Cowboy hats, flannel shirts and leather boots dot the dance floor at Cancun Cantina, swaying and shuffling to the sound of a twangy pedal steel guitar.
Hundreds of country music lovers come to the Hanover roadhouse every week to boot scoot and boogie their way through dance lessons held Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It's a rare scene -- a taste of Texas in the shadow of the Mason-Dixon line.
Baltimore might straddle the North and the South, but the region has only a handful of true blue country bars.
"I moved here from Nashville, and to me, there are very few country bars here for a city this size," said Justin Cole, music director for country radio station 93.1-FM WPOC.
"But the bars that are around, it's about quality, not quantity," he said. "They do a great job of catering to the country fan."
These three local watering holes are just that: welcoming places where country music lovers can hang their 10-gallon hats and feel at home.
Cancun Cantina could eat a lesser country bar for breakfast.
It's a big, brash, in-your-face kind of country bar, the kind of place where a "Roadhouse"-era Patrick Swayze would feel right at home.
The orange-red glow from Cancun Cantina's neon sign comes into view a half-mile away. The sign bears Cancun Cantina's logo, a bone-white bull skull, horns and all. On Friday and Saturday nights, the sprawling bar is a mob scene, with 10-gallon hats, flannel shirts and cowboy boots aplenty.
Owner Tony Toskov had no experience running a bar before he opened Cancun Cantina 17 years ago (the bar's anniversary party is Feb. 19). He was a limo driver who spent most of his nights waiting in the parking lot outside hot spots while his customers partied inside. Toskov saw the job as an opportunity to research the area's bar scene and figured Greater Baltimore could use a roadhouse. So at 30, he quit his gig and founded Cancun Cantina.
"When I opened it, country was the hottest thing at the time," Toskov said. "We jumped in and rode the wave. We're still riding it."
One of the main reasons Cancun Cantina is still around, Toskov said, is because he is constantly updating it. He built an enclosed patio where they plant new palm trees every summer, a billiards lounge and added new dining areas.
With its stretches of wood and stone, Cancun Cantina has a feel that's half-bar, half-lodge. The room with the main dance floor has an American flag mural, as well as a black banner emblazoned with the Cancun Cantina logo and streaked with lightning bolts. A bull bust hangs above the stage, and a life-size Elvis statue stands nearby.
Every six months, some aspect of the place gets an update, Toskov said. Over the years, Cancun Cantina has quadrupled in size, to roughly 30,000 square feet. The events roster has changed, too. Tuesdays through Thursdays, it offers country dance lessons on its big wooden dance floor. Live bands set up on an adjacent stage on the weekends (country singer-songwriter David Allan Coe will be there Feb. 22). For a time, Cancun Cantina played host to weekly bull riding, and Toskov is thinking about bringing it back in the coming months.
"We've added on and added on," Toskov said. "We're always making changes. I believe that's why we're still here. We continue to put money back in."
Cancun Cantina isn't cheap because it doesn't have to be. There is always a cover charge before 7 p.m. (the amount varies, depending on the event), a bottle of Bud Light is $3 (not bargain basement prices) and a game of pool costs a whopping $2.
That doesn't stop people from coming, though. On a recent Tuesday -- traditionally a slow night for most bars -- Cancun Cantina's main dance floor was nearly full. The bar was so successful that Toskov opened a sister location, Cancun Cantina West, in Hagerstown three years ago.
In December 2006, a fire at Cancun Cantina caused $1.9 million damage and forced the bar to close, Toskov said. The fire was ruled arson, but the person who set it was never caught. Toskov enlisted his employees to help with repairs, and Cancun Cantina was up and running in less than two months. It's been 17 years, and Toskov is looking forward to the next 17.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "We'll be here that long."
Cancun Cantina is at 7501 Old Telegraph Road in Hanover. Call 410-761-6188 or go to cancuncantina.com.
The Friendly Inn can never be accused of false advertising.
As its name implies, this Ellicott City watering hole is a long-standing refuge, where locals can toss back a few while listening to solid acoustic and electric live music.
The building's exterior boasts a farm mural, complete with barnyard animals playing instruments, painted by artist Ezra Berger.
Inside, the Friendly Inn is divided into several smaller spaces. The front room sells package goods, and the adjacent bar area is separated by swinging saloon doors. It's a rustic, amiable place that straddles two centuries. The walls might be adorned with old knickknacks such as a mandolin, but the bar boasts a Jagermeister tap that dispenses the chilled, cough-syrupy liquor beloved by the college set.
During happy hour, which runs noon to midnight Sundays and Tuesdays and 3p.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, domestic drafts, including Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, are a mere $2.
For fans of impromptu bluegrass, Tuesday evenings are the best bet. Around 6:30 p.m., a dozen or so local acoustic musicians set up by the large hearth and start pickin'. On a recent Tuesday, they played plenty of traditional tunes and old favorites such as "Deep Elem Blues." The Friendly Inn also showcases some of the region's better bluegrass bands on Friday nights.
For decades, the Friendly Inn was run by Gisela Woelper, a native of Germany. In 2008, Woelper sold the Inn to Jason Cooke, who is eyeing the site for redevelopment. Luxury homes have sprouted up all around the inn, and their residents have complained about the noise.
"I've enjoyed being around, and I would love to keep it here as is, but the building is not in good shape," he said. "Right now, we're in limbo, waiting to meet with the county to understand what opportunities may exist for it."
Until then, Cooke is tinkering with the menu, drink list and live music lineup to draw larger crowds. Thankfully, he hasn't made any drastic changes to the space.
"We've been here so long -- long before a lot of the people lived here in the county," he said. "We're just trying to play around with it and connect with some people."
The Friendly Inn is at 11074 Frederick Road in Ellicott City. Call 410-531-5510 or go to thefriendlyinn.com.
For more than 75 years, Pop's Tavern has been a family affair.
Owner Debbie Hurd's great-grandfather opened the Sparrows Point country mainstay in 1933 with the second post-Prohibition liquor license awarded in Baltimore County. (No one knows who got the first license, Hurd said.)
Some evenings, visitors will find three generations -- Hurd, her mother, Patricia Gawlik, and Hurd's daughter, Kimberly Law -- all chatting and working together in Pop's Tavern.
Since the 1980s, Pop's Tavern has booked live country bands -- most from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania -- to play on Friday and Saturday nights. Many of the patrons are baby boomers or older, but there are a few 20- and 30-somethings as well. When the music starts, couples fill the dance floor, and when it ends, they head to their chairs to wait for the next tune.
During the day, Pop's Tavern serves beer in 10-ounce glass mugs for $1.10 and in 16-ounce glasses for $1.50. At night, those prices creep up to $2 and $3, respectively.
In 1944, the building that houses Pop's Tavern was moved back to accommodate an expanding North Point Boulevard. Not one to lose out on potential business, Hurd's grandfather kept the tavern open during the move.
After more than 30 years of tending bar at Pop's, Hurd said one of the most important things she's learned is to ignore the bar gossip and live it up with the regulars.
"Have fun with your customers," she said. "Joke around with them and have a good time."
Pop's Tavern is at 4343 North Point Blvd. in Sparrows Point. Call 410-477-0270 or go to popstaverninc.com.