South Howard.

The Lodge is ready for a long night.

“We staff tonight like we would staff a big nights like New Year’s. It’s one of our busiest nights,” Kennedy said. 

With all that drinking, do not forget cops will be out looking for drunks on the roads.

“We’re going to be out there in force and we're going to have zero tolerance and you will go to jail for DUI,” said Larry McKinnon, spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.