Seahorse Inn, and Pop’s Tavern
By Baynard Woods (Baltimore City Paper, 7/4/2012)
Photograph by J.M. Giordano
“…When we leave the Seahorse, we stop by Pop’s Tavern (4343 North Point Blvd.), the second oldest bar in Baltimore County. As we walk in, a guy gets up from the table where he has been playing cards and asks for a beer.
“Tim, shut your fucking mouth,” Chris, the bartender, yells. He’s pouring the beer, and when he sees me writing, he says, “Don’t quote that. That’s off the record, motherfucker.”
The poker players play. Chris brings us beers.
At the front of the room is a wooden wagon wheel and a wooden fence encircling it, where country bands play most weekends. “Somebody who played here told me to take it down,” says Ma, the owner of the joint. “But you see it’s still here,” she adds.
Ma took over in 2001, when her husband got sick and, later, died. “His grandfather opened this place in 1933,” when Prohibition ended, she says. “It was right in the middle of where Wise Avenue is now. When they built the road, they moved the bar with a crane.” She met her husband back when his father ran the bar and she was working at a nearby drug store. She came into the business when she came into the family, in 1956.”
Continue reading “The City That Drinks” at Baltimore City Paper.
