We live in Federal Hill and are very saddened to hear that the Bicycle is closed. It was one of the gems of the neighborhood. Best of luck to Mr. Batey with his new restaurant. We will be giving Ullswater a try when it opens, but we will certainly miss the Bicycle.

They should offer refunds to customers that have unused gift certificates insteading of saying they can be redeemed at their new restaurant.

I have had the pleasure of having Nick as my neighbor for the past two years. Him and his wife Sandra have hearts of gold. I wish them the very best with Ullswater as I will be one of their first customers. Henry is right by saying that losing the Bicycle, temporarily I hope, is a tragic lost to the area. It only takes one thing to make even a successful restaurant go under, trust me. Best of luck to you Nick and Sandra.

I hate when people apologize for things that they do on purpose. One reason to close without warning is to avoid people coming in a rush with gift certificates in the last week. Sometimes it is to avoid losing staff, who get royally screwed when a place closes one day. I know of places where the employees showed up to find the place locked.

Ullswater? Curious name for an Italian restaurant.

from the Liquor Board web site:

MARCH 6, 2008

Saundra M. Batey, Monique M. Faulkner & Michael A. Faulkner, Ullswater, LLC T/a Ullswater Restaurant, 554 E. Fort Avenue – Class “B” Beer, Wine & Liquor License – Application to transfer ownership of Class “B”BWL license presently in the name of Lynn Schaare, secured creditor for David Hedgepath & Andrew Fox, Sly Fox Pub, LLC T/a Sly Fox Pub at 554 E. Fort Avenue, to the applicants at the same location

couple interesiting (if not blatantly obvious) questions:

1) if you had reservations why did you take them if you knew you were gonna close, and why did you close without letting those people know before ruining their night out

2) if you can't afford to run bicycle, then why are you opening another place?

am i taking crazy pills or something?

No ryan, you're taking common sense pills.

Why is everyone so nasty? Bicycle was a great restaurant. It was a family owned business and we have no way of knowing what a sudden closing occurs for a business run by people who are all related (and maybe it is none of our business). They've been planning on opening a second restaurant for quite some time and have probably already invested quite a bit in it. Bicycle had great food and service. No doubt, the new place will too. Chill out and use your gift certificate there when it opens. I am sad to see bicycle close and pleased to know that another restaurant will open under the same owners soon. Best of luck to them!

I don't like to kick a restaurant when it is closed, but my visit to Bicycle was uneven, both the food and the service. Puzzlingly uneven.

Hopefully, that was just a bad night.

It is tacky to close and not call people with reservations.

We were regular patrons of the Bicycle when Barry and Deborah ran it. We tried it twice under the new owners both times very disappointed with both the food and service.

hey, i'm not trying to be nasty...but when they obviously knew they had reservations in the book and didn't notify anyone that they wouldn't be open to honor them, that's not very good management. not nasty, just common sense.

i don't care what the circumstances are, a phone call is easy to make. and some of those reservations might have been special occasions that might have ruined an entire night.

*going back into my trash can*

Good point ryan. Unless a meteor destroys the place and all the employees, there is no excuse for such behavior. It's premeditated rudeness and greed. They didn't decide to close on a whim:

"After long deliberation, we came to a painful decision that The Bicycle has to close its doors"

Clearly they planned an exit strategy, which was to squeeze every last dime out of the place. That's fine.

I wonder how much notice the employees got?

To not notify people with reservations is rude and/or lazy especially if you are asking people to come to a new restaurant. There couldn't have been that many reservations since, well, they went out of business.

I'm sure there are still reservations on the book for tonight and beyond. Unless the customers read this blog, how will they know? Have you notified those people Mr. Batey?

If you are sorry that your actions hurt someone, then you have to change your behavior, otherwise it's not sincere.

I know of one restaurant that knew it was going to close and took deposits for parties that they never intended to honor or refund.

My feeling is that this is just bad business. Where would we be if Alexander Hamilton hadn't insisted that the new U.S. federal goverment pay off the debts of the previous confederacy and colonies?

Nuh-uh!...I KNOW you didn't just go Alexander Hamilton on them.

Yes I did! That's a ye olde school beat-down.

