Ron Furman of Max’s Taphouse tells Nestor about the magic of Broadway and Fell’s Point during Fleet Week

Ron Furman of Max’s Taphouse tells Nestor about the magic of Broadway and Fell’s Point during Fleet Week

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

fells point, beer, played, preakness, bands, people, years, love, furman, shows, baltimore, max, talked, bar, ron, patrick, good, fleet, call, cooper

SPEAKERS

Nestor J. Aparicio

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:00

I thought we welcome home we are wn S T A and 5070 Towson Baltimore. Ron Furman is here to destroy my program today. We’re Cooper’s we’re not even in his place. Do you have a crab cake yet? You don’t have crab cake right.

00:12

You don’t have a Chris crab cake tour.

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:13

So we were at a place with a crab cake even though I had the ahi tuna It was delicious. Crab cake. I’ll get the gumbo for you. We are at Cooper’s in Fells Point. It is Fleet Week. There’s a lot of Phillies fans here. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery and the Gold Rush sevens doublers we’re promoting Fells Point Ron came over. It’s like what do you need for me man I appear. I don’t do rock and roll anymore. The festival will be over. I’m like, I just like having you on man. You’re like my you’re my rock and roll friend. You’ve clearly forgotten half the bands. You even booked into Max’s on Broadway. I thought of you yesterday. So yesterday, Rem showed up everywhere on my timeline, because they went into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. People on Thursday night Max Peter Buck played a max of several times. And every time he did I wrote about it. And I came down and hung out with him because he was a good dude. And now

01:03

they’re like, the famous Yeah, more famous than they were and the bands that played

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:08

your place are breaking up either going into the hall the DBS reuniting so maybe you can bring them back but I know you feel like the rock and roll was so last century but I can’t I can’t let that go the good times. I had a Max’s on Broadway.

01:23

It was great times. We had a you know, I enjoyed it. It just fell apart. It wasn’t you know, I had kids I needed to make a living. I was a patron of the arts and it was time to put my big boy pants on and sell some beer. So how

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:38

did beer happen? I mean, I just and I guess in a Fells Point, way. 35 years ago when you and I met there was music at your place. There’s music and a lot of places but as DJs it was dancing. It was beer with younger people. It was seafood down here at Bertha’s and you know the places on Thames Street. The beer thing the craft beer thing I remember saying to Hugh Sisson and a bunch of people. How was this? How are you gonna put Budweiser Miller and Coors out about how how are you ever going to sell this motor oil dark beer that served warm like they do it you’re

02:13

like oh, that’s not all of its motor oil. You know? I

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:16

love it. No, no, I’m thinking the way I thought in 1990 about a Beck’s dark or about anything dark quite frankly. You know a foster Foster’s lager was like exotic at that point and Heineken came over it was exotic you

02:30

know and lo and brow remember Grolsch with the flip the flip top with a plastic top on ya know, it was it was a porcelain top, not a plastic top porcelain it had like a little with a little rubber gasket and it had a metal thing

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:43

a little metal thing you pray off. It’s like an old milk jug was you

02:47

know, I couldn’t stand it but that’s okay. You know, don’t sell

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:51

it. Sell it. So I had other people liked it. I when I think of. So I’ll think a hugh Sisson I think of his brewery and his thing when I got when I think of you, I think of like the brick Skeller. In DC that was the first place to have like, my Venezuelan beer pollara The difference

03:10

was we had whatever we said we had on the menu was in stock, right?

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:15

Well, you would go down there drive down there be like What do you mean, you don’t have it that happened? They

03:19

had 500 or 1000 beers on the menu. And, you know,

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:24

you’d order sometimes they had, but I could

03:26

afford short, great. They really weren’t great. I was over

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:29

in Germany. My wife’s had a few out of the country. In and out. Yes. It was tougher to get back in. With that in mind, let me leave. The Canadian guys told me that one time when I forgot my passport, it’s whatever to Germany and I fell in love with this German lager or as Koelsch Excuse me. Koelsch called zunar. It’s spelled su N N E R. It’s spelled like Suttner. But they pronounce it Zuna. That’s my, the German dude that saved my wife’s life told me how to pronounce it. So I had it over there. And I’m like, I want to get this beer. And my wife’s like, Furman probably has it, check it out. So look, I talked to your daughter because I’m connected. By the way, congratulations, all these grandbabies you met you’re making over there. And she said to me, we only have it during Oktoberfest. So I’m like, I screwed the pooch last October November forgot to September forgot about it. But she said you guys get it only in the kegs. And you get it during Oktoberfest. So you’ll be so you do get something that like I could I could order weighed on. There you go. Do people call ahead and ask if you have beers that happens every day? All the time? Yeah. What defines whether Max’s Taphouse has a beer or not at this point, because you’re trying to like have a little bit everything right? And he put a couple 100 Different kinds of beers, right? What

04:47

defines it is Jason my manager, okay, you know, he is

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:51

he lives for it. So having it in stock is important.

04:56

You know, he’s pretty particular about what he picks and he tries to Have a you know, large range of beers, different stuff, you know, things for different palates. But then again, sometimes we, you know, like we just finished doing our sour Beer Fest, and there’s still a lot

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:12

of sours, though, you know, you know,

05:14

maybe if you try your taste, try them all. Maybe you’ll find one you like, you know. Okay,

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:19

so that is a thing about beer in your place that if I come in and say, Can I try a little something? No problem I can try.

