After a winter break, Nestor Aparicio brings the Maryland Crab Cake Tour Back to Dundalk and his childhood favorite Drug City talking whiskey, wine and the happy people going old-school soda shop at The Fountain.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
suburban, city, fountain, almond, drug, chuck, phosphate, people, lime, smash, soda, wife, seasonal, absolutely, stephanie, crab soup, drinks, whiskey, lottery, calvin
SPEAKERS
George Fotis, Chuck Jacobs, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
What about w n s t test Baltimore and Baltimore positive I am wearing the Baltimore positive bowtie here today we’re drunk city this guy’s place. George foetus is our guest. You know, I’ve got the new instant lottery scratch offs. And I was at the Maryland lottery headquarters about three hours ago. And I’m wearing my drugs city shirt, same one that Jeanne shock had on, you know, back here a couple months ago. And we have the drug City Light behind us. And they knew I was coming to drug city and they’re like, one of our oldest retailers, maybe veal, like your top 100 As a company, you were one of the first businesses that still around in 19 7350 years at the Maryland lottery. George is here. Good to be back in man take care. Thank
George Fotis 00:46
you for joining us.
Nestor Aparicio 00:47
Well, if he didn’t have it, you don’t need it, you know, that and Dundalk, but I was downstairs just searching through like the candy aisle and I said to my wife, I’m so pleased to be here today. Because like this is a part of my childhood. You know that so I’m appreciative of the sponsorship and the partnership but you got a lot of things going on. I couldn’t get into the fountain today.
George Fotis 01:03
It was busy mobbed. Absolutely mopped our lunch service has just been tremendous lately. You know, just just just fantastic to see especially a space where we didn’t even have a purpose for it. If you remember years ago used to be tanning and video
Nestor Aparicio 01:20
it was the video area you know that I never visited because I wasn’t 18 You know, I mean? Pull back the curtains but Mr. State and misir almost starts singing to you. And he’s so far away. He can’t do anything about it. Look at him. He’s looking at me. Look at him. He’s all at a when coming up here. We’re in a tasting room by the way a lot of folks have never made it up here right now know about drug city. We’re sort of above drug city right
George Fotis 01:41
we’re right above the pharmacy right now and there’s lots of people have been up here but plenty of people haven’t. And you know, there’s always talk is there really a room upstairs and I call that
Nestor Aparicio 01:51
a dungeon and you’re very upset with me about the secret room. What it’s a Churchill room is what it is right auto lounge.
George Fotis 01:57
Dungeon has a certain connotation that that we’re throwing people in there and not letting them out.
Nestor Aparicio 02:04
Well, I would go by choice, especially if you had against him his whiskey in there. You’re really like a whiskey. Honest connoisseur. That’s kind of a crazy French word for Dundalk. But whatever it is, that would be experts or a place where people come to get whiskey. And everybody knows about your liquor store. My son’s been shopping here for you know, he’s 38. So I guess he’s been here 17 years, but you’re his favorite liquor store. But you’re everybody’s sort of favorite whiskey place. Sure.
George Fotis 02:28
Whiskey is we are a destination people come from all over Virginia, Pennsylvania, DC. We are big into whiskey. If you know now it’s hard to get a lot of these bottles. So we we do a great job of getting these bottles, obtaining them, letting people try them at the fountain. We’re buying barrels, you know, we’re just doing innovative things
Nestor Aparicio 02:51
at the fountain then it’s such a humble little. I mean, it’s a fountain I mean, it’s exactly what a 1955 Soda Fountain would be. I’m drinking an almond Smash. This is legit. My wife has got some grown up. I don’t know what what is that was grown up by STI. BlackBerry vanilla. What is it? Seltzer? When he gave me the menu, I couldn’t get it. I mean, there’s 55 different drinks on get down there. Absolutely. Oh, that’s I guess I’m driving home. Yeah. GEORGE foetus is our guests were truck City on behalf of the Maryland lottery and our friends and weathernation I’ll get my floppy hat out here. Give everybody your story. Because I mean, I had you on the show six months ago, I came in I didn’t know you. I knew of you. You knew of me. I had such history here. Your history yours is it’s as great a local East Side story of someone working in an institution place and then becoming it and literally, you’re the guy here now.
