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When researching historic bars, taverns, and restaurants in and around Maryland and Washington, D.C., for this special series of articles, one of the first things this journalist looked for were those businesses that had the word “Old” in its name. You have to earn the word “Old” if you want to be taken seriously as a legacy establishment. Old Angler’s Inn in Potomac certainly qualifies.

Proprietor Mark Reges remarks, “Old Angler's Inn is truly something special and cool for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, our history dates back to 1860, setting us apart as a unique and enduring establishment. Such a rich heritage is not something you come across every day, and it infuses our restaurant with a sense of timeless charm. Even more remarkable is the incredible array of historic figures and beloved celebrities who have frequented Old Angler's Inn throughout the years. From former presidents to Hollywood icons, our doors have welcomed them all.”

Veteran-owned Old Line Spirits has supported a number of military-related philanthropic causes since its founding. This fall, the Maryland-based company has launched its latest campaign to fundraise for K9s For Warriors, the country’s biggest provider of trained service dogs for veterans with PTSD. Old Line Spirits is donating $5 from select bottles sold at participating retailers to the nonprofit through the end of 2023.

The campaign has been highlighted through product displays that hit stores in early October in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and three other states. Eligible products include the distillery’s Flagship American Single Malt Whiskey and its Navy Strength American Single Malt Whiskey. Proceeds will be donated for sales through Dec. 31.

We are continuing our series on historic and/or noteworthy bars, taverns, and restaurants around Maryland and Washington, D.C., and O’Lordans Irish Pub in downtown Westminster certainly qualifies. The establishment has been such a local fixture for decades that one doesn’t even think twice before casually referring to it as “the historic O’Lordans Irish Pub in downtown Westminster.”

The grand, old stone building first appeared on local maps between 1867 and 1870. It opened first as a foundry. Over the years, it has served as a barber shop, a live chicken house, and the old Stone House Restaurant owned and operated by the Sharkey family in the 1930s. It was a coffee shop in the 1980s before closing for many years and eventually being purchased by the Johansson family. Following a renovation to bring it up to modern standards, the building reopened as O’Lordans Irish Pub on Oct. 25, 2005.

The Historic Owl Bar Is Lucky to Have a Man Like Aaron Luna, Who Gives a Hoot!

In crafting a multi-part series on historic bars, restaurants, and taverns in and around Maryland and Washington, D.C., one of the most obvious venues that came to this journalist’s mind and just had to be featured was The Owl Bar in Baltimore City. The Owl Bar was built in 1903 as part of the original Belvedere Hotel. Back then, it was known simply as the Bar at The Belvedere and it was open only to men.  

Dear readers, I am taking a break from my monthly series of articles featuring historic bars, restaurants, and taverns in and around Maryland and Washington, D.C., to spotlight another age-old fixture of this region’s beverage scene who is still standing . . . ME! For those unfamiliar with Yours Truly or who just never noticed the name in nearly 300 bylines, I am Teddy Durgin. And August 2023 marks the 20th year I have covered beer, wine, and spirits for both the Maryland and Washington, DC Beverage Journals. And my editor from the get-go, Stephen Patten, was kind enough to allow me to commemorate this milestone with this tremendously self-serving, special column.

August 2003. In the world, a lot was different, and there was a lot going on. It was definitely the “post-9/11 era.” George W. Bush was President of the United States. Robert Ehrlich was Governor of Maryland. Anthony Williams was Mayor of the District of Columbia. The big news story that month was The Great Blackout, in which residents in eight states, New York City, and parts of Canada lost electrical power for days in the summer heat. The other major headline was Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing he would run for Governor of California in the recall election of Gray Davis. August 2003 was also the month the world lost baseball legend Bobby Bonds, father of Barry; tough-guy action movie star Charles Bronson; Herb Brooks, coach of the “Miracle on Ice” USA hockey team in 1980; and actor-dancer Gregory Hines.  