05:27

You can buy a little sampler sampler. Okay. And, you know, you’re over 21 It’s this isn’t Baskin Robbins.

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:34

Well, I understand that. But you want to know whether, you know, that’s the one thing about I did a brewery tour to centralist. When we got together we listed we got together was the plague on or was like right around then. Right. There was a plate. Yeah, there was a place where you and I did the show. Has it been five? It couldn’t have been five years, right. Tony talked to me came by that day. Your wife was there.

05:56

I’ll be almost sick. I’ll be 67 years old and another month? Well, you look good. You know my brains a little

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:02

while the lesson we got together. There was a plague and like since then, Fells Point. The the Fleet Week and coming down here. There have been a lot of advocates for the people that invested down here are things going on on weekends. How’s business? I mean, I’m down in LA it was hard to get parked. It was hard to get in. It was hard to get out. But it’s really

06:21

a motorcycle. I had no problem. Well, I would have gotten.

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:25

I don’t know you. I would get on the back of a motorcycle. I’m not sure if I want you to drive in

06:29

it. I don’t want you on the back of mine. Are

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:31

you good for life? You’re safe? No accident. You’re good. I was worried a

06:35

long, long time ago. What

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:38

keep you on the mic? There you go. I’m sorry. That’s right. That’s right. It’s subtle. It’s what I do. I’m professional. So the beer business. How did you do this? How did you envision? Well, I

06:47

woke up? Well, let me back up. Even when we had live music. If you remember, we still had the coolers behind the bar. And we had probably 400 different bottles and cans, you know, I would always see them

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:00

in the in the refrigerator, you had the glass. So when I came into your place even then I’d have to look over shoulders and down low usually because it wasn’t a PIs down low. And you’re looking and you were to see all these colors of bottles and you’re like, oh, that’s from Germany. You must be good, right? It’s what you think.

07:16

You know, the deal is ask the bartender he can recommend something. Okay. I always tell people walk in tell them what you like. Even if you like Budweiser. Tell them what you like and step up to a real beer. Not a TV beer. Not that Budweiser is bad

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:29

TV beer, to get a name for it. I

07:31

love that TV beer.

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:32

They spent a lot of money, keep my business alive. So I’m appreciative but a lot

07:35

of people love it. They’re riding around on their tractor, cutting the lawn. They want a Budweiser, whatever. I don’t knock it. Look, if you drink a bud in Baltimore, and you drink a bud in, you know, Brooklyn or you same on the other side of the world. It’s the exact same beer, you got to hand it to him. They are excellent at what they do. I’m not knocking it. I just you know, when I woke up one morning, I said I don’t want to try the same thing twice ever. Right now. So there’s a lot there’s a lot of stuff. The only thing I want to try once is my

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:05

wife and that’s it. Oh, there you go. Ron Furman this year, he’s it’s Mrs. FURMAN was list. I knew this would get spicy. I knew without her here to referee

08:14

I you know, I don’t want her you know? Yeah. Anyway,

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:17

you are a lifer entrepreneur and Fells Point.

08:21

What let’s get back to the beer

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:22

what Oh, you want to do well, I mean, but what what drew you to to hear you manage bands. I mentioned the what is the other day in Woodbury? You know, like, free berry Woods was the name of the residency, one of the biblica. I live

08:36

there at one time. So did they. So that’s how they came up with me became the

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:39

Woody’s right. You know, I knew when when I started seeing you promoting them. I’m like, oh, that’s the name of the community up there that every once a year I get drunk.

08:48

They needed a name so they could get figured out how to get a lot of

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:51

different things. What what settled on Fells Point for you was the music that brought you down here in the bar business. And then

08:57

it’s I used to come down here for dinner. And you know, we found out the place was available. And you know, the rest is history. So that was almost 40 years, right?

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:07

And how many other people I mean Bertha’s, we sold Chang Chan. How many other people are still here. 40 years later, like I’m literally I mean, I

09:15

somebody told me I’m the the old man on the block. I never

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:20

think you are Yeah, I don’t I just thought about that before. Is that make me being a patron of yours all these years. I was an old patron. You know, I walked I parked my car. Can I complain about Fells Point, just for one second? I tried to park right. I tried to park down here this morning. And I got here about 1130 12 o’clock. And I went down to the living classrooms building by the way David Rubenstein new oriels owners doing the thing down there today. And I pulled it a lot where I’ve parked a million times and it used to be meters. It used to be a couple bucks. And now it’s a it’s a pay code and you get your little your QR and I pull it down I’m like alright, I’ll play the game. You know, put my license in and put my phone number in and a pull ups at four hours $32

10:01

In the parking Dundalk No, not in

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:03

the garage in the lot in the flat lot against the water. Right at 1130 on a Friday was 32 bucks to park for four hours. I’m like, I’m not doing this. So these

10:12

spots were available at the time. A couple dozen in there. Yeah. Okay,

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:16

so but they were charging like Uber like I it’s obvious like it’s less. It can’t be $8 An hour radical. I drove out up onto Broadway old square past, you know your place up that way. And a park three blocks apart that like grew up on Bank Street between banking, you needed the exercise? Absolutely. I got rid of the equipment. So on the way back down, I’m coming toward your place. And I don’t know how you feel about your neighbors. But I passed Rhodos. And this speaks to how long I’ve been coming to Fells Point. I took a selfie of me in front of Rhodos and I put up a status that I might have gone in there a few times before I was 21. So this is 1980 567. When did you get Max’s

11:04

1985 We bought the place I changed it the max is in 86.

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:09

band started in 8687. That’s when I was at the real band. I was 19 years old. And I think you let me to review a show. Yeah, maybe

11:19

I maybe I think I were pretty tough.