Look out, behind the grassy knoll, it's Aaron Burr

So no word on whether future reservations were notified or whether the employees were given any notice. I'll ask around and find someone who worked there. Sometimes it ain't all about the Benjamins, sometimes it's about the Hamiltons ... Burrrrrr...l I feel a chill.

what is everyones problem? I didnt read any comments like this when Fins closed its doors after service on a saturday night. they gave no notice to their staff or patrons with reservations- and are looking to reopen in another location. THe fact that people are angry that a business owner closed because he felt he had no other options- is crazy. They had cut their staff to the minimum, gone without for a number of months...this isnt about bad manners. rather it is about good people who fell on hard times.
quit whining...move on

they gave no notice to their staff or patrons with reservations

How do you know that?

I think it's as simple as this: no one complained about getting stiffed on a reservation for Fin; someone did for Bicycle.

Contempt for bad manners applies equally to all restaurants and people.

This kind of discussion serves to warn other business owners not to treat their customers with contempt and disregard if you want their future business. Ixia did it right.

Wondering why you didn't hear any comments when Fins closed is like wondering why there was no outcry when NBC canceled "Joey".

I know Nick, and I can tell you that the new restaurant became a SERIOUS money pit due to numerous errors on the part of the inspection prior to their purchase. Had the problems been uncovered BEFORE he bought the property, the restaurant would be at a different location...

oops - sorry for the double post - it was my first entry to this blog...

But but to further my response to Ryan's question #2, at the time of the initial purchase of the 2nd property, the Bicycle was doing well - quite well actually. It was had just made the Top 50 in Baltimore mag. But as it can sometimes be the case, when an independent owner without the backing of a huge corporation's deep pockets tries to open up a second restaurant, if something goes bad with the second place it can drag down the first restaurant down with it. In this case, it went especially bad with the second place. Understand that the building was purchased about a year ago - give or take a few months, and he's been paying the mortgage on it ever since, with NO revenue coming in. Plus there were huge bills to fix the structural problems. (The mistakes made on inspection warranted legal action, but that's yet another cost, and for what potential gain???) Despite all that, they were still surviving, but then the final blow was the worst economy since the depression. I am truly surprised he lasted this long.

It's not an excuse for the reservation fiasco. That was bad form for sure, but I know he had every intention of having 2 well run, robust restaurants.

Anonymous wrote oops - sorry for the double post - it was my first entry to this blog... Funny, I'd swear I'd seen you here before!

Why would someone calll an Italian Restaurant with a name of an English place?
Sorry Bicycle had to close.

Ullswater ... nothing says Italian like an obscure English river. Second worst restaurant name after Scittino's. Another doomed from the start name: 2 North George. Remember them? No? Exactly.

These people bought a very succesfull restaurant and ran it into the ground. Don't credit them for inventing the menu/concept, they merely kept the recipes and ideas of the original owners. But then they grossly mismangaged finances and tried to expand too soon. The property they bought for Ullswater was overpriced considering the repair it needed. But, obviously someone was too arrogant or ignorant to see that. Don't blame the inspector. The owners of Bicycle had no idea what they were doing. The economy was already faultering when they bought the place. Less than sauvy business people at best. Oh, and to the nonsense that they were "good people". Last fall they fired half their staff with no notice or explanation. Which besides good front of house staff included ALL of the talent in the kitchen. Nick was never there and NEVER cooked. Good, loyal employees that had been with the company for years. Employees with mortgages and children. "good people" don't do that. Apparently that was when the money problems were coming to a head. Firing salaried employees beceause you can't afford them is understandable but how about saying that and giving a little notice or severance pay not to mention a glowing letter of recomendation? No integrity and no proffessionalism. And, what's this "the bicycle is closing for now..." What? Do you want the gift card holders to believe you might reopen? Sure you will. I'm willing to bet the farm that "fartswater" is never going to open either. Why would you jettison an already open and well established reatuarant to try to open a new restaurant? Perhaps because they own Ullswater (or maybe they don't at this point) and they were leasing the Bicyle space from the building owners (former bicycle owners Barry and Debby). One last thing about Ullswater, an Italian restaurant named after an English lake and run by a non-Italian chef with no formal Italian training? The guy has never even been to Italy!!! Sounds like a winner to me!! (insert fart noise)

Could you give us a courtesy cr/lf next time John?

I would if I knew what that meant kitty...cr/lf?

cr/lf is geek speak for hitting the key occasionally, or in plain English, using paragraphs.

Huge blocks of text are most difficult to read, especially on a monitor.

(cr/lf means "carriage return/line feed," which is obviously a bit of a hold over from manual typewriter days.)

Lissa, CR/LF was also used on the older manual Teletype© machines (Prior to the Model 40 series). They actually were separate keys.