The Capitol Hill building that houses the Tune Inn has been many different things over the last century. It was once a candy kitchen. In the 1920s, it was a speak easy. Not long after, it was a men’s tailor shop that catered to the gentlemen of the U.S. Congress. In 1947, though, Joe Nardelli purchased the site, turned it into a tavern, and gave it the name that has stuck to this day. Today, it holds the distinction of being the second oldest liquor license in the nation’s capital since the repeal of Prohibition. Currently, Joe’s granddaughter, Lisa Nardelli, is the Tune Inn’s owner and operator. 

Being a family-owned and operated business for more than 70 years is quite a feat and more than qualifies it for our ongoing series of historic bars and taverns in Maryland and Washington, D.C. What’s the secret to this popular and unpretentious bar’s success and longevity? General Manager Stephanie Hulbert was eager to respond. “People like consistency,” she said. “They like knowing that they’ll see the same faces. Many get served their favorite drink without having to even ask for it. The community and our regulars definitely make up the bar’s [core clientele]. Most of them have been coming for 20 to 30 years. Their support has been everything. It’s a cliché. But a lot of people who walk in for the first time or are from out of town immediately go to the ‘Cheers’ reference . . . ‘Where everybody knows your name.’ That’s exactly what makes it a great atmosphere.”

A lot of places have a plaque or some type of marker that says “George Washington Slept Here” or something to that effect. But the Manor Tavern in Monkton is able to boast that our first President’s horse actually slept there! Once upon a time, this 267-year-old property was a stable. And, yes, while our country’s greatest founding father slept somewhere else locally, his horse stayed on the premises.

Over the years, the property has evolved into a blacksmith’s shop, a general store, and a saloon. Today, it is a wonderful restaurant, bar, and catering business, and its logo – inclusive of a horse – is a tip of the hat to Monkton’s historic roots. This certainly makes the Manor Tavern an excellent place to feature in our ongoing series of articles on the historic bars and restaurants of the Old Line State.

Off the Record has perhaps the best tagline of any bar in the nation’s capital. “It’s the place to be seen, but not heard.” Situated in the basement of the landmark Hay-Adams Hotel, which itself is located on Lafayette Square with a clear view of the White House, Off the Record has long been a favorite upscale watering hole of Capitol Hill lobbyists and Washington, D.C., power brokers. And it’s just the place to feature in our ongoing series of historic bars and restaurants.

Overseeing Off the Record is Alexander “Alex” Roig, Director of Food & Beverage for The Hay-Adams. During a recent interview with the Beverage Journal, he confirmed, “We get a lot of senators and representatives and politicians down there. We also get a lot of celebrities. Pretty much anyone you can think of has been to Off the Record! A lot of buzz starts around 3 p.m., and it will continue on and off all the way until 11:30 when it’s last call. It doesn’t matter if it’s Tuesday. It doesn’t matter if it’s Sunday. It’s cracking.”

There’s a great scene near the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) threatens to blow up the Ark of the Covenant with a rocket launcher if the Nazis don’t release his girlfriend, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). His rival, French archaeologist Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman) calls his bluff. In daring Jones to blow the Ark “back to God,” Belloq says, “We are just passing through history,” then points to the Ark and adds, “But this . . . this IS history!”.

I have passed through the Middleton Tavern in Annapolis on a couple of occasions over the years. And passing through this historic establishment is indeed like passing through history. And that is because it is indeed history. Established in 1750 by Horatio Middleton, it is among the oldest continuously operating taverns in the United States. Famous customers? George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin all frequented the place, as did members of the Continental Congress after meeting in the State House to do such things as ratify the Treaty of Paris or accept the resignation of General Washington’s commission.

For a bar or restaurant that has been around as long as Oliver’s Old Towne Tavern, there are bound to be some bad days mixed in with many good ones over the years. December 24, 2022, was a very bad day. Marylanders will remember that this past Christmas Eve saw temperatures freakishly dip down into the single digits. Santa Claus came to town that night and found Laurel was just as cold as the North Pole. And earlier that day, Oliver’s got a big, old lump of coal in its stocking in the form of a burst water pipe that resulted in this Laurel landmark being shut down for more than two months.

