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The Central Eckhart Cocktail Lounge
There is a 2004 version of Golden Tee that sits next to the Fishing Tales pinball machine. John Coleman claims he owns the high score on most of the courses. “But,” he adds, “occasionally I have an off day, and one of these guys kicks my ass.”
One of those guys is Joshua Blubaugh, a lifetime resident of Eckhart, Md. Blubaugh lives three houses up the street from what is known as Merbaugh’s Mountain Ridge Miner’s Pub. “I’ve been coming here for a long time,” says Blubaugh. “Even before I was old enough to drink, I would come in with some friends just to play the games or shoot pool.”
The pub itself sits a block off Old National Pike, part of the Old National Road, on Porter Road. The pub has been around for as long as any of the patrons have been around. Old Jimmy Wilson can remember being thrown out of the bar some twenty years ago, but the bar was still an old bar then. Wilson recalls, “Me and Ed’s old man never really got along. I don’t exactly remember why I got thrown out, but I’ll tell ya, it wasn’t the first time.”
Merbaugh’s used to be known as Joan’s Tavern until fall 2008 when Ed Merbaugh, the current owner of the bar, changed the name to Merbaugh’s Mountain Ridge Miner’s Pub in support of the new high school in Frostburg where his son, Tyler, was a member of the football team.
The tavern has been in the Merbaugh family for some 39 years. Ed’s mother, Joan, purchased the rights to the bar back in 1970 from the Kirby family, who had previously owned the bar for as long as anyone could remember. Joan and Ed’s father worked as a team, raising 5 kids and maintaining the bar. Ann Coleman, the main bartender today at the tavern, says, “I don’t really know how she managed to do it all those years. Joan put 5 kids through school and worked at the bar every day. She used to open at 7 in the morning cooking breakfast and serving drinks to the guys who worked night shift at the Kelly and she would stay open till 2 in the morning. I really have no idea how she did it for so long.”
One of those workers from the Kelly was Butch Rankin, a long time resident of Eckhart, who now resides in Frostburg. Kelly Springfield employed a large portion of the local population until its closure in the late 90’s. For more than 81 years the Kelly was a major employer in Western Maryland. Rankin says, “I can remember getting off work around 6 or 7 and heading up to Joan’s. We had a buddy that had a key to the place and he would open the door for us around 7 or so, and by 9 we would have a bar full of people. We gave it the nickname of the Central Eckhart Cocktail Lounge so we would feel more dignified.”
Yeah, that is right. A bar full of people at nine o’clock in the morning.
Nowadays, the bar opens around 3 PM and stays open till about 11 depending on how many people are in the place. Ann says, “I usually get out of here before 11. It just depends on the night.”
Weeknights are usually pretty slow at the tavern. The average crowd usually consists of around ten people, most of them well into their forties and fifties. However, Ann says, “We usually have a really nice crowd for our karaoke night,” a monthly event at the pub. John, Ann’s husband, recalls Karaoke night last Halloween, “Yeah, you should have been here, we had a really nice crowd, a bar full of people, and I was wearing tights…It wasn’t very pretty.”
Merbaugh’s also gets a pretty rowdy crowd on Saturdays during college football season, especially when Notre Dame is playing. Merbaugh, along with a majority of the patrons, is a die-hard Notre Dame fan. Ann recalls last year’s game against the University of Southern California, “We had a huge crowd and we had some USC fans that came down. Notre Dame got killed, and there were a lot of angry fans.”
Merbaugh was probably one of them. His bar is loaded with Notre Dame memorabilia. He has a picture of Brady Quinn, a superstar from five years ago, hanging directly above the cash register, which is wooden and looks to have been there since the opening of the bar. Not to mention the numerous “Play like a Champion Today” towels hanging around the bar which are signature staples of the Notre Dame Football tradition.
Merbaugh’s tavern, aside from the sports bar feel, has a real hometown feel to it. It is one of those places where everybody knows everybody and they genuinely care about how everybody’s day went.
Robbie Knieriem, 21, of Frostburg says he has only been in there a few times, but really likes the place. “I like it because there is always a place to sit down, and no one gives you any problems. You can change the channel on the TV and no one gets upset. You would think more people would come here.”
That is one strange thing about Merbaugh’s; no one seems to know about the place.
Shelby Devore, 21, has lived in Frostburg most of her life. She is a student at Frostburg State and claims she had never heard about the bar located just 5 minutes from campus until recently. She says, “I didn’t know there was a bar in Eckhart until just the other day. I bartend at the Elks and I heard a couple of the older guys talking about it.”
Patti Lewis, an accountant in the billing office at Frostburg State and a long-time resident of the Frostburg area, had a hard time recalling being in there. “I remember it being kind of dark and dreary,” Lewis says. “It used to be full of smoke and it was very old, but there was a lot of people in there I was surprised.
Merbaugh’s pub is one of those places that likes to remain secret. Says Ann “I like the crowd I have. I know everybody. I get to be a friend, a psychologist, a priest, you name it.”
The tavern itself seems to be fit for the crowd it maintains. The outside of the bar looks similar to any other house on Porter Road, minus the handed painted sign that reads, “Ed’s Mountain Ridge Miners Pub.” Inside, there is a jukebox in the corner that seems to play nothing but country music. It has selections that are hard to come by anywhere else. One can choose old country songs from David Allan Coe to Willie Nelson, which makes you wonder what Karaoke night might sound like. There is a single pool table and a ten pen game that sits by the wall. The barstools are reminiscent of old time barber chairs, and the tables and chairs look as though they have been around since at least the 70’s or 80’s. The walls are old wood paneling and there are plenty of extension cords running from the few outlets that are located in the building. The exhaust fan in the bathroom does not come on by the flick of a switch, but rather plugs into an outlet in the wall. In fact, the flat screen TV that is mounted above the bar almost looks out of place, but it only gets regular cable. Luckily Notre Dame plays on NBC every Saturday.
Merbaugh’s is not a fancy pants, high priced bar. It has all the essentials that it needs to stay in business, including domestic bottles for only $1.50. It is the last remaining bar in Eckhart, as Rankin explains. “There used to be 21 bars on this street back in the day. It used to be called Beer Alley. In fact, there were even bars in peoples’ basements and during the mining days every bar always had somebody in it.”
Merbaugh’s seems to have survived through the years on the back of hard work and loyal patrons. It was one of the original basement bars as Joan still resides in the upstairs of the bar. That is probably the main reason that it has never closed, as Ann explains. “Joan loves this place. She has put up with a lot of stuff over the years and has never considered shutting it down.” And with local residents still patronizing the tavern every night, she has never really had a reason to. The pub has gone from being the home of miners to the home of the Miners, all of whom are loyal patrons. |
Now whether or not it is filled with pimps and hookers, I can't say for sure, but they frequently have trumpets being played and that reminds me of a story:
A few years back I put up a notice on the bulletin board at work inquiring
Wanted: Used trumpet.
Next day I came by and someone had written an "s" in front of trumpet, converting it to
Wanted: Used strumpet.
Third day I walked by and yet another person had added a comment.
Wanted: Used strumpet.
Is there any other kind?
All I can tell you is that the trumpets are playing at The Fat Cat, and the strumpets may be playing there too.