In ‘Last Call,’ a Bartender Takes Shots of Chartreuse at Baltimore’s Idle Hour | Eater
"Tucked behind a maroon door plastered with stickers, this intimate South Baltimore corner bar feels like a tight-knit neighborhood room—especially on Open Vinyl Night, when patrons spin records at the end of the bar. Owned by Brendan Finnerty and Randal Etheridge and tended by characters like glam rock–styled bartender J.D., it trades on a casual, comfortable vibe: you can get fancy mixology, barrel-aged cocktails and a wine list, but the place is best known for its devotion to Green Chartreuse, handed out as strong shots to a crowd that ranges from old-school regulars to younger weekend visitors. A house toast—“Always merry and bright”—is offered with every pour, and the shelves lined with spent bottles stand as markers of long nights and shared memories. After a 2014 structural closure that rallied the community to raise over $50,000 for repairs, the bar reopened and reclaimed its role as many patrons’ last stop before last call; the owners describe a self-regulating scene where regulars look out for one another. Selling roughly a case of Chartreuse a week (and at times ranking among the brand’s top U.S. accounts), the bar famously pours the liqueur straight, sometimes chased with a no-nonsense American beer like Schaefer—a pairing the owner cites as his ideal final drink—an approach that even won over Chartreuse’s president, who later brought the owners to France and celebrated the bar’s ten-year anniversary with them." - Brad Thomas Parsons