The memory is still raw for owner-operator Lenny Wohlfarth, who recalled to the Beverage Journal, “The temperatures had indeed dropped into single digits. There actually were quite a few properties in the Laurel area that suffered similar damage. I can’t verify this, but one of our firefighters said they had had at least 150 calls for pipes and various things like that. We opened up at Noon because there was a lot of football on TV that day. Around 2:30-3 o’clock in the afternoon, my wife [Pamela Wohlfarth] who was working and the other staff noticed that water was coming out from some of the light fixtures in the back of the bar. So, they started bringing trash cans and buckets. Even some customers were grabbing pails and anything they could do to help.”

If you’re going to write an ongoing series of feature articles on historic Maryland and Washingotn, DC bars and taverns, you absolutely cannot leave off The Waterfront Hotel Bar in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood. The iconic property dates back to 1771 and, over the decades, has been everything from a tavern that housed Civil War troops to the main bar and restaurant set for NBC’s 1990s crime drama, “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

Ann Giles, wife of Fells Point settler Edward Fell, leased the site to Thomas Long, who had the original structure built. His brother, Robert, had erected the first brick home in Baltimore city at 812 S. Ann Street. It was a private residence for much of the 19th century until it was indeed converted into a hotel and tavern to house Union soldiers during the Civil War.

Romilo’s Restaurant in Severna Park will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Chris Paradissis has owned the establishment for almost the past six years, continuing to serve the same Greek-Italian-American breakfasts, lunches, and dinners it has been known for from the get-go. 

Lately, though, it’s Romilo’s bar that has been drawing in the locals. In a recent interview with the Beverage Journal, Paradissis stated, “Many people didn’t know we had a bar! Last April, we expanded [the space] and added new signage on the front of the building, really highlighting that we have a bar. We offer the full variety of a liquor menu, mixed drinks, wines, and beers to both the dining room and bar area. We run Happy Hour seven days a week from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Our liquor sales are up over 200 percent in the last year based on the changes we’ve made, the renovation and expansion, and the increased promotion. It’s been a huge boost.”

Brian Leonard, owner-manager of the Free State Atlantic Bar in Washington, D.C., describes his establishment as being “hyper locally focused.” That might be an understatement. This is the last installment in our series of great theme bars and restaurants around Maryland and Washington, D.C.  So, what better place to feature for this final feature than a D.C. bar that is . . . Maryland themed!

Yes, for all those homesick Marylanders living in the nation’s capital who are too lazy to drive or Metro it out to the suburbs, the Free State Atlantic Bar offers a wide range of beers, wines, and spirits from Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region. Leonard, who grew up in Aberdeen and went to the University of Maryland, co-owns the bar with his wife Hilarey. He said during a recent interview with the Beverage Journal, “We try and focus on small-batch, local producers. As much as possible, we try and serve beer and spirits from within the Mid-Atlantic region. All of our beer and 90 percent of our spirits are from makers in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, along with a little of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and North Carolina.” 

Hitting store shelves in Maryland and Washington, DC, is a line of whiskey, gin, and other spirits under the SoNo 1420 brand. What makes this line of premium spirits that includes names like 1420 BBN and Blaze Whisky stand out? They are the products of America’s first distillery to incorporate hemp seed in its whiskey mashbills.

SoNo 1420’s founder is Ted Dumbauld, a rather remarkable man who first got a taste for Maryland and all it has to offer when he attended the U.S. Naval Academy in the early 1980s. In his career, he has gone from serving our country as a submarine officer to earning his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to working on Wall Street for two decades at such powerhouses as Deutsche Bank and Bear Stearns.

I've been writing this Maryland state legislative preview article each year at this time for more than a decade now. And this is the first time since 2019 where the annual feature won’t be so mired down in pandemic-era hand wringing. For Annapolis and the beverage industry, it’s been back to business . . . eh, almost as usual. Thankfully, so is this look ahead to the next General Assembly session.

But first a look back at the past year and its wins. No victory was bigger than the defeat of a bill to allow supermarkets and convenience stores to put beer and wine on their shelves. Attorney and Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association (MSLBA) lobbyist J. Steven "Steve" Wise was happy for the win. But he warned, “It’s a perennial issue, and it does not seem that the supermarkets intend to give up. So, we’ll keep fighting.”