BALTIMORE — Obrycki’s, Gunnings, Brownies. Names that stick to the soul of Baltimore, are better than gum on the soul of the shoe. How about Bo Brooks?
Opened on Belair Road in 1965, then ran to Canton. It's funny but the original Bo only owned the crab place for a couple of years before selling it to an army of businessmen.
Herman Hannan then took over the place. His four children and eight grandchildren all contributed to the tradition of Bo Brooks. But our hearts sank to learn Bo Brooks is closed. The crab pots that once screamed with steam are now silent. “Some of them are from Belair Road they’ve been around forever," said Chris Hannan, the man in charge along with his sister Tracey.
We thought the Bo Brooks Lighthouse would always shine on Baltimore, where crabs were like peanuts, but $150 a dozen is not peanuts.
“People don’t eat that way anymore,” said a man who chewed on a Bo Brooks mallet as a baby.
The table you cracked your first crab with Grampy is stacked away. The booth you introduced friends to their first dozen is now empty. And Hannan gave us this great line, “It's hard to eat crabs when you’re staring at your phone.”
There is no prouder Baltimorean than Hannan. When he was entering Calvert Hall, dad came home one night to announce, “I bought Bo Brooks, you’re kidding, no I bought Bo Brooks.”
Two armed robberies where Bo was born on Belair Road almost chased the place out of the city.
“Martin O’Malley coaxed my dad to stay in the city and move to Boston Street,” Hannan explained.
So Bo Brooks moved to Boston Street where your teeth would chip going down the bumpy bricks. Hannan's mom and dad built a business on a rat-infested pier.
Hannan worked all the jobs, from the floor to the ceiling. In no time he became the sorter of crabs.
“When you sort, you are one step above the owner,” Hannan said.
After four years at the Naval Academy and then serving, Hannan went on to serve the family business. Hundreds inside and more people outside on the deck.
But the good times did not continue to roll. So everything is up for auction.
The bar has stories buried into every scratch and dent. The back of the bar is a 12-foot high by 30-foot long work of art. Hannan says, “we got this from a speakeasy in Chicago.”
Bo Brooks was one of the first to go south, sending crabs back on a Piedmont Plan to Friendship Airport. Because the Hannan’s are brilliant business people, they run the Red Star in Fells Point and McGarvey’s in Annapolis, along with a catering business called MBB in Annapolis.
Oasis Marina runs the property now. They have a pool and hundreds of boat slips and soon will build a new restaurant in a multi-million dollar venture.
