Home > Baltimore Bars & Clubs > Bar Review > Inside: Mount Royal Tavern

Vibe: Mount Royal Tavern is a dark, little hovel situated on the edge of Bolton Hill in the bottom floor of a converted rowhouse. There is just enough space for a bar, a handful of tables and an ever-present haze of cigarette smoke.

Crowd: The bar is across the street from Maryland Institute College of Art, so the Mount Royal Tavern pulls in young, mop-haired art students as well as a steady regular base of somewhat older, somewhat crotchety Bolton Hill residents. Mount Royal Tavern is B.Y.O.F. (or bring your own friends), because the bar may not supply you with new ones.

Libations: Though there's a well-stocked bar, keeping with the dive nature of the place, everybody tends to drink cheap beer or rail liquor. While we're discussing beer, we should also mention the inescapable consequence of drinking too much of it: a trip to what just might be the most disturbingly befouled bar bathroom in the city.

Sounds: There is no live music, but sounds are provided by a jukebox with a remarkably varied selection. We were especially pleased to find the old novelty CD Lounge-A-Palooza, which features a bunch of lounge covers of '90s alt-rock standards and vice versa. Guaranteed to amuse or annoy the living hell out of each and every patron.

Service: The gruff bartender was curt, but the beer arrived immediately, and that's what counts in a place like this. In other bars the cash register display scrolls a message of GOOD AFTERNOON. At Mount Royal Tavern, whenever a purchase is rung up the display scrolls BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS. That's what we call having a lot of character.

Bottom Line: This is an excellent neighborhood bar -- a place with cheap beer that you can stagger home from. But if you don't actually live in the neighborhood, well then, there's not too much to recommend it.

Add a comment