George Fotis 03:49
Right? Sure. It makes for a good story. Absolutely. Really. Story. It’s, yeah, I grew up in Holland town, Greek town. You know, when the grade school Sacred Heart of Mary right down the street from here. I basically my mother told me I was going to become a pharmacist. She had a brother that was a pharmacist, other family members make a good living. Yeah, that’s right. And, oddly enough, I listened to you know, so, you know, I mean, I explored different things. But I heard what she had to say. And she made a very compelling argument, you know, so
Nestor Aparicio 04:17
right when your handwriting already sloppy, or you have to be sloppy to be a pharmacy. It was
George Fotis 04:21
bad and it’s gotten worse. You’re qualified. So yeah, I mean, I got into pharmacy school. I couldn’t find a job anywhere. I was going to all the local places. f&m Remember that Rite Aid. And, you know, I was just going around, I was given a half assed effort to
Nestor Aparicio 04:38
mark just Yeah, I want to mention all the old places that are gone now.
George Fotis 04:42
Absolutely. Safeco and you just have a pharmacy two guys. I
Nestor Aparicio 04:46
don’t think they did is more of a department store. Repko. Yeah, right. It was a big one. And I’m combing through all these old Rite Aid Murphy’s reads three reads. Reads Yeah, right. Right. It’s not reads up in New York
George Fotis 04:59
that Dwayne reads Yeah wait they’re all over the place so right when I got in pharmacy school she found me this job here is like George go to drug city they’re hiring. Went there, you know had an interview with the old man doc Carrie and his son doc Mark they are when the doc area he is the 50. The 54. Right I carry Yep, he started the place up in 1954. He was probably about 2829 years old, said to Mr. Pibb. What is that? It’s a pill. Oh, it’s a pill. But he sure looks like the peanut guy. My daughter made that probably a quick joke in here somewhere from the 80s Maybe just a rock and roll. Yeah, before before that we had the generic mortar and pestle that like every pharmacy uses as their as their logo. You know what I mean? And my daughter came up with that, and I still have the original drawing right on my desk.
Nestor Aparicio 05:44
Oh, here he is. Oh, you know, they say it’s a surge soda jerk is what they say this guy’s not a jerk though. Chuck’s here, I gotta move them. I gotta move the camera back to get everybody in here. Chuck Jacobs, who recruited me only I could be sitting at the bar cost is watching a baseball game and have a guy that looks like you know, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, come up to me and say, Hey, man, I’m over truck city. You ever heard of drunk city? And I’m like, of course you come on, dude. I mean, I read movies there back in the day. That’s right.
Chuck Jacobs 06:15
Tanning video. Right. All that stuff.
Nestor Aparicio 06:18
I think I probably still have purple rain.
Chuck Jacobs 06:20
The prints prob That’s what you said last time. We
Nestor Aparicio 06:22
still Oh, you know, like when? When you don’t take your library card back? You know? Yeah,
George Fotis 06:27
we’re gonna have to pick that up.
Nestor Aparicio 06:28
If anybody brings VHS that they find with the drug city wrapping on it. Yeah. If they bring it back to you. Do you want it or do I mean it’s like, it’s like I found my old book where it was right to the North Point library. Do you take it back? If it says 1982 one or two do not
George Fotis 06:46
I think we we’ve had a few people come in just to show us their cards. They still have their video rental cards. Nobody’s been brave enough to bring a
Nestor Aparicio 06:55
thing back in 84 So I felt guilty and ever brought it back you know what you to rewind it? Oh man docket charges you know? Yeah. Yeah.
George Fotis 07:04
We got to put in the machine and do it ourselves.
Nestor Aparicio 07:06
What am I drinking Chuck because my wife brought some brandy BlackBerry sign on what she Jen got the sugar free BlackBerry vanilla with vodka. Oh my god seltzer Stephanie Palace here.
Chuck Jacobs 07:16
I just looked up and Stephanie Palin I just walked him up so I made use the show today that’s called the suburban so it’s based after the almond smash so there’s no liquor in this show. Gonna be any good it’s just a soda. I can make it with vodka.
Nestor Aparicio 07:29
Don’t do that Mr. Stadium can’t handle me with all oh my god, Kim RedLynx here. Oh my God. Look it up. Beautiful. You are. Hi, how are you? What’s going on? This is all the girls that I can talk to me in junior high now.
