Daily Record

The Brass Elephant, one of Baltimore’s most elegant fine dining establishments, is up for sale after a rocky start to 2009 and reduced cash flow.

Byrnes & Associates Inc., a local real estate brokerage, is representing the owner of the property, Top Brass Limited Partnership, in a deal they hope fetches them $1.8 million for the ornate, pre-Civil War row home that houses the eatery, the business itself and an affiliated catering business.

Randy Stahl, an equity partner in both the restaurant and the building — and until 2005 a manager of the restaurant — said that ideally, the partnership would like to sell the building for $1.3 million and keep the restaurant open as a tenant to the new owners. He added that he has approached multiple banks seeking loans, but has had no luck.

[...]

Stahl opened the restaurant in 1980 with partner Jack Elsby, who has since moved on to the Milton Inn in Sparks. Brass Elephant’s building, built in 1850, according to the restaurant’s Web site, was a private home until just before World War I, when it began being used as a showroom for a company that sold Revolutionary War-era antique furniture

.[...]

Stahl said that the restaurant’s heyday was from 1981 to 1996, when theatergoers from the Morris Mechanic Theater and the Lyric Opera House would stop by for a meal of classic Italian food before shows.

[...]

The restaurant was seen as a mainstay for special occasions such as birthday and rehearsal dinners. Stahl said that during a good year, 45 out of 52 Fridays of the year, the restaurant would book its two upstairs dining rooms for special events. Now, with consumer spending down and more competition from upscale restaurants in Harbor East, that business has fallen off, as has the Brass Elephant’s catering operation, which at one time accounted for 25 percent of their business.

Musicians, actors and politicians, including Anthony Quinn, Yul Brynner, Paul Simon, Barry Manilow and William Donald Schaefer dined there. In recent years, the restaurant earned $200,000 annually on catering contracts from the Baltimore Opera Co., which would host lavish dinners, champagne receptions and brunches to celebrate the opening of their four or five operas each year.

The opera company folded last year, cutting off a major revenue stream for the restaurant

[...]

Another headache for the owners has been 10 months of city road work on Charles Street in front of the restaurant. Stahl said the construction, which customers complained made it difficult for them to cross the street to reach the restaurant’s entrance, just ended in the last few weeks.

[...]

A few restaurants in the area, including pricey Ixia, a few blocks south on North Charles Street, and Lucy’s Irish Pub and Restaurant near the Hippodrome Theater, have announced closures in the last two weeks due to recession-related money problems. At the same time, Maisy’s opened this week on the 300 block of North Charles Street where Copra used to be located, and Joss Café recently opened its doors one block to the north.

Stahl said he will keep the Brass Elephant’s doors open “as long as [he has] cash.”

Links:
Brass Elephant on Twitter
Brass Elephant website