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:23

I really do think you let me in because I was reviewing shows. I mean, I could probably find the byline at my place because I didn’t turn 21 to 89 and Amberjacks. My editor got to but Becker loves tell story of him coming down to the sun and meeting with my editor to let me into hammer Jacks when I was 1819 or 20. And the only rule I had was I wasn’t allowed to drink and I you know like I never I never broke that rule when it pissed off. Lou, I want to prove that with you either. I mean a man honor like that. Like I didn’t need to be drinking in there losing my job was a good gig. Me sitting on

11:54

your bar would have let you it was a good day if you were I think I think I did in the band. Oh

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:00

well bands I saw at your place. Penal Peter Himo men, Rembrandt’s for sure the night the lights went off. And we did the candles we’ve talked about. That was one of the most memorable concert that your listeners need to understand to tell the story because

12:16

the lights go out. And the power is not goes a blackout is literally a black lately back blackout. Yeah. And the brothers, you know, I’m talking to them. And they said, Ron, the show must go on. And I said, Give me a minute. And I ran across the street to the hotel, I got a box of candles. We had candles everywhere.

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:36

I remember you getting on the stage. And you and you know, it wasn’t much bigger than it’s no bigger than it is now. Right? So it is what it is smaller because you didn’t have the second side for a period. Right. Do you have the second side the whole time?

12:49

You mean the the two buildings to build arts? Yeah, no, I didn’t have those back then.

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:54

Right. It was just it was just one row house one corner row

12:57

nose two. It was still two. Yeah, it was it was to Bill trying to picture 735 736 Even on the

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:03

side when the sate stage was at the foot of the steps. No stage on top of the stage or come in the door was stages where your bar is now on the right.

13:13

The state Yeah. When you came in the door on the side door, you came in the corner, you went through the vestibule. And then you walked in the bar would have been on your left where the staircase is coming down. There was no staircase, right. Okay. And then in the middle of the building, right where the bar is right under where the prescription sign is now. That was the stage. It was 20 by 10.

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:34

I remember for people’s a lot of people and 20 by 10 with drums. You

13:39

know, look, we had bands that were like 1112 people and there was an artist they played there from Africa, and the guy must have been 6070 Probably seven years old. And he’s dancing. And he dances right off the stage. Oh, no. Yeah, I think somebody called him I think he was okay. But well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:59

I mean, you could legitimately walk off the stage out onto the street from there. It was close. The guy

14:03

used to play okay, go out and stop traffic. He also used to go in the ladies room to him play. But it was great. Back

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:11

then special rules for Buddy Guy. Ron Furman is here. He is the proprietor maximum problem. We’re telling our story. So this night the Rembrandt’s came. I also was there the night Danny Bonaduce and David Cassidy came through,

14:22

sold out shows on a Monday night. It was the beginning of his comeback tour, and they wanted to play a little tiny place. And it’s funny, you mentioned the stage. You know, the stage was a foot high. So Danny comes in and his his crew had set up the stage. And they found this like, part of a carny booth for a festival that was just like a little fence. And they leaned it up against the stage and Danny walks in and they go, Hey, Danny, that’s your barricade.

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:54

Keep the door touring fan. Well, they all wanted a piece of David as I remember it.

14:58

Oh my god. It was it was So good that night, I still was amazing a bag with love notes in it, and a teddy bear and things and people are 100 Garden garments that they tossed up on stage that we picked up with rubber.

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:15

And that was just done a gene rumbly by the way, I know you’d love that. So the yesterday I looked on one of my favorite people, the Rembrandt’s played, I had interviewed them. And I knew them a little bit through interviewing them and their publicist. And this is they had the song that was on the television show and all that, but they had the big hit baby, that’s just the way it is, baby. So they’re gonna play that song pretty well. So you get up on stage at that night and you’re like, listen, they’re gonna play. It’s dark as hell what candles are up, they’re gonna play, but y’all have to

15:48

be really, really quiet. And you could have heard a pin drop the whole night. It was

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:52

a fireside chat. It was everybody was a harsh and they sang like angels. They were, they were like the Everly Brothers. Right? They had this incredible harmony.

16:03

I sort of wish we had phones back then. So video to those shows could have been recorded. You know,

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:08

are there any pictures from that night or those?

