Toast end of 'Wire' at one of bars featured on show

Sam Sessa

March 6, 2008

The last episode of the last season of the HBO series The Wire airs Sunday.

You can toast the occasion by having a taste at one of the bars featured in the show over the years.

Here are two spots where characters from the show spend their evenings slamming back shots and beers.

New Haven Lounge

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1552 Havenwood Road, Northwood Shopping Center
410-366-7416

This is the bar where Detective Lester Freamon meets state Sen. R. Clayton "Clay" Davis to threaten him with a federal indictment in the fifth season. The two are having shots and mixed drinks each time they meet, probably because the Haven has no beers on tap.

One time, I asked for a beer there, and the bartender looked at me funny, as if to say, "Why are you here, if you're ordering a beer? Go to a corner bar for that. You're at the Haven. Have a mixed drink."

The lounge is one of the best places in Baltimore to see live jazz. It's been open for more than 20 years and hosts nationally touring acts at least once a week, and the cover charge is usually kept at a reasonable rate.

Outside, it looks like the Haven has been closed for years. The lights in the sign are perpetually burned out, and the strip mall it occupies has seen better days.

Inside, the Haven has murals of jazz greats like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, as well as comfy booths to relax in. For the shoot, the production crew set up lamps on the tables. Otherwise, they left the lounge as it was, said owner Keith Covington. Now, he wants to buy some lamps like the ones they used.

"It looked good," he said. "It makes sense."

The Sidebar Tavern
218 E. Lexington St.
410-659-4130
sidebartavern.com

Every time a police officer dies on the show, the rest of the police department throws a massive drunken wake at a bar called Kavanagh's Irish Pub. Usually, the cop is laid out on the pool table while the former co-workers give speeches.

Kavanagh's is based on an old-school cop bar called Kavanaugh's on West Madison Street near Maryland General Hospital. About 10 years ago, it was converted into Coconuts, one of the city's few lesbian bars.

Whenever The Wire folks needed to re-create Kavanaugh's, they went to the Sidebar at East Lexington Street and Guilford Avenue. The Sidebar has been featured in every season, including this week's finale.

In reality, the Sidebar is more of a lawyers' bar than a hangout for cops. Most happy hours, you'll find a few suits sitting at the bar having a round or two before they head home for the night.

The Sidebar is nothing fancy, but part of the basement bar's charm is its low-fi attitude and appearance. Punk, metal and DIY bands play there most nights, often at ear-piercing decibel levels.

How's this for a twist of fate: When Sidebar owner Richard Ashburn was looking to buy a bar years ago, one of the first places he looked at was the old Kavanaugh's on Madison Street. But he decided against it, and bought the Sidebar instead. Now, the Sidebar has been immortalized as Kavanagh's.

"Somebody told me I should get on the Ride the Ducks tour," Ashburn said. "I said, 'Nah, I don't think I'm going to do that.'"

sam.sessa@baltsun.com