Robin Godwin: Atlas Restaurant Group to Reactivate Two Bars Inside Cross Street Market in Federal Hill

Friday, June 24, 2022

Atlas Restaurant Group to Reactivate Two Bars Inside Cross Street Market in Federal Hill

In February, Atlas Restaurant Group took a larger role in the operations and marketing of Cross Street Market and now the team will be reactivating the two closed bars within the building. Atlas is taking over the former Cans Filling Station and Old Line Cocktail & Wine Bar “on a temporary basis” to bring back the “central energy the market needs,” according to Atlas Director of Marketing and Public Relations Joe Sweeney.

The controlling partner of Cross Street Market is Caves Valley Partners (CVP) and CVP Partner Arsh Mirmiran told SouthBMore.com Atlas will operate both bars until “until we figure out a long-term plan.” He also said they will wait to see if any other operator wants to “step up and take over.”

The former Cans will be called Market Ale House and will open in the next couple of weeks. It will focus on craft beers. The refrigerators for canned beers were removed, the stall was painted black and red, and the Market Ale House Logo was added. It still has more than 20 beer taps.

The former Old Line will be called Cross Street Cocktails. It is aiming to open sometime in July and will focus on cocktails, spirits, and wine.

Sweeney said, “One of the things we are looking to do at Market Ale House is to bring in breweries from the surrounding counties to do tap takeovers. We are talking to breweries who don’t distribute to the city as much but would still like to build a presence here. We don’t have any scheduled just yet, but we will very soon.”

He added, “We didn’t go too crazy with the names, because we just want them to be seen simply as Cross Street Market’s bars, not necessarily individual concepts that we are pushing.”

Atlas owns Watershed and Atlas Fish Market at Cross Street Market along with more than 20 other food concepts in the Baltimore area.

Cross Street Market has seen 10 vendor closures coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Market Ale House and Cross Street Cocktails are two of the five new concepts coming to the market. They join Velleggia’s, a yet-to-be-named Indian stall, and a radio booth run by a group of Baltimore radio stations.

DMV Empanadas, The Chicken Lab, and Blowfish Poke have opened at Cross Street Market since the end of 2021.

CVP and its leasing team at CAVAdev still have several spaces within the market available for lease.