Saloon

P. Austin Dolan, who operated a family-owned saloon on Greenmount Avenue, died Wednesday of heart failure at Oak Crest Village Care Center in Parkville. He was 80.Mr. Dolan was a partner in Dolan's Bar and Grill in the 1900 block of Greenmount Ave."My father pretty much ran the place," said Peter A. Dolan Jr. of Catonsville.Mr. Dolan, a Baltimore native, received his high school diploma from Calvert Hall College and enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He served in the United States as a B-29 crewman and was honorably discharged in 1946.

Four clubs on The Block are appealing suspensions of their licenses that would prohibit them from presenting strip acts.Those appealing are: the Golden Nugget, Club Chez Joey, the Jewel Box and the Mouse Trap. Since May, the city has stepped up its regulation and enforcement of bars on The Block, where undercover vice officers have documented prostitution, obscene stage acts and other offenses.The Doll House and Plaza Saloon did not appeal and will temporarily lose their licenses beginning today.

The restaurant space in Harborplace where Wayne's Bar-b-que used to be -- Wayne's has moved to the Pratt Street Pavilion -- now has a sleek new look. It features an antique bar, fireplace, exposed brick, wooden booths and period fixtures. With such improvements the recently opened J. Paul's has attempted to turn the glass and metal exoskeleton of Harborplace into an old-fashioned saloon.It works well enough. It would have worked even better in a wonderful old rowhouse, but you can't have everything.

Philip C. Dypsky Sr., the eccentric owner of a Southeast Baltimore saloon that was a monument to the Gay Nineties, died of respiratory failure Monday at Mariner Healthcare of Overlea. He was 83.Dypsky's Turn of the Century Museum Saloon, which was in business from 1979 to 1988, was gallery for Baltimore memorabilia and a lively watering hole for American Can Co. workers, local politicos and neighborhood residents.The saloon occupied parts of two buildings that Mr. Dypsky owned at Linwood and O'Donnell streets.

Just past nightfall, as the neon lights flashed on and doormen emerged from under the awnings to hustle the gathering crowd, two men wandered into the smoky darkness of the Plaza Saloon.In the narrow basement bar, Sparkle twirled about on stage and pulled off her sequined top. Bunny, in a red string bikini, offered to "explain the rules" for a $20 drink. If either of them wanted to pay her $40, she said, she would have sex with him.The men -- two undercover vice officers -- needed little further explanation.

Hours after the black-tie New Year's Eve party at McGarvey's Saloon in Annapolis, a three-alarm fire struck the downtown landmark. Only one section of the business was damaged, and there were no injuries."

Souris' Saloon has been at the corner of York and Allegheny since 1934, but these days it's not the same Souris'. At the end of last year it was taken over by new owners and turned into more of a restaurant, less of a bar. It also expanded; much of the space you see now was a dry cleaner's and storage area.I never went to the old Souris', but apparently the best of what used to be there has been kept and renovated. The pressed tin ceiling was preserved, as well as the wooden booths and paneling, the mirrors and wonderful art deco appointments.

The Empty Pockets Saloon is a pretty good place to go if your pockets are indeed near-empty, because the food and drink prices at this Locust Point bar are miles removed from those of the nearby Inner Harbor.A glance out the saloon's front window gives as firm a geographic fix on the neighborhood as you could ask for: Formstone-clad row houses stand across the street, and off to the east is the giant Domino Sugar sign looming like a leftover prop from Barry Levinson's filmography.There has been a tavern here for more than 50 years, but the present incarnation dates only to 1990.

They buried Harris Christopher "Bobby" Souris yesterday with a $1 bill for tolls, a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey, a Baltimore County police badge and a calendar book signed by family and friends.A bit of old Towson also died with the passing of Bobby Souris, 62, who owned Souris' Saloon, a fixture at the corner of York Road and Alleghany Avenue since 1936.The saloon is closed and will not reopen under family management, say family members.Bobby Souris, of Lutherville, died Friday of heart failure at St. Joseph Hospital.

Gabby's Lounge Where: Pikesville Hilton Inn, 1726 Reisterstown Road.Hours: 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. daily.Menu: Lunch may be ordered off the San Marco restaurant menu before 4 p.m.; bar menu of burgers, sandwiches, salads, pizza, clams casino, served at night.Credit cards: All major cards accepted.Call: 653-1100.Under new ownership and freshly renovated, with the coveted Hilton name restored, the Pikesville Hilton Inn is aiming to grab the attention of northwest Baltimoreans who may have surmised that its time had passed.

Peter Michael Yagjian, a restaurateur whose Mount Vernon Stable and Saloon brought baby back rib platters to Charles Street, died of a heart attack Tuesday at his Fells Point home. He was 64. Customers said that at his restaurant's peak, lines would form at its door on weekend nights. Mr. Yagjian, as the host and greeter, would dart around tables trying to accommodate one more party in his crowded and noisy bistro that featured a reproduction Egyptian mummy case and other eclectic decorations.

