The Three Deaths and Three Resurrections of the Liquor License at 214 W. Mulberry Street

Excerpt from Becky Witt’s Booze News entry describing 11/7/13 meeting of the Baltimore Liquor Board (hearing on 1213 Edmondson Ave. license transfer request)

The license for which the Board approved a transfer of ownership and location is a dead license under Article 2B section 10-504(d). In fact, the license has died and been resurrected by the Board three different times.

First Death: February 29, 2009 Martick’s has been closed, by its own admission, since August 2008. Scans of the first page of every Martick’s license renewal application from 2010 to 2013 can be viewed here. Article 2B section 10-504(d)(2) states very plainly that “180 days after the holder of any license issued under the provision of this article has closed the business or ceased active alcoholic beverages business operations … the license shall expire.” 180 days after August 31, 2008 is February 27, 2009: the first death of the liquor license.

First Resurrection: January 10, 2010 On January 10, 2010, the Board held a hardship extension hearing for the license at 214 W Mulberry Street. This hardship extension hearing was held 317 days after the license had expired by operation of law. The Board granted the licensee a 180-day extension from the date of the hearing.

Second Death: July 6, 2010 180 days after the hardship extension hearing, on July 6, 2010, the license died a second death when the owners of the license failed to reopen the establishment or transfer the license elsewhere.

Second Resurrection: March 2, 2011 On March 2, 2011, 243 days after the license’s second death, Board staff held a private conference to transfer the license from the estate of Morris Martick to Morris’s brother, Alexander Martick. Presumably, the license was revived somehow at this conference, though no notes of what happened during that meeting exist in the file.

Third Death: August 29, 2011 180 days after the transfer and resurrection of the license, the license died a final time, on August 29, 2011.

Third Resurrection: November 7, 2013 The final resurrection of the license occurred at the November 7, 2013 hearing, at which the Board approved a transfer of the license to the new address.