Midtown Pub and Grille

Downtown adds Midtown Pub & Grille to lineup

MARIA SMITH

CUMBERLAND — George Meade looks around the building and notes it's plenty big enough to hold talent showcases, comedy nights or any other type of entertainment.

"We're going to give it a try," he said.

The place is 22-24 N. Mechanic St. and the name now is the Midtown Pub & Grille.

Meade said if all the inspections were completed Friday, the plan was to open that night. Either way, a grand opening is scheduled for June 9.

The bar is set up and ready to go with plans to open a restaurant eventually.

Meade said two of his children, son George and daughter Cerece Claiborne, purchased the former Pub at Kelley's Station. The family, including George's wife, Florence, is well-known for its fried chicken at various festivals as well as the Meade Skillet Fried Chicken restaurant that operated on Greene Street for two years.

"We've been after this for a good while," Meade said of trying to get the building that sits along the starting point of the Great Allegheny Passage in Maryland and the beginning of the city's Town Centre.

The state's Department of Assessments and Taxation, however, still lists the previous owners on the deed of the 7,200-square-foot building that was built in 1957. Those owners refurbished what had been the Outdoor Club and operated it as The Pub at Kelley's Station.

Meade's daughter has had a place in Baltimore where comedy nights are hosted and wanted to buy the Mechanic Street building to do the same. Claiborne, he said, is the one who brought the shows to the Cumberland Holiday Inn.

New paint, similar to a mustard color, has been added as well as the Midtown Pub and Grille logo, painted by Meade's nephew Simeon Younger behind the stage. The upstairs also benefited from some paint with the family planning to open that section and have it available to rent for gatherings.

Todd Blowe, another nephew volunteering his time, said it "dang near" is a family operation and that it is an exciting time. He hoped maybe he'd be hired eventually. Dishwasher or cook, he said, are possibilities.

Ed Mullaney, manager of the city's Town Centre, has known the family for years, having helped Blowe's dad put Christmas toys together for him and his siblings.

The family, he predicts, will do well.

"The Meades have a reputation for quality food and good service," he said. "It does my heart good to see a family pull together."