23 February 2012

A Brewpub IN Oriole Park at Camden Yards?

A "press release" released yesterday announces a planned addition to the Baltimore craft beer scene:

Camden Yards is hoping for a home run off the field this season.

The stadium is building on the winning combination of beer and baseball by creating a brewpub and on-site brewery inside Camden Yards.

The new restaurant planned for Oriole Park at Camden Yards will be a family-friendly brewpub with a sports focus and will open around opening day this spring, says Delaware North Cos. Delaware North Cos. provides food, beverage and retail merchandise services at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

While the name and menu of the restaurant is still being determined, the brewpub plans to brew its own beer on-site and offer a traditional brewpub menu including burgers and sandwiches. The company cannot yet disclose the number of seats or square footage.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards hopes to become a year-round destination by creating concession areas that overlook the baseball field. In late December, the Stadium Authority requested $1.8 million from the state's Board of Public Works to renovate picnic-areas and create a year-round "park-like destination."

Delaware North Companies Cos., a hospitality and food service company headquartered in Buffalo, is receiving consulting on the restaurant from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc. a corporation in Chicago that owns restaurants in Illinois, Nevada, Washington, D.C, Minneapolis and Arizona. It owns Bethesda French bistro Mon Ami Gabi.

The restaurant has started the hiring process and expects to employ between 30 and 50 employees at its location at 333 W. Pratt St. [the corner of the new building across Howard Street from the Convention Center].

More information as it becomes available.....

UPDATE:  Delaware North contacts thus far have "not been authorized to discuss" the matter, but there is speculation in some quarters that the "brewpub" in question would only be a craft beer bar and/or contract brew with other breweries.

3 comments:

JohnM. said...

I'll be curious to see how this works out. I've been to the sandlot brewpub at Coors field, and the place was packed during games. So I could see a brewpub at Camden Yards possibly doing well.

On the other hand, the rockies on a occasion field a competitive baseball team, and so attendance for home games is usually very strong. In that respect, I'm not sure Camden Yards has anything in common with Coors field.

Paul E. Milligan said...

I like how they write, "inside Camden Yards" and, "at 333 W. Pratt St." as of there was no contradiction there.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV said...

Paul, it's possible that the 333 W. Pratt St. location is only another place run by Delaware North where they will be interviewing/doing applications. Poorly/ambiguously worded, I know.