Venice Tavern
Venice Tavern is located in Baltimore
Venice Tavern
Location within Baltimore
Restaurant information
Established1933 (1933)
Owner(s)Dominic DeSantis
Street address339 S Conkling St
CityBaltimore
StateMaryland
Coordinates39°17′15.9″N 76°34′01.4″W / 39.287750°N 76.567056°W / 39.287750; -76.567056

Venice Tavern is a dive bar in the Highlandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. The bar opened in 1933, when Frank Sr and Victoria DeSantis converted their basement and added an exterior staircase to access it from outside of their Conkling Street row house. The 3-story mansion above the bar was originally built in 1920 for William Schluderberg of C., a member of the William Schluderberg & Son meat packing family, and now houses a local and organic farmers market store.[1][2]

History

Established in 1933, just after the repeal of prohibition, a portrait of then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt behind the bar continues to pay tribute to Venice's founding history.[3] Venice was established by Italian immigrants Frank and Mary Victoria DeSantis Sr., and while Mary hailed from Naples in Southern Italy, her love of Venice gave the bar its name.[2][4]

At the time of the bar's founding, Highlandtown was home to working-class Polish, German and Italian families, and the simple, affordable (at 15 cents) beer offerings reflected the tastes of the neighborhood.[2] Venice was run by the husband-wife duo for three decades.[4] Frank Sr. died in 1962, and Mary ran the bar herself until her own death in 1967, after which control passed to their two sons, Frank Jr. and Vince DeSantis.[4][2] Frank DeSantis Jr. turned the bar over to his son Dominic DeSantis in 2006.[5][4] While not changing the aesthetic character of the bar, Dominic acknowledged shifts in the composition of the neighborhood and tastes, introducing various craft beers to the taps at Venice, but keeping the low prices which had made it locally notable.[2] In recent years, Venice has participated in various tap takeovers and regional craft brewery features.[6] It has also been a featured stop on annual walking tours during Baltimore Beer Week.[7]

The success of Venice eventually allowed the DeSantis family to expand bar or restaurant operations to Little Italy (Venice Tavern Little Italy, formerly Dego Dames), Canton (Hudson Street Stackhouse) and Perry Hall (DeSantis Pizza Grill & Bar).[8][9]

Accolades

Despite its small size, Venice has received frequent write ups and recommendations in local, regional and national publications as a surviving example of the archetypal Baltimore corner bar.[2][10][11][12][13]

Baltimore City Paper dubbed Venice the "Craft Beer Underground," due to the combination of its low prices and trendier craft beers.[14] They also named it their "Best Dive Bar" in both their 2011 & 2017 Best of Baltimore lists.[15] Tasting Table listed it nationally as one of "The Best Dive Bars in the U.S." in 2017.[16] The budget price of its taps remains one of Venice's most notable aspects, often in contrast to bars in neighboring Canton, Brewers Hill and Fell's Point, with Highlandtown Main Street claiming it "offers, very possibly, the most inexpensive craft beer in the state."[17] In opposition to what he saw as a rising trend of $6 beers, City Paper's Baynard Woods described Venice as "the bulwark against the brave new world where we are all willing to pay too much to get our buzz on just because."[18]

Visitors and reviewers frequently comment on Venice's decor, which consists largely of dozens of boxing promotion posters and photographs from decades past, reflecting a time when boxing was a much more popular sport.[4][15][12][19][18] Former co-owner Vince DeSantis was himself Highlandtown lightweight boxing champion in 1931, and maintains a listing in the Maryland Boxing Hall of Fame.[4][20]

In a period of Baltimore's history where historic corner bars are frequently closing, Venice has drawn comment in spite of rapid and multiple demographic changes in the surrounding Highlandtown neighborhood, for remaining a fixture of the community and adapting to accommodate people of a variety of origins.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tkacik, Christina (2017-06-26). "Highlandtown: Exploring Baltimore's neighborhoods". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Davis, Amy (2016-03-11). "Venice Tavern, one of Baltimore's last basement bars". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  3. 1 2 Pietila, Antero (2004-01-26). "A city tradition is drying up - Taverns: Once a fixture of working-class Baltimore, corner bars are falling victim to declines in drinking and population". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sessa, Sam (2007-02-01). "It's still all in the family at the Venice Tavern". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  5. ↑ Case, Wesley (2016-11-11). "Take the dive - Family-like atmosphere and low prices keep regulars coming back to these four Baltimore bars". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore.
  6. ↑ Fogleman, Steve (2016-10-12). "Dominic DeSantis of Hudson Street Stackhouse Goes All In For Baltimore Beer Week". Baltimore Beer Baron. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  7. ↑ Fogleman, Steve (2016-10-03). "History Comes Alive During Baltimore Beer Week Walking Tour". Baltimore Beer Baron. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  8. ↑ Sessa, Sam (2008-07-31). "Good Points Keep Stacking Up At The Hudson Street Stackhouse". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore.
  9. ↑ Yeager, Amanda (2019-05-29). "Highlandtown's historic Venice Tavern adding a sister bar in Little Italy". Baltimore Business Journal. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  10. ↑ Hahn, Fritz (2016-02-07). "I go out in D.C. for my job. But for fun, I drink in Baltimore". The Washington Post. Washington D.C. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  11. ↑ Waldera, Jennifer (2016-06-28). "Great Spots to Day Drink in Baltimore". The Drink Nation. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  12. 1 2 DeBoer, Taylor. "Take a Deep Dive - These Baltimore bars may not be the classiest, but they're certainly classic". Baltimore Style. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  13. ↑ "After hours: Baltimore's top 5 dive bars, ranked". hoodline. 2018-06-06. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  14. ↑ Embert, Casey (2017-01-18). "A tour of some of the best bars for affordable booze and priceless conversation". Baltimore City Paper. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  15. 1 2 "Best Dive Bar: Venice Tavern". Baltimore City Paper. Baltimore. 2017-09-19.
  16. ↑ Heil, Meredith (2017-03-16). "Dive Nation - Grungy, grimy and relentlessly endearing, these are America's top dive bars". Tasting Table. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  17. ↑ "Holidays in Highlandtown 2016". Highlandtown Main Street. 2016-11-07. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  18. 1 2 Woods, Baynard (2017-01-18). "The Venice Tavern is a bulwark against the brave new world". Baltimore City Paper. Baltimore. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  19. ↑ "Dives of Note: Venice Tavern". The City That Breeds. 2012-12-13. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  20. ↑ Triem, Tony (2010-10-16). "Vince DeSantis - Lightweight - 1929 – 1931" (PDF). The Boxing Biographies Newsletter Volume 6 – No 7. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
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