A diner owner paid $1.57 million yesterday for Fells Point's historic Horse You Came in On saloon, which the owner decided to sell after more than 30 years in business. Ioannis Korologos of Ellicott City, who owns six area Double-T Diners, beat out a handful of bidders at the auction, held at the bar at 1626 Thames St. "I thought it would be a good investment," said Korologos, who plans to keep the site a bar - with a few cosmetic improvements. "I'll definitely keep the name and the atmosphere."

If anyone was paying attention, which they probably weren't after a few sips, all they needed to know about the Horse You Came In On revealed itself in the saloon's first hour of business. That's when a silver-haired dude in a black hat rode a horse through the front door and up to the bar. And nobody minded. It was Aug. 7, 1972, the waterfront streets of Fells Point weren't yet synonymous with bar-hopping, and Ken Piaskowski, a friend of the new saloon's owner, was happy to help. "We got a little crazy," Piaskowski says, still proud of how he paid $20 to borrow the pony.

On August 2, 2005, ROBERT CARL ARMOUR, of Randallstown, MD, devoted husband of Carol Armour, loving father of Samantha Nicole Armour and Travis Nash, he is the brother of Carol Wagner and Gayle Turek, he is the former owner of the Salty Dog Saloon (Captain Bob). Relatives and friends are invited to call Loring Byers Funeral Directors, Inc., 8728 Liberty Road (2 miles West of Beltway Exit 18B) on Saturday, August 6, 2005 from 4 to 7 P.M. and Sunday, August 7, 2005 from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services will held at the Funeral Home on Monday, August 8, 2005 at 9:30 A.M. Interment to follow at Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery.

On August 2, 2005, ROBERT CARL ARMOUR, of Randallstown, MD, devoted husband of Carol Armour, loving father of Samantha Nicole Armour and Travis Nash, he is the brother of Carol Wagner and Gayle Turek, he is the former owner of the Salty Dog Saloon (Captain Bob). Relatives and friends are invited to call Loring Byers Funeral Directors, Inc., 8728 Liberty Road (2 miles West of Beltway Exit 18B) on Saturday, August 6, 2005 from 4 to 7 P.M. and Sunday, August 7, 2005 from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services will held at the Funeral Home on Monday, August 8, 2005 at 9:30 A.M. Interment to follow at Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery.

When Alicia and John Horn bought their Fells Point bar, they opted to eliminate a late-night commute home. Instead, after closing they climbed the stairs - to their home on the two floors above their Scotch whisky bar. "We thought, who's going to drive home and chance it? Why have two places when you can live [and work] in one?" said Alicia Horn, proprietor of Birds of A Feather. Her bar is on the first floor of the 203-year-old brick rowhouse she and her husband, now deceased, bought 23 years ago. There aren't many merchants like Horn left.

As visitors descend on Baltimore during the summer tourism season, staff writer Larry Bingham offers an occasional look at how the city has been portrayed by writers over the years. Today, an excerpt from Baltimore native and newspaperman H. L. Mencken, lamenting the changing city in the 1920s. "I was glad I was born long enough ago to remember, now, the days when the town had genuine color, and life here was worth living. I remember Guy's Hotel. I remember the Concordia Opera House. I remember the old Courthouse.

If you're the drinking kind, hoist a glass to old-line neighborhood taverns. Their numbers are shrinking in Baltimore. The reasons: People are not boozing as much as before, and many aging neighborhoods are emptying out. In the smaller working-class neighborhoods around the Baltimore waterfront, where most of the city's liquor licenses are, taverns are fighting for survival. Or they are as long gone as the Drydock taproom on Key Highway, where condominiums replaced a shipyard, and Gandy Dancer, a McHenry Street bar that witnessed Baltimore's rise and fall as a railroad capital.

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. - The freshly paved parking lot behind the Bucket of Blood Saloon is marked with footprints, literally and figuratively. Today, the small lot is crowded with cars, circa 2000. But 125 years ago, it was packed with people looking to drink, to dine, maybe even to dance. Back then, the recently excavated site was home to a saloon that archeologists and historians hope will tell them much about the life of blacks in the Old West. Known as the Boston Saloon, the bar in the heart of Virginia City's entertainment district was owned and run by a black man from Massachusetts named William A. G. Brown.

P. Austin Dolan, who operated a family-owned saloon on Greenmount Avenue, died Wednesday of heart failure at Oak Crest Village Care Center in Parkville. He was 80.Mr. Dolan was a partner in Dolan's Bar and Grill in the 1900 block of Greenmount Ave."My father pretty much ran the place," said Peter A. Dolan Jr. of Catonsville.Mr. Dolan, a Baltimore native, received his high school diploma from Calvert Hall College and enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He served in the United States as a B-29 crewman and was honorably discharged in 1946.