16:11

Well to ask your listeners, if you’ve got anything, please send them to me RF at Max’s it’ll be 40 years and I’m trying to put together we didn’t carry cameras around then no people would sneak them in. And we were real. You know, the artists were real adamant about no cameras, no recording devices. No, you know, so we would bust on people for it. And I’m kind of upset that we did. One guy that had all the videotape. He had he lived in Texas. He had moved to Texas and he was there when the hurricane was there. Oh, no. Gone lost all the videotapes, and we had not put them digitize them. None of them were digitized. So I

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:50

gotta call Towson transfers. My buddy Greg gets what he does. He makes sure that these things happen. Well I do for bad things. I

16:56

will say this that I do have some stuff that was recorded on video and on dat and some cassettes.

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:05

What do you have? Did you know you have

17:08

I know I have some Lowen Navarro shows. Rodeo

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:11

was your band.

17:12

I have blue rodeo. Rodeo rodeo. I know blue rodeo showed up the first time. They were getting a lot of airplay on HFS it snowed six inches. And they had driven from like Ohio. And I apologize because we didn’t sell any tickets. Nobody came because of the snow. Nobody could get air. They thought it was funny because in Canada, six inches of snow would you know yeah, we get our sled mechanic. Yeah, we’ll be there. Yeah. So and plus, anytime you do a show in Canada, you gotta drive 1000 miles to get to the next venue. So it was no big deal for them. And I was really upset about it. There was 20 Probably 25 People in the place,

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:52

which is about 15 More than there were for smashing pumpkins. The first night I was there. I was at that Smashing Pumpkins show. There’s

17:58

25 People in the place. They played for two and a half hours. And it was the most unbelievable show I ever saw. So folks out there look up blue rodeo midnight.

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:10

Didn’t they reunite a year or two ago? Did they play some shows? Still playing okay, because they

18:16

have a lot of solo albums. Jim and Greg have a lot of solo albums that they put out. They are an amazing band kind of America. Well not Americana Canada. Canada, Canada. Yeah, there you go. With you know, a little country twang to it but what I

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:33

love the bodines they were similar. They were that roots rock kind of melon can’t be but like a little different Canadian version of that. Yeah. jangly guitars like Peter Buck. That’s that’s what I love. You still listen to that music all

18:47

the time. What’s on your

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:49

iPod? Yeah, Apple. What do you do? I have an iPad. I’ll pull it out for you. I have it in my bag. I pulled it out twice as me. I had Mark Brian from Hootie and the Blowfish on this week because there he’s a Marylander right. Some people I had Thomas Dolby on last week, so I’m doing a lot of music right now. And I had mark on and you mentioned bootlegging shows like in your little place having a little record I had the white have

19:13

a Hootie and the Blowfish. Did they play your place? I won’t tell you what I paid him but they played every third Thursday.

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:21

Early on before they were before anybody

19:23

knew who they were.

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:26

I did not know this. Oh yeah. I would have asked Mark about this. And I like realizes so I had him on and I pulled my iPod and

19:33

still have a way to get a hold of. Yeah, he showed me him tell him to give me there on the road.

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:39

He showed me his turntable because he was home when we did the show Monday for a couple days. And we were talking about vinyl. And we’re talking about how do you get your music How do you get your music and everybody you know the kids are all getting it on their phone and all this is my phone. I get texts. I things happen on this phone that I don’t I don’t want to be interrupted in the middle of a song Buy like a call or a notification or FaceTime. So I have an iPod but my iPod has a cord, so it doesn’t plug into a lot of the Bluetooth speakers you have to. I went to the Best Buy to buy speakers when one speaker out of 100 that had a Jack Jack that has a mini jack in it. So I get the iPod out and I showed him with a fan. I wasn’t like I got 116 duty songs on here. And I looked through and I’m like, Oh, that’s a bootleg. i Sorry. Let’s talk about this. I said, I have a bootleg from 1994 of some first tour their first big album. I said this one all the time. So you man you get ripped off. He’s like, Nah, man. Listen, I said I felt like reran. And you know, Raj, and what’s happening, you know that I bootleg the show, but there was a thing about bootleg bootleg and shows like you with riders and contracts and all of that, like, bands were freaking about that stuff. And now you know, when you’re trying to find a tape, sell your soul to have the tape, you know? Yeah, but

20:53

most of the time, if we recorded it, we had permission from the band when we were we were honorable.

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:00

If you have that David Cassidy show, I would take it because it was really good. But Ron was

21:04

It was amazing. He had an incredible band behind them. I mean, it was great. It was one of the greatest shows. I saw. He was a gentleman he was. Yeah, I remember. The first thing he did it said. He said to me, Ron, do you have a phone I could use I can call my wife. Really? That’s the first thing. He’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:21

great. He was so magnanimous with me. Do you remember lucid droney from the evening sun. He was the music critic of the evening sun forever. He was a I want to say he was David’s Godfather, because he had a special relationship with Shirley Jones. Like back in the 50s and 60s through film and cinema. So when I was on the phone with David Cassidy, he knew Lou well, and it’s I played the interview. I mean, the interview, I have the interview with David. And I think he even said I’m bringing Danny Bonaduce and Danny was just about out of dry out at that point trying to try out his comedy career. He went on. He’s done radio for 30 years. He

21:58

just retired. He was in Philly, Seattle, he’s got to do was in Philly and Parkinson’s.

