Thanksgiving: the day of the year most steeped in family tradition. A day for home, hearth and whole cranberry sauce.

But on the night before Thanksgiving, another tradition has been growing -- one that evokes not John Smith, but John Barleycorn. Before the drumsticks come swizzle sticks.

Tonight -- Thanksgiving eve -- has become the busiest night of the year at many bars, nightspot owners say, surpassing New Year's Eve and that fabled night of imbibing, St. Patrick's Day.