I hope Timothy Dean won't mind, but I've completely lost interest in the Prime Steakhouse who-owns-it in favor of another restaurant mystery: who is buying (or not buying) the Brass Elephant?
Today's installment stars Michael Morris of Cana Development in Brooklandville. A super-secret Dining@Large source told me he was somehow involved in a deal to buy the shuttered Mount Vernon restaurant. The deal hit a snag earlier this week but is said not to be dead.
I reached Morris by phone just a little while ago and he confirmed this much:
"From a big-picture perspective, I'm involved with an investor group that is actively negotiating with the existing ownership of the property, and they're ongoing negotiations," he said. "At this point, until they've been completed, it's really not fair to anybody to go into details."
Morris said the investors are just that. They do not plan to run a restaurant at the location, but to buy it and have someone else run it.
"I can tell you our intention is not to run the Brass Elephant," he said. "We are coming in as investors in the property. We don't currently operate any restaurants."
Morris said he was a little amused by all the attention being paid to the Brass Elephant deal. "This little property," he said, had gotten more attention than the "gigantic, 24-acre" projects he'd worked on back when he was employed by Cordish.
At the same time, Morris said he could appreciate why people are interested.
"We think it's an incredible building with a very unique history and a special place in the Baltimore food and beverage community," he said. "And we hope that the luster is returned back to the building."
Sun photo by Algerina Perna