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:02

He has a he has a very, he has a really horrible Danny bonded through. He was a really good guy too. But David, one of the few times that was ever in your dressing rooms upstairs because they were as big as his table was. But David Cassidy that’s

22:18

the one we let you know show that was David’s dressing room. It was Dave I mean, not David’s Danny’s dresser. Yeah, that it had a toilet and a shower in it. I was

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:26

upstairs with both of them. That’s one of the few times I can ever remember being up there. And it was very prideful for rock and roll to have like graffiti on the walls. You know, the staircase had to be a little crooked and things you know, that’s rock and roll back in the day, you know, your place was was heart and soul blood and guts 20 by 10 stage is what it was.

22:46

We had a lot of good times. It was make you happy

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:51

that you lost so much money, and I enjoyed it so much.

22:55

Yeah, sure.

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:57

It was a good time. Now.

22:58

It was a great time, and I really miss it. And if I had been smarter, maybe I could have made it, you know, work out today. It seems like it’s easier to do music. But you know, you got to start with some cash.

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:11

Do they bother you when you’re doing a festival? Like right now there’s bands going on? There’s false proof. Are you involved in any of the music scene down here at all? Are you very, you’re out of it now? I mean, it’s a bit do they come to you and say what kind of I did

23:22

it last year with Patrick and honestly, you know, it was so funny. I called a friend of mine who’s a promoter outwest big promoter. And I said, Mike, I said, I’m trying to book talent for this show. And I don’t know who anybody has any more. And he laughed, and he said, Ron, I don’t know who anybody is either, right? And he does it every day books, a lot of rooms, big stuff, real big stuff. Well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:45

you got to know what you’re doing in that business. Because that business is changing. Your business changed probably three times 10 years you did it. A lot

23:50

of it. These guys can do it on data back in the old days. I got on the phone when somebody called me and pitched me about doing a show. I got on the phone and I called three or four.

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:59

You call he would call me you really would call

24:03

Roberta I would call the

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:05

Rembrandt’s and try Yeah, they got a song Ron Oh, hi. All right. I’ll try to bring them in you know I mean, it was kind of like that I did

24:12

those a few things but but I would call people and that’s and get a good feel of are they something I’m gonna make money on or today or is it something I’m going to make money on tomorrow we’ll build them help build I mean like smashing pumpkins used said it the first time they played at Max’s nobody was there. But the second time you couldn’t get in and you couldn’t buy a ticket. Well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:35

that was part of my role as a music critic is their publicist would call me and say I got a great hot band called The Smashing Pumpkins because the record company put hundreds of 1000s of dollars into them. So they leaned on them and said they’re gonna get a push HFS is gonna play this record whether they want to or not, because that’s the way the industry works. And then it was like some flop some failed some work. Some took three albums, some never happened. Springsteen’s took five albums to happen. You know back in that era rush rush had five or six albums before they were ever anything and a lot of those bands went by the wayside before they ever got to you.

25:10

You know there’s a lot of bands that we played that you know one hit wonders or but

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:19

a lot of soul material issue play your place one time before Jim Ellison killed himself. That was a great play.

25:24

They played like three or four times and they also played an outdoor concert for me.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:29

Like a bow, Hagar staying maybe did you have that? No,

25:33

no, I did. Well, I did one show at bow hangers. Which smithereens? No, no, keep going. David? Yeah, yeah. Remember,

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:44

you’ll remember the band. Yeah, you gotta be in 67. And oh, rock.

25:48

Huge, huge, man. Come on. I don’t know. You say anyway. Move on with David cave. Dave. Something Matthews. Matthews Matthews.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:58

Matthews played there. He played

26:01

the show there. Alright. And that is right. That’s right. But that’s a long story for another day about these things. We do run the spin doctors out on the square. And somebody told me there was I think 20,000 People that weekend in Fells Point. I mean, we did the shows we did out on the square for you know, this is a good story. So Donna Leonard came to me she was working for Preakness. Preakness celebrate, okay. And she said, Ron, you can’t use the Preakness name anymore. And I said, Okay, no problem. She said, Well, what about your festival? I said, I got another name. She goes, Well, what are you going to call it but late nights? I said, we’re going to call it the freakness festival. And she goes, Oh, my God, Joe is going to shit. Just call it Preakness. No, no, I called it the freakness festival. So the last two years we did it. We called it the freakness festival. I’d love to look that up. That was 1980 90, early 90s. Early 90s. Well, I’ve

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:01

been on here since 91. In 96. I do. I probably came to it. I remember the Bud Light nights. I remember them throwing things down a restaurant. I mean, the Preakness is one thing we’ve squandered here that I hope we get back we because this city had a lot of mojo for that at one point, you know, and bringing people together. It’s like

27:18

the dead let you bootleg their music shorts part of the whole allure. You know Preakness didn’t want me to use the name. Okay, I won’t use the name. Did they make a mistake? Because my my event was huge. Yet their events? Donald. That was the year I think they lost like a million dollars. They were trying to bring the Kentucky Derby feel right to Baltimore. And they had a grandmother named Deborah Harry was playing. And I remember that. Yeah. And it flopped. It was oh, I

