The new owners of Muggsy's Mug House looked to the past to help shape its future.
When Danny Young, Brent Putman and Ryan Cooper took over Clayton's Tavern this year, they wanted to steer the place back to simpler days.
Clayton's Tavern was a pub with better-than-average food and a solid wine list. But it couldn't consistently draw enough customers to stay afloat.
So the folks behind Muggsy's reverted it to a previous incarnation -- something they hope is similar to Sean Bolan's, a lo-fi beer bar that occupied the building a few years back.
"We're not on Cross Street, so we're not going for the kids who are going to slug 20 Miller Lites in a night," Young said.
Muggsy's, named after another bar from the building's past, opened late last month. Of the 16 drafts at Muggsy's, the owners hope about a dozen will be area brews like Clipper City, Dogfish Head and Yuengling. But when I dropped by the bar about a week ago, only a couple were local beers.
The reason? According to Cooper, they were gearing up for St. Patrick's Day, which meant they had to stock more recognizable brands. And they were still striking deals with area beer distributors.
So I ordered a Sam Adams White Ale for $4.
True to the bar's name, beers are poured into 16-ounce glass mugs -- which I'm all for. I think all beer should be drunk out of big glass mugs, or even better -- giant wooden horns. When I was there, Cooper told me they're planning on ordering some mini-mugs to use as shot glasses, too.
Frequent patrons can join the Muggsy's MuGG Club. After drinking any 100 beers in any amount of time, club members get a T-shirt and 20-ounce mug with their name engraved on it. There are better club deals around town, but this one's not bad.
The co-owners haven't changed the interior much from when it was Clayton's Tavern. They hung a few St. Patrick's Day ornaments along the brick walls but otherwise kept the interior largely the same.
With Muggsy's, Cooper, Young and Putman say they hope to take the focus off food and put it on beer. In the next few weeks, they need to follow through and get more local brews on tap. That will help them establish an identity and bring out more neighborhood beer geeks.
I just wish the owners had picked out a better name for the place. Muggsy's Mug House is pretty clunky; Clayton's Tavern and Sean Bolan's are much better choices. But if Muggsy's eventually brings in a wider selection of better beers, people will go there regardless of its name.
"We want to be the neighborhood hangout," Young said.
They're on their way.
sam.sessa@baltsun.com
Muggsy's Mug House is at 1236 Light St. Hours are 5 p.m.-1 a.m. Mondays-Wednesdays and 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Call 410-528-9111 or go to muggsysmughouse.com.