Defiantly Local

The Owl Bar at The Belvedere
1 East Chase Street
Baltimore, MD
 http://www.trufflescatering.com/owlbar/index.html

Baltimore is an undeniably tough town.  While the architecture and the locals are both quite inviting, it’s one of those cities that exudes a need for caution.  Ignorance of the local turf can leave a visitor instantly on the wrong block and not entirely sure which direction will be safest for a quick exit.

When I was doing my graduate work, a small group of us, eager representatives of Upstate New York, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and Texas, would head into the city to explore on free afternoons.  Blissfully unaware of the areas we were exploring and figuring there was safety in numbers, we’d park the car and walk literally for hours. 

One such afternoon during the second summer, while exploring the Mount Vernon neighborhood, we wandered north up the hill and came across The Hotel Belvedere.  A reasonably imposing structure in what’s more of a two-to-three-story neighborhood, the architecture was quite grand.  Given that it was a hotel, there was a good chance there were publicly accessible restrooms in the lobby and we wouldn’t have to purchase anything to use them.  So we headed inside.

Sure enough, to the right of the door, we found the washrooms.  Meanwhile, a couple of our cohorts wandered off, then wandered back and informed us that we were undoubtedly stopping for a drink.  They had discovered “The Owl Bar.”

The entrance to the bar is flanked with photos - presidents, first ladies, politicians of all sorts really, actresses, sports heroes, diplomats, heads of state, artists, inventors…you name it.  They all drank here.  After studying the portraits for longer than we should have, we looked a little deeper.  The bar had opened in 1903 and on this hundreth anniversary of such a revered spot, we had to know more.

Entering The Owl Bar seems a bit of a maze.  Dark corners and heavy velvet curtains give it a Speakeasy feel, and with good reason.  Once inside, we were greeted with the sights we love - brick floor and brick walls, stained glass, and the kind of long oak bar that Hollywood can only dream of recreating.  For being haunted by the ghosts of diplomats and presidents past, it’s surprisingly low-key.  The most ostentatious things in the whole place are the cloth napkins. The room has an odd orange glow both from the fire for the brick oven pizzas and the orange and green stained glass above the bar. 

There are dull bronze owls with blinking orange eyes high on the wall above the bar next to the stained glass panels that read collectively:

“The wise old owl sat on an oak,
the more he saw, the less he spoke, 
the less he spoke, the more he heard.”

Turns out, in the 1920s, this was a Speakeasy.  During Prohibition, it was one of the few places in Baltimore that shipments of liquor from Canada and Mexico were distributed.  If the owls’ eyes were blinking, the shipment was in and all was well to party and ask to purchase the contraband.  If the owls’ eyes were glowing solidly, it was time to be silent until the feds were gone.

As the owls’ eyes were blinking upon our entrance, we settled into a table in the blissful air conditioning, remarkably having the bar to ourselves.  Texas ordered a “Tanqueray and Tonic in a tall tumbler with a tangy twist”, her version of a gin and tonic with lemon, though we needed an abundance of Advil after that alliteration.  As the bartender was quite exceptional in his duties, our afternoon’s exploration ended right there at The Owl Bar, and it became sort of a staple of our outings and remains that way for reunions.

Beyond having truly great bar food and a talented barkeep, it’s the history of the place that keeps us coming back.  None of us really care about where we have dinner before meeting there for drinks- it’s all about The Owl Bar for us.  In the evenings, there’s always a robust crowd from the neighborhood.  The crowd is generally ages 30 - 45, and politics dominates nearly every overheard conversation. The place is lousy with both lawyers and military, as one would expect so close to DC, but this is their neighborhood pub and a brick layer would be equally as comfortable as a diplomat. 

The Owl Bar is a place of conversation.  There is only one television, usually tuned to some sport or other, and the sound is always off - not that anyone could hear it anyway.  This is a place of connection - between people, and between the past and the present. Set in an old hotel that’s been rehabbed into condos, The Owl Bar remains defiantly Baltimore.