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:51

know. It wasn’t good. I remember that. i

27:54

We had 20,000 people so we got had to spin

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:57

doctors in 96. They were hot. Ron Furman is here. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery of Gold Rush seven doublers we’re giving these away here. We’re Cooper’s in Fells. Yeah, of course. You’re 21 a winner. Well, I they weren’t touched by John Martin. Yeah, I did have a $2 winner to scratch you scratch and you download you get your little bonus over here your bonus gold rush over here. Show me how to do one runs Max’s Taphouse and what do I call it? Taphouse and Maximus Taphouse

28:25

there’s no Max’s Taphouse Taphouse and soon we’re going to take those sidebars and we’re going to come up with something that’s top secret. So you’ll have to keep checking back on our website, Facebook, Instagram, whatever you do,

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:39

you know, you come in all low key on your little motorcycle, but you’re like a serial entrepreneur. You’re a lifer. Yeah, I mean, the one thing is you as as somebody that’s owned a brick and mortar bar and Fells Point for 40 years now, changing with the times is like you’ve had to write you just we definitely

28:55

changed. Right everything we you know, we’re always doing something. So

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:00

what’s the most effective thing you do these days? Sleep? No. Smoking like a real AAR. You know,

29:07

it’s when I wake up in the morning and I tell my wife, I love her. That’s the most effective thing I can do.

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:13

Look at you. Yeah, how many years? I know how many years for you.

29:19

We will be married 42 years in July. And these

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:23

grandbabies are happening now. Right? It’s really neat. Look at that smile. Everybody that’s a grandfather that I know in love a long time so when I see them in this light now I get this twinkle. I’m not a grandfather. So you know my kids 39 I can see they’re out

29:37

on the square. I can bring them over if you want. You can interview the baby twinkle me,

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:40

you know your daughter at least got back to me and tell her I want some zunar Beer su nn er. We’re down here for an incredible celebration. It’s Fleet Week. And I look ahead to all the folks who will be classrooms on last week with Patrick up in at the Cooper’s up in May Shapell. And we talked about celebration. And look man, you’re old enough to remember the city fair. You’re old enough to remember when the Preakness mattered. You’re old enough to remember to freakness as well as the Preakness and Bud Light nights and events celebration was an incredible thing with this fleet. We

30:10

I’m old enough to remember the riots in the sixth year, remember? Yeah, remember spirit of 76 and harborplace Oh my god is wearing the 70s Yeah, let’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  30:18

bring it back that begat city fares if he got the harbor, and the growth of the city, we’ve seen it rise, we’ve seen the fall we’ve seen The Wire all that stuff. But it’s things like this seeing these planes flying over and when I was driving over before the $32 parking, I was downtown and I came East off of like Pratt Street and there’s some construction going on over like east of Central Avenue. And as I’m pulling through all the construction workers are holding their phones up to the sky and they’re all looking up and and I was driving and this Fleet Week thing when the plane started going through everybody like it’s just didn’t look well I couldn’t look up is that a roofing car? No, I was at the red light and I’m like, I’m trying to look in my rearview mirror I’m trying to like I didn’t see a plane like at the end because they move so fast. But Fleet Week school and this is something you guys have put a lot of effort into this it’s gonna happen again two years from now but this is this is a building block for Baltimore. I believe that in June I mean, this is a hell of a weekend Ron.

31:19

This is this is great. Now if I went a million dollars you

Nestor J. Aparicio  31:26

want to go you want to go back to be with your family I’m trying to promote I’m trying to promote Max’s were trying to do to promote the square. Well, you know what? She got bands down here all weekend. You mentioned your you were the one that originally put the bands down here. It’s a thing now you have the whole thing blocked off today.

31:40

Well, not me. It’s this is Patrick Steele. Okay, so hats off the Patrick. Kudos second best bar and Fells Point. I’ll let him know that. Yeah, well, we go back and forth ship is every interview we do. We each of us try to get it out first about what he’s got to bar. So you know, but we’re number one. He’s number two. Let’s keep it straight. You know, and, and I have something that Chet GPT wrote that basically he said in chat GPT against him, I would I would have to die first. For him to take the number one spot. Well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  32:18

that’s why I brought you over. That’s why I brought you to his bar, because his bar needs help. Because he’s number two,

32:24

you know, he has been quoted as saying I was his mentor, you know, leadership

Nestor J. Aparicio  32:27

down here, though. in all sincerity. I know. You guys are buddies. You were doing this friendship thing at the foot of President Street, like honking and waving. I saw you out on the street with a sign. I was I was coming over

32:39

to that was me with the squeegee in my hand.

Nestor J. Aparicio  32:42

No, you had a you had welcome the Baltimore signs that knew. We

32:47

were telling people to come down and you know, you know, go to the retailers go to the restaurants Come, come spend your money in Fells Point. We need it. Well, that’s why I’m here. And by the way, Fells Point is the jewel of Baltimore. I mean it is it is really a beautiful place it you know, it’s it’s a wonderful place, and it’s you know, it’s a great way to enjoy an afternoon. Come on down. Come have lunch, have dinner. It’s very

Nestor J. Aparicio  33:13

active right now. The military roll through, please. Good. Yeah. They’re here. I had about a dozen men and ladies on the corner block up from Rhodos in use, I guess it was Eastern fleet. And I walked down with a dozen of them all in their whites today after I parked my car. I apps first thing I did is a thank you for your service. I said you need a restaurant recommendation. If you need a beer, there’s a place called Max’s down here. He’s got a lot of stuff. You know,

33:42

I you.

