26 January 2009

Wharf Rat Camden--So What's REALLY Up?

The Baltimore Sun's Sam Sessa reports on online rumors that the Wharf Rat-Camden Yards is closing and completely revamping their image--into, of all things, a Yankees bar.

You know, I already posted to Ye Loyal Readers the "official" party line from one of the owners and the manager he hired. I must point out that this "party line" is no guarantee--I've been "skunked" out in decades past by business owners who insisted they were just "remodeling" or the like, only to demolish the place. Regionally, we have the dramatic restructuring and closing of Old Dominion and, over the years, the crazy survival of Wild Goose in spite of a move, the sale of its parent, and the restructuring of the new parent. I mean, who would have thought that Baltimore Brewing Co. would eventually end up being "buried" by yet another downtown hotel, now currently under construction? (Heck, I remember hearing of a patron being mugged for his growlers by some punk from the "projects" across the street--and if you remember back that far, you can probably taste a DeGroen's Pils or Rauchbock from memory, just like I can as I type this!)

And, you know, there still is going to be this as-yet-unresolved-as-far-as-I-know issue about two bars with separate owners operating under the same name in the same town and serving the same beers, even if the one were to end up a "tied house" for the other. (A "tied house," for those unfamiliar with the British vernacular, is a bar contractually obligated to carry only the products of a particular brewery's output--though the Wharf Rat-Fells Point has long had guest beers of various sorts....)

But would "grabowski08" like to put his money where his mouth is--or his typing fingers are--and wager on the outcome? Can s/he seriously think that a duo from up North would cough up the kind of money necessary for that brewpub with delusions that there would be enough Yankees fans to which to market the place? If so--gaffer, cut 'im off!

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