Featuring live music 5 nights a week, Tin Roof is the Inner Harbor’s newest restaurant. (VoB Photos/Eddie Applefeld)
NASHVILLE CLUB IN MARKET PLACE
OFFERS FOOD & DRINK WITH MUSIC
TO INNER HARBOR PATRONS
Open late seven nights a week,
featuring ‘Tenn-Mex’ menu,
especially ‘chicken tortas’
By Eddie Applefeld
It seems to me as if Power Plant Live! in Market Place downtown would be a good location for a business. For one thing it is in the heart of the city, meaning it is surrounded by other attractions. That should mean more people milling around on the streets checking out the different venues.
In Power Plant Live! alone there are at least a dozen places to go. But over the years the location has seen numerous turnovers. Not exactly sure why that happened, but it did.
Recently I made my first visit to a new venue on the block: Tin Roof, which bills itself as “a live music joint,” joining other Power Plant Live! tenants such as Rams Head Live! and Howl at the Moon, that feature live music. It opened last spring in the space formerly occupied by Kettle Hill, an American-themed bar/restaurant that shut down abruptly in November 2012 after operating for less than eight months after taking over the location from Mondo Bondo Italian Bistro.
Tin Roof opened in May, and my guess is this restaurant/bar/lounge has a very good chance of being a success. It seems perfectly suited to the clientele who are apt to be at Power Plant Live! — namely young adults, who don’t leave the house on weekends until after 10 pm.
It’s casual, both in dress and attitude, and the prices are reasonable. But maybe best of all, there’s lots of beer on tap and live music five nights a week. Whether your taste in music leans in the direction of Top 40, rock or country, you’ll be in the right place.
The food is termed “Tenn-Mex,” which makes sense because the national headquarters for the company is in Nashville. There are 14 locations across the country, mainly in the south and east, but the restaurant and live music chain also has at least one location in California.
Accordingly, the signature dishes include chips ’n’ salsa, BBQ brisket nachos, quesadillas and chicken torta. Definitely a leaning to the south.
I never particularly cared for quesadillas so I had to be coerced into trying theirs. And guess what? I was glad I did.
I actually had three. Okay, maybe not a big deal to you, but to me, well, it was an unusual culinary leap.
Tin Roof’s outdoor patio, at 32 Market Place in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, seats 180.
Tin Roof is open seven days for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m.-2 a.m. and the kitchen’s open late. There’s seating for 360 inside and about 180 outside.
The outside area seems to be quite popular. It was a busy spot during the summer, as it is a perfect location to check all the action going on at the Power Plant. The 6,000-square-foot venue includes a 2,500-square-foot outdoor patio.
Inside you’ll find something like 25 TVs so you can actually watch 25 different ballgames at one time, if that is actually physically possible.
Tin Roof also has the SEC and NFL package, plus you can play games, videos and perhaps try your hand at shuffleboard.
In short, this is a very comfortable place to hang out. If you work in an office anywhere close by, it’s the place to go after five for a drink. Maybe even stay a bit longer for dinner.
You can reach Tin Roof at 443.873.8137 or by going to tinroofbars.com. Or via their Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/nhxmeom), which boasts more than 1,000 “likes” and declares: “We pride ourselves in being a bar that doesn’t serve ‘bar food.’”
And by the way, Pier Six is only about two blocks away. So you can do what many folks did the night I was there, stop by Tin Roof and then walk over to the pavilion for a concert.
Or how’s this? Stop in before one of the Orioles’ playoff games and root the Birds to victory.
mistermedia@comcast.net
EDITOR’S NOTE:
A Marylander since day one, Towson University graduate and member of the local media for over 30 years, Eddie Applefeld is currently handling promotions at WCBM TalkRadio (680AM). This is his second contribution to Voice of Baltimore.
Developed by the Cordish Company and opened in phases between 2001 and 2003, Power Plant Live! is a collection of bars, clubs and other businesses along Market Place in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The entertainment complex takes its name from the nearby “Power Plant” building at Pier 4 Pratt Street — also redeveloped by Cordish — a former power station originally built in 1900 for the now-defunct United Railways and Electric Company, which operated a unified public transportation system of streetcars, trolleys and cable cars in Baltimore from the beginning of the 20th Century until its reorganization in the late 1940s as the BTC (Baltimore Transit Company), forerunner of the Maryland Transit Administration of the state Department of Transportation.
A torta is a Spanish, Italian and Portugese term with a variety of meanings, but might best be described simply as a sandwich. Historically the difference between torta and bread is the torta’s round and flat shape, along with the absence of yeast in its preparation. It is similar to the well-known Mexican tortilla, a term which translates as “a small torta.”
