Update: More info at Midnight Sun (also Beer in Baltimore), fortunate end to an unfortunate situation in that their agreement was nullified with no ill will. Huzzah!
It seems like every week we’re either saying hello or goodbye to one bar or another in Federal Hill, and this time the unfortunate news seems to be the (hopefully temporary via a new location) closing of Muggsy’s Mug House (1236 Light St.). The story seems oddly familiar, as it would seem the landlord who holds the property can’t come to terms on a lease the ownership has been paying since 2008, and negotiations have essentially fallen through. Whether or not a Ryder truck will be rolling up to rip everything out as with Lager’s, guess we’ll just have to wait and find out!
Muggsy’s has been a fine beer bar and a worthy followup to Sean Bolan’s (currently in Bel Air), it’s sad to see another neighborhood bar come into the seemingly problematic issue of landlords being giant dicks not being able and/or willing to renegotiate when it comes to either receiving less money in terms of lease, or no money at all when the property is rendered vacant. I’m sure in 2006 (or even ’08 for that matter) many landlords saw young entrepreneurs champing at the bit to pay whatever they could to secure their very own bar, landlords who undoubtedly purchased their properties a dozen or more years ago when real estate was far cheaper, and see the dollar signs vomiting from thin air. But rather than do what might be best for business in general they often times refuse to back down, as if receiving $3500 a month versus $5000 a month is some sort of an affront to their way of life – the hard knock life of collecting and cashing checks!
At any rate, hopefully the fine gents of Muggsy’s can land feet first into something new, different or better. Best of luck, gents.
NOOooooOOOoooo! not muggsy’s!
Bummer 🙁
Even though i rarely went there it was a cool bar.
I’m buying it and opening Tappy’s McTap Stackhouse
ha good luck with that. you all wait. theres something great coming.
It may also be that the landlords financed during the boom years and now need the exorbitant rent to afford the payments. Or refinanced to purchase other properties. Explaining it doesn’t excuse it. It’s a shame to see another bar close.
Total bummer. Danny is a great guy and I’ve always loved Muggsys.
danny is indeed a great guy, hopefully everything ends up ok. all the good beer bars are closing up shop in fed hill while the miller light emporiums continue to get more and more packed. further solidifying my non-need to visit. (esp with the parking sitch)
In this case, the problem isn’t the landlord. The lease was set and the owner can’t pay it. The reason why they can’t pay the lease is because it’s rarely crowded. On most evenings, you can count the patrons on two hands. I would love a bar with edible food to move in once they push those clowns out of there. By the way, the odds of rolling up the Ryder truck and packing up are quite strong. They are delinquent on their rent and have nowhere close to the clientele that would enable them to repay the past due and continue to pay on a regular basis.
I love that the author blames the owner of the building rather than the people running the business. He could cut the rent in half and Muggsy’s Crap House would struggle to stay afloat. Crappy food and poor service isn’t a recipe for success.
I’ll say this: I look at a landlord in this sort of situation in the same way that I look at a bank coming to terms with a homeowner who is about to go into foreclosure; try to work with them, you’re going to lose money one way or the other. Whether you want to lose 20,000 over the next four months of vacancy, or 6000 by negotiating.
As for blaming the building owner exclusively, it’s true enough that if Muggsy’s sucks badly enough people simply won’t go there – I don’t have access to their books to demonstrate otherwise – and if it were the case that the rent were cut in half and they still couldn’t stay afloat then they ought to close, I don’t know how long or how consistently they’ve been losing money. Maybe you do! (but I don’t)
Muggsy’s has been bought out. trust me its for the better. there is something coming to fed hill. something that some may not be able to handle
I am sad to see “neighborhood” bars dying in this tough economy, but I fail to see how the owner expecting the agreed upon rent makes him a dick. If you think it is ok to pay 70% rent, would it have been ok for the owner to board the place up 30% of the time? Or to take over 30% of the floorspace and sell it to someone else? Obligations cost money. Cost of doing business. A bar isn’t a lemonade stand.
Yeah dick was a strong word
I respectfully disagree. I think dick was the perfect word!
Well, ok, I guess you were right and the guy wasn’t so bad after all. It’s too bad, I love making snap judgements!
hey this is Danny im not a big computer guy so im sorry i didnt comment on this earlier. thanks for all the kind words. and to Rcarter im sorry you had such a bad time on your visit/visits to Muggsy’s. for the record it is not the landlord’s fault i have never blamed him and no he is not a dick he has been very patient with us over the years and is being very fair with the way we are parting ways. i would also like to say that although we are often late on our rent payments we are not delinquent?? i suppose you have gotten some false information. i am not sorry for opening Muggsy’s at all i learned a lot about my self and how to/not to run a business. we were very young when the terms were set and neigh eve regarding commercial real estate the mistakes we made in the beginning i take
complete responsibility for and blame no one i believe we had a good
concept that can work under different conditions. and @J.m.giordano i cant wait to grab a beer at Tappy’s what a great name!
Class act Danny as always my good man
By the way, being delinquent means that you are past due on your account. So in actuality you were delinquent.
Since it seems from the article in the Sun that will continue to tend bar in the neighborhood, here is a piece of advice……as someone responsible for serving drinks, you should not be more intoxicated than the patrons. I visited the bar a couple times during the day and it seemed as though you had been eating acid for days or on a serious bender. While some patrons think it’s fun to have a drunk/high bartender, most would prefer good service.
Hey, way to be a judgemental jerk, Steve. Danny doesn’t come to your job and tell you how to read blogs and check Facebook all day, why don’t you not tell him how to do his? P.S. I’ve been to Muggsys’s more times than I can count and have only seem Danny as drunk as you say once or twice at the very, very end of the night so I really have no idea what you’re talking about.
All the Kath and Marg love comin to you Dano! We wouldn’t be us without Muggsy’s.
I believe the landlord(s) would be the owners of Sean Bolin. They wouldn’t include the building or the name when they originally cashed out. Horrible deal. Mugsy’s is the second bar to fail in that space from that initial bad deal
There goes the birthday parties at Muggsy’s… The 30th Birthday Party was a blast. Thanks Danny
How about free drinks on the house for the birthday girl/guy. see whats up. will be a new name… a new place. Muggy’s is gone… why? cause we are taking over.
you sure did spend a lot of money on that place, I hope you make it work, and hopefully you aren’t paying as much as Danny was for a 6 day license.