Nestor J. Aparicio  33:43

I told them I was doing shapers. I told them that ekiben is a phenomenal, unique place. I told them a meat cheese is a great place that I love. I love the city.

33:54

I don’t care where you promote. I just promote and tell people to come down here. That’s it. Once they find Max’s they’re not going anywhere else. So that’s all I care about.

Nestor J. Aparicio  34:03

What’s that? Baltimore shirt says Baltimore, I kind of like it. Ron Furman is here. I hope he’s a gold rush sevens doubler winner. We will be giving these away at Costas and Dundalk on Thursday where they’re before the Orioles dispatch of the Yankees from one to four. And then on following Tuesday we’re going to be at Pappas in Parkville also giving these away courtesy of our friends at Liberty pure solutions clean water as well as Jiffy Lube multi care. I gotta come home have a beer I want to do the show at your place when they even didn’t have a crab cake. Can I do that? Let’s Can I come by

34:35

I’ll even make your crab cake.

Nestor J. Aparicio  34:36

No, no well would be the Furman family.

34:39

Yes What are all our own puppy I know that Turkey. We smoke our wings we you know you pretty good job. You’ve taken

Nestor J. Aparicio  34:49

good care of me over the years like when I’ve come in and gotten food from you. But I really want to come down and have some beer. I haven’t sat at your bar and had a

34:56

proper beer and a couple years once you bring the wife will double I’ll

Nestor J. Aparicio  35:00

do it up. It’ll be a great night. We’ll come to Cooper’s and get a crab cake. No, you don’t. You’ll like him that much. We’re gonna stay in the best bar. I love even cilantro.

35:09

I love both places I love. I love Patrick. I love his employees.

Nestor J. Aparicio  35:15

I want to ask you something, too, because Patrick talked a lot about this last week, because we he and I went old school and this is the beauty of me doing this for 40 years and me knowing you forever. I see all the old T shirts up here, the Cooper’s T shirts and the original Cooper dog. And I had Patrick going up at his place. And I said, What did I meet you? 9596 and said it was during homicide. And I literally I tended bar here with Richard Belzer and John Cena. The actors like literally at this bar. And we did was around Christmas time. I think it was a Toys for Tots. Or it might have been it was a fundraiser for a cause of some car

35:48

or my fear here was here, because we did it Toys for Tots was 2728

Nestor J. Aparicio  35:51

years ago. Right? So I brought this up, you don’t have Patrick. And the thing that he that it brought to him is his mind went back to what that building across the street was which was a decaying decrepid eyesore that was being used as a prop, like in a television show and that it was the police station and had a fake police. badging

36:15

still come down, they think it’s the police station, and they want to know what happened to the police station.

Nestor J. Aparicio  36:20

And it was never a policeman it would never was it was a ratted out warehouse. I’m

36:25

the one who used to go there and knock on the door if they needed a cop if they needed to report a crime, thinking it was a real belief,

Nestor J. Aparicio  36:34

right? So I would say this to you because you’re old and you’re tired and you’re cranky?

36:39

No, and I am with you. Um, I

Nestor J. Aparicio  36:41

know but but we were all a little cranky that the city has challenges as problems and we’re trying to measure progress and Fox 45 sets his cameras up here waiting for bad stuff to happen. I see it all I see it all right. And he was people involved in this and I like pick the city up. But then you talk about things that are real progress from the time you built down here and you came here with bands. And Patrick built his life down here from Mount Washington and building to businesses and all the things 10 street all the places the horse all these places that are down here. This thing over here at the pantry is a bit of a miracle. Right? I mean, the money that came into it to anchor the community with this very elegant. First time you walked through you must you must craft paint you must have been like on this is unbelievable. What they’ve just wonderful

37:26

what they’ve done. It’s incredible investment our

Nestor J. Aparicio  37:29

community. Yep. Well, these are good things that are going on here. There’s a lot of the point that you

37:35

know, you take the bed and it’s this much the good. You know, say that you know, this

Nestor J. Aparicio  37:41

is what do you love about Baltimore these days? What do you what do you love about still being here?

37:47

I love that it’s how do I put this it? It’s still it’s has so much potential the bones and it has Yeah, it has what it takes to be one of the greatest cities. We just need to come together as a city, you know, stop fighting each other and make it happen. Well, and

Nestor J. Aparicio  38:08

that’s the beauty you have Patrick Patrick putting this together. The military comes in so we go to a Fleet Week The mayor gets behind the governor even more events like this is a manufactured event and we’re Preakness isn’t manufactured right like Fourth of July all of those sorts of holidays that are baked into this but this is a little bit of a manufactured thing that like first point festival was a manufactured thing that brought us all down here in October my birthday every year right? You have oyster festivals that Patrick’s done that other people do down here that it’s it’s the creating something, build it and they’ll come right look what I’m working on it Fells Point oyster fest 2023 I’m doing a 26 oysters in 26 days in September for oyster recovery partnership. I just talked to them last week, so I’m gonna be back for some nice join you for that. I would love for you to join me for that.