Hitting the Enter key, that is. I forgot to escape my angle brackets, and the silly blogware thought I was doing something HTMLish, I guess.

RiE, I came to computers late, so I never used a teletype. But, I did learn to type on a manual typewriter. I thought electrics were so special because I didn't have to punch the keys and I didn't have to hit the lever for cr. Although, that had its moments...

UI guess I'm finally going to have to throw out my clay tablet and stylus. Sigh.

In TECO you could code a macro with CR and LF separately

RayRay, come sit next to me as I scratch in the dirt with a rock.

RayRay and Yum,

Or do as I do, use smoke signals.

I am heartbroken over the closing of the bicycle. I can say that I have not had one bad meal there for as long as it has been open (both owners!) My mouth is watering for Vegetarian Nirvana right now - hope to see you again one day.

My family and I loved Bicycle. All of the meals we had were wonderful and I hope that you open again soon! Such a loss to Federal Hill!

The Bicycle was a *great* restaurant that consistently provided great service and great food each and every time we went there. I am certainly sorry to see it go.

1st I would to say if You people that had all this time to write all these nasty comments instead of sitting at your computer all day maybe you could have came into the resturant and ate and gusse what would have still be open! 2nd you people are fake me out dinners and wannabe foodies anyway! 3rd the problem thy had was they where trying to cater to the locals! When most of there GOOD Diners came from other areas! 4th The people that ate there always left happy ! 5th you same people didnt rally around the bicycle and other good restaurants like them! It is so hard to run a restaurant when you have people looking to eat there not for a ggod time but to find something wrong with everything! But I understand that is most of the bad bloggers anyway! It kills them to be happy! But I just want to say that I so sad that the bicycle is gone. It was a resturant that was not like another .

Ladawn is dishing out blame. Who wants a bowl?

Ms. Robinson, if you had taken the time to read some of the comments posted above, you would have found that a number of people had had unhappy dining experiences at the Bicycle. Some of them had been pleased with the original owners, but not with the later ownership. They were under no obligation to return to the place, but they did have the right to describe their unhappy experiences on this blog.

You also claim that the Bicycle shouldn't have tried to cater to the locals, who were not the desirable "GOOD Diners". If you're going to diss the locals, please don't blame them for not going where you say they weren't welcome.

I never had the pleasure of visiting the Bicycle but I know the recent owners personally. For starters the pair included an accomplished chef and general manager with a laundry list of positive referrals at DC area and NY restaurants. Second, upon purchasing the original restaurant they found it more profitable than the previous owners had claimed on their taxes. Rather than pocket this money they tried to reduce prices to keep customers. Third, they took a hit like everybody else this recession and had the misfortune of first hand experience with difficult real estate.

Again, I can't speak to the quality of the food and service, but these insults are completely off base and quite ill informed with regards to the character and expertise of those involved.

I never had the pleasure of visiting the Bicycle but I know the recent owners personally. For starters the pair included an accomplished chef and general manager with a laundry list of positive referrals at DC area and NY restaurants. Second, upon purchasing the original restaurant they found it more profitable than the previous owners had claimed on their taxes. Rather than pocket this money they tried to reduce prices to keep customers. Third, they took a hit like everybody else this recession and had the misfortune of first hand experience with difficult real estate.

Again, I can't speak to the quality of the food and service, but these insults are completely off base and quite ill informed with regards to the character and expertise of those involved.

My wife and I just found out that Bicycle closed last year.

We live out of state but have ties to Charm City.

We have a special place in our hearts for Nick/Sandra and the restaurant. Bicycle happened to be the location of our first date when we decided to meet half way between our then homes in PA and VA.

The evening was wondeful and dinner was the first stop on the itinerary.

Two years later when I decided to propose, I wanted it to be at Bicycle and had some thoughts of how to make it very special and meaningful to my wife (then girlfriend).

I contacted Nick and asked if it would be possible to make my proposal part of the menu. He did not hesitate and was as accomodating as possible to make the special proposal come to fruition.

When we arrived for dinner, they made certain the same table we had on our first date was reserved and waiting. The staff was in on it but even I was certain it would all come together because they were "business as usual" when we arrived.

Nick made certain that my proposal was typed into my wife's menu and the servers made certain she got that one.

Long story short ... it was one of the most special days of our lives and it was all thanks to Nick/Sandra and their staff.

When we get back to Charm City we will be certain to look up the new venue!