Babalu Grill to close next
My post earlier today on the Blue Sea Grill's closing prompted Amanda Karfakis, who handles marketing for Big Steaks Management, its parent company, to send me an e-mail saying the restaurant next door would also be closing.
Babalu Grill, owner Steve de Castro's Cuban restaurant, will be open through next Sunday, Sept. 6. What sparked these closings, apparently, was that the leases for both are up for renewal soon.
As her press release puts it, "The company will place complete focus on its historically most successful products – Ruth’s Chris Steak House restaurants and the privately owned Havana Club in Baltimore."
(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)
Comments
Power Plant Live is turning more and more into just a huge bar.
Posted by: Frequent Little Italy Restaurant Visitor | August 31, 2009 11:32 AM
That's a shame. I actually had a pretty good meal there a couple years ago.
Is Havana Club that bar down in Locust Point, near BMI? If so, the food is pretty meh.
Posted by: Lissa | August 31, 2009 1:11 PM
Havana Club is the bar above the Ruth's Chris near Babalu Grill.
Posted by: Trip Klaus | August 31, 2009 1:17 PM
I love Lissa's neighbourhood creep... The BMI isn't in Locust Point. It's South Bal-tee-more, hon. And it's Little Havana that's in the vicinity of the BMI.
Posted by: pigtown | August 31, 2009 1:30 PM
I hope they re-tool Power Plant Live to complement the hugely successful Rams Head Live. It just doesn't seem like the best place for fine dining.
Posted by: Brian | August 31, 2009 4:14 PM
Thanks, Trip Klaus. I don't really keep up on bars. Not on restaurants, either, really.
Posted by: Lissa | August 31, 2009 4:44 PM
FLIRV, wasn't Power Plant Live pretty much always just a big bar?
Posted by: Hal Laurent | August 31, 2009 5:29 PM
Lissa,
The Havana place you are thinking of is Little Havana, on Key Highway east of the BMI. I've had the black bean soup and some other dish that had fried pork bits in it that was pretty tasty, but its been quite awhile since I've been there.
Hal,
The Power Plant LIve place had some restaurants, but mostly it was bars.
Posted by: PCB Rob | August 31, 2009 6:02 PM
I thought I had heard through the grapevine that Babalu had already closed and was being taken over by another restaurant. Maybe I can actually predict the future. Oh, the possibilities...
Posted by: LGood | August 31, 2009 10:11 PM
"I hope they re-tool Power Plant Live to complement the hugely successful Rams Head Live. It just doesn't seem like the best place for fine dining."
Errrrr...........
I really can't get behind this concept. I stopped even recognizing that the Ram's Head Live was in Baltimore when they went 100% entertainment-and-booze and dropped the restaurant/bar. At the rate we're going, the nearest place to eat down there, as far as I'm concerned, is either Ruth Chris (if someone else is paying) or the Chipotle Grill or Potbelly on the Power Plant pier.......
Posted by: Alexander D. Mitchell IV | August 31, 2009 11:44 PM
EL-Baltimore is not the only locale losing its dining. I believe this eatery is older than any that have closed in Baltimore so far. shrines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31artistes.html?_r=1&ref=dining
Posted by: mdlrvrmuncher | September 1, 2009 9:11 PM
I actually did want to try Babalu Grill, but I find the entire Power Plant area to be so very meathead and cheesy
Posted by: Robert of Cross Keys | September 1, 2009 10:04 PM
Yeah, RoCK, Power Plant Live is one of the few areas of the city where I don't feel safe when it is light out. Too few brain cells floating in too much alcohol.
Posted by: Lissa | September 2, 2009 6:42 AM