Chuck Jacobs 07:43
I’ve been there. Now they come in the founder like hey, Chuck. I’m like, Oh, hey, remember
Nestor Aparicio 07:46
when I get Stephanie up here? Stephanie was the girl that sat next to me my first class first day of homeroom seventh grade. All right. She hated me. She loves me now. She drove me. Everybody hated me. 1979 No, come on. So you’ve you’re making these like, do we use Scratch? You say it You mean
Chuck Jacobs 08:06
we make we can make all our sodas from scratch. We don’t have any kind of Coke or Pepsi product. It’s seltzer water out of the tap ice
Nestor Aparicio 08:12
rice disparage maraschino cherries last week and I’m not going to have that in my life. Yeah, because they’re legitimate. They are
Chuck Jacobs 08:19
so we do the cherry cola phosphate and lime. Cherry lime cherry limeade. I came up with Yeah, I had some lime. Ricky. Elian Berkey is going to be just a lime soda with a pump of sugar and then a little bit of phosphate. And then the it’s a lime. It’s opposite of a soda.
Nestor Aparicio 08:36
Right? There’s a pharmacist what’s phosphate?
George Fotis 08:38
The phosphate gives it that tingle. Yep. So I have phosphate fizzy. In addition to the carbonation right? It takes a little kick when you say
Chuck Jacobs 08:47
yep so I’ll root beers ginger ales get the acid phosphate and when I made this one of my friends norm Brown came in last December. And he said Chuck Come here a minute so went back to his booth and him and his wife were having lunch and he said remember as kids we used to have a suburban sodas and it was like somebody smacked me in the back of the head and I’m like almond smash because I have an almond syrup on the bar and the black cherry is amazing as a soda or in this mix. So I ran back to the bar right away and started thinking of it and I need a little bit of bite so I added the acid phosphate and then doc George has been up you know Chuck, let’s do a song of the week so every week now I’ve been doing a song of the week at the fountain is and I my first one I did was the suburban and I bourbon almond smash Yep. So I’ve had people coming in order it for their parents saying my mom and dad sent me up here to get something called a suburban like they had no idea because the suburbs not around anymore. But it’s a fun it’s awesome. It’s pretty everybody I’ve had that’s had it and set a spot on and I agree it’s pretty we
Nestor Aparicio 09:43
had a suburban machine now outside of the riders farm store behind Colgate elementary 1972 I was five six years old. Take 10 cents off put it in you get an almond smash return to bottom. I’m asked when I was little but man everything’s old fat should hear right
George Fotis 10:00
and you know what I don’t remember this little before my time. But Chuck says they use their local company right suburban was in Baltimore to live in, they would deliver in a wooden box Correct.
Chuck Jacobs 10:11
It’d be like a wooden crate and they would have like they were famous for their lemon, lime, orange ginger ale. And every year my parents around the holidays would make like a holiday bar like you know, with drinks and they’d always stock it with suburban to make like mixers and almond smash was a very popular one and when he said that I was like I can make that so I ran back Shirley Temple to write and we thought the cherry and just for the effect you know, but when I went to squires all my childhood was Shirley Temple. She I mean, do you make Schumer? Absolutely yeah, granite. And cherry? Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 10:42
so it’s not ginger ale?
Chuck Jacobs 10:44
No, just grenadine cherry and seltzer water.
Nestor Aparicio 10:48
I don’t I just drink it.
Chuck Jacobs 10:49
I think it was right, you can do with a spray. And now we’re also doing a cotton candy sprite as well, which is our cotton candy syrup and sprite, which is awesome, too. So we can pretty much beginning think of
George Fotis 11:00
it, the sky’s the limit. I mean, you can just use your imagination and just come up with things. It’s just amazing.
Nestor Aparicio 11:05
Drug city. We’re in Dundalk. We’re in the tasting room above the fountain, Calvin stadium without the state of singers but we’re going to we’re going to Stephanie Paulo is going to join us agriculture. We’re gonna we’re gonna make something up. I’ve got a keyboard up here. You still had to play the piano mistana You still know how to play the piano? Oh, he’s forgotten. Yeah, sure he has. So we’re gonna have some fun here. This man is a legend. It’s extraordinary individual and we’re gonna give him some love next couple hours. I don’t think I’m ever going to get a harder time on the air than I’m going to get from this man this man this man was my seventh grade music teacher. He still gives me the evil eye that makes me like have that fear of I gotta hit that note the right way as a baritone so sure mine cast me is Freddie in My Fair Lady. I’m so angry about this so I’m we’re gonna get even today. My
Chuck Jacobs 11:50
middle school high school teacher Miss Ayala still comes and sees my band play now when we play out.
Nestor Aparicio 11:55
What are you playing? Give her your rock and roll thing.
Chuck Jacobs 11:57
Have you sold the band. We just got voted best band in Dundalk. We also I also got Best Bartender and Dundalk in the eagle for the Readers Choice Awards. We won Best cocktails best cheap eats best to core. We’ve done very well. Very proud of our staff. We’re planning to muddy beaver tonight from seven to 11, which is down in Edgemere. And then we’re at hard yet once a month and then we’re out everywhere in about here in their website. Okay, so yeah, so yep.
