Natty Boh Lounge Harkens Back to Simpler Times

To some outside the Baltimore area, the winking mustachioed mascot looks like the Pringles man's sophisticated older brother.

But to Tom Hoehn, he represents better years gone by. Things were simpler then. The Orioles played over .500. The Colts were still in town. And Baltimore's trademark elixir, National Bohemian beer, flowed freely at Memorial Stadium.

One step in Hoehn's new York Road bar, , and you get a sense for this love of heritage. Autographed posters of Cal Ripken Jr. and Johnny Unitas decorate the walls, as do photos of Natty Boh bottles and crabs and a glass cabinet full of Boh hats and shirts. Full cans of Utz potato chips adorn the tables.

And thanks to the decision earlier this year by Boh's current owners, Pabst Brewing Co., to bring back Natty Boh draft, Hoehn was able to wrangle a few kegs. It's the only beer the bar will carry on tap, but in his mind, it's the only one they need.

"It's a crummy economy, it's a crummy time. People are looking for something simpler and people like to nest and look back to a simpler time," said the 47-year-old from Jarrettsville. "And when Natty Boh was at Memorial Stadium, times were better."

The small lounge sits atop Lil' Dicky's, and both are owned by Dennis Danielczyk. A Johns Hopkins graduate, Danielczyk says Natty Boh was "all we drank through college" and he wanted to bring back some of that old-school feel for a slightly older crowd.

But, perhaps to keep rowdy college students from re-enacting the Roar From 34, Hoehn and Danielczyk set an informal age rule, asking that only those 30 and up come upstairs to partake.

"We all had fun doing that, and there's a time and place for everything," Hoehn says. "And if you want that, you can go next door to Dicky's and you can get that almost any night of the week."

Much of the swag on the walls was collected by Danielczyk, who works with Unitas' son in his day job running a mortgage firm.

"You should see my house," he says.

The bar has its soft opening this week for Thursday happy hour, and will probably be open on weekends and happy hours in the future. Hoehn might also serve light lunches soon, but he says nothing is set in stone just yet.

Perhaps owing to nostalgia, Hoehn speaks fondly of the recent move to bring Boh back on tap at Camden Yards. Maybe, he says, one winning tradition could help revive another.

"Spring training, if that's any indication, it doesn't look too bad. But I'd like to see people get back behind them again," he says. "People are so against (Orioles owner Peter) Angelos that they forget that there are a bunch of guys out there struggling and fighting for every win. It's kind of a Baltimore thing. When they're winning, 'Go team.' And when they're not, 'Go away.'"