Harford County is weighing liquor license changes that could impact new eateries coming to downtown Bel Air, notably Brookside Market and John Brown Butchery.
Casey Brooks, who runs Brookside Market in Phoenix, has applied for a cafe liquor license to open a second location in a vacant bank building between Bond and North Main streets, where they converge at Gordon Street.
Brooks wants 83 seats for the new restaurant, 24 of them outside. Harford’s cafe license allows 59 seats, but doesn’t specify whether that includes outdoor seats, which prompted the county’s Liquor Control Board to set some definitions and rules for the license.
Board commissioners spent an hour Wednesday working to come up with a definition for “outdoor service.” Chairman Wayne Goddard — a local developer who built the new Standard on Bond apartment complex right across from the Brookside building — also said Wednesday that he wants the board to come up with a maximum number of cafe licenses.
A proposed “outdoor service space” definition, as well as a proposed number of allowable cafe licenses, will be posted publicly ahead of the board’s next meeting, on Feb. 25, when the commissioners plan to vote on them.
Brooks, who opened Brookside Market eight years ago and previously ran Casey’s restaurant on Joppa Road in Parkville, declined to comment ahead of the vote on the cafe license.
Robert Voss told The Baltimore Sun he plans to also request a cafe license for John Brown General & Butchery, the Baltimore County-based shop that plans to open in Main Street’s historic Boyd & Fulford building.
Eleven businesses in Harford County have a cafe license, and two have requested it, one of them being Brookside, the Liquor Control Board said.
Although The Standard on Bond has space for a restaurant on the first floor, liquor board attorney Amy Finneran clarified that Goddard would not need to recuse himself from voting on the cafe license issues, because “he does not currently have an interest in any existing licensed establishment. Moreover, the tenant that is considering leasing the restaurant space in The Standard on Bond does not intend to seek a Class B Cafe license.”
The Town of Bel Air green-lit Brookside, including the 24 outdoor seats with a television and “other visual displays,” earlier this month.
Goddard seemed amenable to an “outdoor space” definition and other proposals from Brooks’ attorney Joe Snee during Wednesday’s liquor board meeting, noting that historically the board has interpreted outdoor seating as being on top of the 59-seat maximum. Goddard did not return a call for comment on this story.
Have a news tip? Contact Bryna Zumer at bzumer@baltsun.com, or on X as @brynazumer.
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