So change the name to "El Ropo's"......

Midnight Sun reports that the Ropewalk Tavern in Federal Hill managed to get itself an exemption to the statewide ban on smoking in bars. You can now smoke on the third floor (wait, they HAVE a third floor? I guess anything's possible in that M.C. Esher-like maze they call a tavern.....). Thus Ropewalk joins Max's Taphouse (the northernmost room is the cigar store/lounge) and Little Havana (on the southern fringes of Inner Harbor along Key Highway) as refuges for beer-swilling smokers.

Cue all the jokes about cigars and burning rope.......

And, of course, the comments of Sam's blog filled up rather quickly with snotty comments over both smokers (and the merits or lack thereof of the ban) and the Ropewalk's clientele. It's probably the overt Republican leanings of its owners (really--statues of Ronald Reagan, anyone?), but the bar has long been a target of dissenters who disapprove of the bar's clientele and perceived obnoxious behavior. (In beer regards, as far as I know Ropewalk is the only establishment in the nation to formally request, and get, removal from the noted Pubcrawler.com website, supposedly over similarly acrimonious commentary with political content, as well as an alleged coupon scam that Ropewalk's owners blamed on the Pubcrawler site.....)