Nestor Aparicio 12:20
What are you playing percussion? And then we what we like. So we come out what do you play, we do
Chuck Jacobs 12:24
anything for anywhere from a two piece to a four piece depending on the venue how they can, you know, facilitate us as the band. So we planning from modern day, little country, little old time stuff. So we mix it up. It’s more of an acoustic kind of set. Steven Henson, Jim Lewis and Tom Titus are the other band members. That harmonica and the songs as well by Stephen and Jim Lewis and Steven Henson are both also artists it Yeah, come on our
Nestor Aparicio 12:47
show. Please do come over to heart. Yahtzee you guys weather’s getting better man. We
Chuck Jacobs 12:52
outside on the deck before you know it.
Nestor Aparicio 12:53
So what’s going on here? I was here a couple times like October, December. I come in to get booze all the time and a liquor store. But you’re so seasonal man. Like I mean, first thing I saw when I came was Mary Sue easter eggs and start to sing the song, right. So Easter and then spring. I mean, you’re so you’re very seasonal business.
George Fotis 13:15
Right? Absolutely. Yeah, we keep rolling. You know, we love seasonal, it’s tough to buy seasonal is a store nowadays and you see less and less because you just there’s no way to plan it, you have to order it a year ahead of time. You know, storing it or blowing it out are your only options when you’re done and neither are good options. But I enjoyed I think it gives the store life you know, it’s not just there’s always something different here. You know, that’s from one month to the next and, and it’s typically those seasonal products or the craft beers that are changing.
Nestor Aparicio 13:48
I found a distilled peanut butter Porter in here and I think I walked out here with it in November or whatever. My wife is out of town Three nights ago I found that the back of the fridge poured it and you know I pour oil I always get one of everything when I come in because I like beer. And I took one mouthful I’m like oh god this is good. And I took a picture of it by go see it again. You know I mean that’s I feel guilty because I didn’t get to share it with anybody else but that’s the nature of it. But you can have as many lime rookies and Ahmed smash as you want. He you don’t mind if I call you soda jerk right of course not all right, make sure you know I mean that’s that’s the title comes with it so call me jerk on the internet every day. I’ll roll with that George foetus has been running truck city not since 1954 But in the same fashion at 1954 Come on by get a shirt my my daughter in law is gonna have her her birthday party here and my wife’s already half boozed up around here. I’m gonna have to drive home you know slide by Costas and grab some There you go on the way home. I’m gonna have crab soup today. Clean this data misir cream today. Not really my
Chuck Jacobs 14:54
crab. We have a new Chef Mike Dela Cruz just came on board with us two weeks ago. He’s doing fantastic stuff. Great soup so we got it ready for you whenever you’re ready.
Nestor Aparicio 15:02
All right, man, I got chip stuck in my teeth from the lemon pepper potato chips. Got 55 Different kinds of potato chips we can do. You can have it your way drug city. You can. Thanks, George. Appreciate your missing anything else. I’m missing anything. No, no, we’re good. You got people to serve and make paninis to make sodas to make a jerk to be there you go
Chuck Jacobs 15:22
whiskey, pour whiskey to pour. That’s right.
Nestor Aparicio 15:25
The Fountain we’re drug city, Calvin stadium. I call him King Calvin. He is here. The state of singers are not here, but I’m going to emulate that. We’re going to talk My Fair Lady. We’re going to talk about life and Dundalk. We’re gonna talk about teaching. We’re talking about young people and children. And I am going to tell the story of my fair lady and my reunion with great Calvin stayed with Jerry Piper, Laurie Piper as well down at the Hippodrome on Nesta, it’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have scratch offs here. Everyone’s getting them they’re old school. They brought the wishbone back 50th anniversary wishbone nice yeah. I’m giving these out. We’ll be we were gonna be fade these on Wednesday got a real issue with Amy. We’re gonna push that until after March Madness. So no failures on Wednesdays a little update there but we are here also brought to you by friends at window nation. 8669 you nation. You buy two you get two free and you get 24 months free financing. I got new windows in August. We’re saving dough like my cat likes it. I like it. There’s no draft. Get new windows window nation. Thanks, George. Appreciate you man. Take care. Go see Chuck at the bar and if you can get to him because it’s elbows in there ladies to get up there to get myself a suburban almond smash as well as some cream of crab soup. Back for more. We are the Maryland crab cake tour. I’m Nestor. We’re wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive from drug city.
