Old Stein Inn Scores Old Bar From Storied Manhattan Eatery

The Old Stein Inn in Edgewater caught fire in the wee morning hours on the last day of 2010.  The owners of the restaurant, Mike and Beth Selinger, were asleep in their home behind the structure while flames destroyed what the Selinger family had spent two generations building.

The couple awoke that morning to dozens of fire trucks and scores of firefighters valiantly working to save the structure of their beloved family business.

By 7 a.m. the fire had claimed most of the western side of the roof.

In order to save the building, firefighters broke out all of the windows and flooded the interior with water.

“In the end, about 80 percent of the structure was good, but 100 percent of the inside was destroyed, either by the fire or the water or the smoke,” Selinger said.

For the past three months, Selinger and work crews have been tearing out all that was left of the inside. The walls, the carpet, the bars, tables and chairs—everything had to go.

During that time, Selinger was scouring Craigslist and eBay to find salvaged and reclaimed materials for the rebuild.

“When I think of the restaurant the way it was, I’m thinking a lot of the kind of comfort and coziness of the restaurant. With the new building, it isn’t going to be there—that ‘gemutlichkeit’.” So if we can get reclaimed items, we can help to bring the newness with the old and it will balance,” Selinger said.

Selinger hit the jackpot in his search earlier this month, when he found a Craigslist advertisement for a 22-foot long mahogany bar from a 100-year old Manhattan restaurant that closed last June.

Carmine’s Italian Seafood restaurant at South Seaport in New York City was a family-owned and operated restaurant for several generations. A rent hike last summer forced owner Greg Molini to shutter the landmark.

“The restaurant has been around since 1903. My dad bought it from Carmine in the 1970s. My dad ran it and then I did. Then the rent went too high. I couldn’t stay open,” Molini said.

When he closed, he took out the bar and fixtures and put them in storage. He said that the “wonderful old bar” had a lot of memories.

“I had a great time in the business. People called it like a ‘Cheers.’ We had regulars. It was like a party in my living room every night. We had waitresses and waiters who worked there for 30 years. And my old bar—I’m kind of attached to it. It is like family,” he said.

Molini said that when he got the call from Selinger asking about the bar, he felt a special kinship.

“When he told me that the restaurant had burned down, I told him I knew how it felt to lose a business, Molini said. “Now I am glad that my bar has found a home. I’m pretty happy that he has it and it will be there when I want to come and visit it.”

Selinger said that he not only bought the bar, but also some of the nautical-themed fixtures, paneling and booths.

He picked up the items recently in a U-haul on an overnight trip to the city. Upon his return to Edgewater, Selinger sent the pieces to be cleaned and restored. Hopefully by the time the restoration work is completed on the bar and booths, the restaurant will be in shape to receive them.

For now, Selinger said that they have been working with Purple Cherry Architects in Annapolis to come up with some modifications to the old space.

He said that they have to bring some of the things up to code—including handicap accessibility of their restrooms, which will require an addition. Selinger said that they will be keeping the same number of seats and the same general layout of the interior.

The permits went to the county last week, and if everything gets approved, they can begin the rebuild in the very near future.

“We are hoping for an August opening. July would be spectacular. But realistically, looking at August,” Selinger said. “Schedule and reality are often two different things.”

Either way, Molini said that he’s ready to come see his old bar at the new Old Stein Inn whenever Selinger gives the word that they’re open.

Lots of their old customers will probably be there too.