Board approves Corner Stable liquor license

A family-owned Cockeysville restaurant will soon expand into the Kings Contrivance location left vacant by Michael's Pub in March.

The Howard County Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board unanimously approved a liquor license for the Corner Stable's new Columbia location – its second – at a meeting Tuesday, July 26. The approval was the last stipulation for signing a lease with Kimco Realty Corporation, the company which owns the Kings Contrivance Village Center, said Randy Reed, co-owner of the Corner Stable.

A lease, she said, will be signed within days.

"Optimistically, (we could open by) October 1," Chip Reed, Randy's husband and co-owner of the Corner Stable, told the panel.

Michael's Pub closed March 22 after 25 years in the village center, leaving disappointed patrons and employees without one of the few locally owned and operated establishments in the area.

The Corner Stable, owned by the Reeds for the past 10 years, has been a Cockeysville establishment for 41 years, Chip Reed said.

The license's approval is pending the Techniques of Alcohol Management certification – an educational program designed to promote safe and responsible selling of alcohol – of April Lanehart, a Columbia resident and the Reed's niece. Lanehart will be the resident agent of the license, as the Reeds live in Reistertown.

The 6,000-square-foot facility is larger than the current location in Cockeysville, Randy Reed said, and could fit between 150-175 patrons. The Reeds and their family are looking to hire 75-95 employees. All former employees of Michael's Pub are being interviewed for positions, Chip Reed said.

The Reeds had been looking to expand the Corner Stable for almost four years, Randy Reed said. In a stroke of luck, a nephew whose best friend worked at Michael's notified his family of the restaurant's closing.

"Our family lives in the area, and there's been a desire for it in the community," Chip Reed said. "The way it evolved, everything is right. Parking is good, there's not a lot of competition, it's all within five to 10 minutes from U.S. 29, I-95 and MD 32, so we can draw from a large area. We wanted a spot in Columbia, and this didn't have any drawbacks."

Chip Reed explained to the panel that he and his family were very aware of the need for a local, family-owned business in Columbia, where chain restaurants are common, and of the importance the restaurant could have to the village center.

"We're very, very conscious of being a good neighbor," he said.

Panel member Harry Evans said he had a vested interest in the Corner Stable's new location, not just because of his position on the panel, but because the Kings Contrivance Village Center is so close to where he lives in the village.

"You know, I have been just sick since I have not had a full-service restaurant in my village center, particularly one that has later hours," he said. "I find (the Reeds and their family) to be, as we say in this industry, 'fit and proper folk.' "