While I’ve been a supporter of D.C.’s restaurant and bar smoking ban, the Mayflower’s Town & Country Lounge was always a place enhanced by lingering cigar smoke, at least in the visual sense. With its low ceilings, piano, and intimate seating clusters, the Mayflower’s lounge has always ranked high on my list of places to go when I’ve been in the mood to enjoy a solid martini while mixing business with pleasure. I would usually stay for one martini too many, but oh well. But I never went upstairs with a prostitute shipped down from New York City like then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York did.

Yesterday, news broke that the hotel’s much-loved bar will be closing next week. Thomas Pink, the men’s store that caters to downtown dandies, will be moving from its current spot in the hotel to Towne & Country’s corner spot fronting Connecticut Avenue and DeSales Street NW. A new bar and restaurant will go in the current Thomas Pink space. Head bartender Sam Lek was recently profiled in Esquire. I hope he’ll find a new home where he can continue to do what he does best.