OMG and I have a very memorable Monday morning memory at Burkes. That's all I have to say about that.

They served a delicious Bacon Omelette. It was truly PACKED with crispy bacon pieces.

For what it's worth, I work across the street and am not sure we need a Royal Farms store at this corner. We have CVS across the street and 7-11 on the same block.

Pardon me if I missed it ... but I haven't seen the status of the upstairs Baltimore Comedy Factory in any of the Burke's articles. Is it impacted at all?

Ixnay on the Urkbays, Arkyspay

last time I was there eons ago we watched as mice ran thru the dining room.

Thats be $10, Hon.

One of my first meals in Baltimore when I visited here in 1990 (before moving here in 1991) was at Burkes. Taylor Pork Roll sandwich with American Cheese. Yet I still moved here!

(FWIW the very first meal was a Pork Souvlaki from Never on Sunday).

Back in the 60's Dad had an office in the Maryland National Building where on occasional Saturdays he would bring my brother or I with him.

The reward for not being completely obnoxious and/or actually doing something worthwhile was the walk down Light Street, past the Playboy Club where we would try valiantly to get a peek in an open door and then on to lunch at Burkes.It was usually a juicy burger, a plate of onion rings and a goblet of Root Beer. Good times.

Later the office moved to Columbia (hack patooie) and those opportunities were gone.

I'd go there for a lunch with my brother over the years since but I doubt more than five or six in all. It's sad to see it go but I suppose this anecdote illustrates one of the reasons why it has happened.

I think I read that the comedy club is moving to the Power Plant Live complex.

true

This is kinda inspired by Volkers blaspheming of Taylor Pork Roll. But it's also a beautiful memory.

I used to meet a friend every once in a while at Burke's for breakfast. I'd always eyed the Pork Roll plate (I think it was listed as a "side") but never ordered it. Finally I did.

I can't remember what constituted my "main" breakfast entree. What I do remember was being presented with a plate of at least (seriously!) 10 slices of Pork Roll!

Heaven!

Some context: when I was a little kid, we used to go visit my grandparents in New Jersey. Since visits were Special Occasions my Donna Reed-clone grandmother would serve us Taylor Porkroll for breakfast the morning after we arrived. When I was 10 it was the best food in the world and I craved it like a true junkie.

Alas, my grandparents were of the Depression generation and thought that Pork Roll was a hedonistic extravagance. We'd each get 2-- exactly TWO-- slices of Pork Roll for breakfast. And no matter how much we begged for more, that was it. Two's the limit. You'd have to be an absolute wastrel/glutton to eat more, you know?

So anyway Burke's will always been burned into my brain because of their insane extravagance with the Taylor Pork Roll.

Thank Gawd I encountered it as an adult. If i'd been 10 I probably would have died.

Volker & Scarton, I have never had Taylor Pork Roll. What did I miss?

I asked the same question of a friend who grew up eating the local candies featured in the Sun this weekend. She said I probably missed a lot of cavities.

Pork roll is the New Jersey equivalent of SPAM, only drier and tastier. Nothing better for a breakfast treat than "Taylor's Ham" (as it was called in my house) with a fried egg, and a slice of American cheese on an English muffin

@MDtopdad - comparing Taylor pork roll to spam is uncalled for. It is a far superior product, justly recognized by those of us from NJ. Dahlink, you must try it!

Many years before the Comedy Club, I worked in a law office above Burke's. True torture is trying to complete a divorce case while inhaling eau d'onion rings.

@mrrational: what is hack patootie? I call my little dog cutie patootie, but get the feeling it's far from similar.

In the mid-90's I worked in a quazi-legal related business on calvert street. a regular visitor from a professional association came to a mid-morning meeting and asked me to lunch at Burke's. My vivid memory of that place is being propositioned by a 60+ year old man in the dark of burke's when i was about 26 years old. skeezy. shame on me for saying yes to the invitation. chalk it up to young, broke and hungry

@Maddogg
I believe "hack patooie" (sans the "t")is the written approximation of sounds make during expectoration.

Taylor Pork Roll is a bit like super-salty Canadian bacon, were Canadian bacon made from chopped pressed meat. It's a helluva lot better than the snot-coated canned meat known as SPAM, imho.

When I was a little kid, back in the 70s, my mom and I used to make regular Saturday excursions to the big department stores on Howard Street. While we usually ate at Hutzler's basement lunchroom, once in a while we felt like taking a walk and would end up at Burke's. While I could tell you what we ordinarily ate at Hutzler's (chicken chow mein, chef salads, or reubens) I can only remember Burke's onion rings.

Alot to read thru but the Comedy Factory is moving to Power Plant