38:51

I’ll be I’ll be with you.

Nestor J. Aparicio  38:52

I’ll make it stop that and Max is what I’m gonna do. Alright, we’re gonna take a break. I’m going to say goodbye to Ron Furman because his grandkids daughter, wife, friends, bands, planes, boats. All this is going on, but I love you and I know your mom’s struggling I want to send her some love as well. Make sure we’re good. But thanks for always being a friend.

39:11

A friend of yours honor, you know, to try to get her over here, but oh, well, every time I call. Say that again. So

Nestor J. Aparicio  39:19

we’ve been a friend for 40 years. I said, you know? Yeah, I mean, I’ve known your old 1986 You got a

39:25

gray hair? A couple in here. But that’s it. They’re common. Well, if

Nestor J. Aparicio  39:29

I look as handsome as you when I go gray, I’ll just be fine. I’ll let it all grow out. The only reason I grow the people say why do you have the soul patch? Because you don’t get carded? No, but the soul patch is dark. If I grew all of mine out, I would look like you. This is great. This is all great.

39:45

It’s all brown. And this was great. Oh,

Nestor J. Aparicio  39:47

oh, my boss is coming. Oh, the boss is here. Hold on. Do I have it? Do I have a microphone plugged down? We have a microphone plugged in for her to have to push she can yell on my face. On Hold on. I’m gonna I’m gonna do what I rarely do here. We were about to sign off and you were about to not get a lottery ticket. So in the in the spirit of because we can’t come by that, well, you have to everybody, so you have to smile. She knows that she’s done the show before. So hold on to this year, I want to do this. And we’re gonna we’re gonna set this up and Gail is going to join us here because you walked in right at the end of the segment. And I just want to say this to you that we were talking about one of my favorite topics as we keep going here, or one of my favorite was short conferencing. It was it was almost better than that. We were talking about what we love about Baltimore, and why we love it and why we’re still here and why planes are flying Bands are playing beers flowing crabcakes are happening. You guys are invested in this for 40 years. What makes Baltimore Fells Point great

40:43

that people go good answer better than mine. See,

Nestor J. Aparicio  40:47

waiters is better. What do you one minutes for you to come here and fix us?

40:50

It’s the people. It’s the people who work here. The people who live here ownership, that people who come to visit from all over? It’s about the people. I’ve

Nestor J. Aparicio  40:59

been in here for three hours. It’s all Phillies fans today because the Phillies are here. Then I had a family for years. A boy maybe nine a girl maybe six, two youngest parents in their mid 30s Phil all Phillies stop. Little boy had a Phillies chat shirt and everything. And they’re like, We love coming down here, man. The city’s got everything filled. We don’t have we got water. You walk around my

41:21

kids and parking would have been $60 in Philly.

Nestor J. Aparicio  41:24

Right, exactly. But but we walked around, you know, like they left here and they had smiles on their faces. The kids were happy their kids were going to the pool. They were going to the game. They’re going to Babe Ruth museum today. And they could not they’re like We love coming down here. And I’m thinking why is that? Not on the news in Baltimore? You know, literally right? Well, did you interview no show hadn’t started yet. But we

41:45

got we have all the naval and Coast Guard people in our place. And they love it. Well, here’s what I want you to come here.

Nestor J. Aparicio  41:52

I’m going to take a break. I’m going to wrap here. I think Bill Cole stopping by but I’m not even sure. And I’m going to have a beer with you guys on the way out of here. I’m going on the way here because I called your daughter about a year ago fell in love with his German beer we call from a man to see my wife’s life Germany German so we go over to Germany. I like the spirit. I thought because I have the little the Oh, look at that. Hold on. We got to put that up babies. We got baby see little branch

42:19

driving the that’s that’s a tank. Yeah. Yeah.

Nestor J. Aparicio  42:23

So I I call your call your daughter and I said I want to get the zunar beer. She’s gotta come during Oktoberfest. It’s Only Time to get it right. So that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna come through on October.

42:32

I’m gonna make it right now. So

Nestor J. Aparicio  42:34

I’m gonna take a break. And I’m going to, I’m gonna get organized here. I have not had any beer yet. I’ve been in Fells Point for hours. That’s a mistake, right? That’s a problem. Yeah, that is a problem. All right. I’m gonna go to Max’s own probably we’re Cooper’s Max is no longer at North. Let’s see matches on Broadway again. I didn’t the last time did I

42:51

show in your age?

Nestor J. Aparicio  42:52

I’m sorry. I just when I see you. It’s Max’s on Broadway. That’s what it is to

42:57

know what the style is will always be good. It’s great. I’ll always

Nestor J. Aparicio  43:01

be nasty nasty to some people to you. I’m just the kid was the music critic. Right, right. Literally a kid. Do you remember the first time you met me? Or do you have any recollection of that? I was a kid man. I was like, seriously? 1920 years old. I

43:15

was curious can be to put the wayback machine on. Go back that far. Well, I remember

Nestor J. Aparicio  43:19

coming into maxes and seeing if we went through all the bands a minute ago, the hammelmann that ran when we told all the Greatest Hits Rajapur We didn’t tell any that McQuinn the

43:29

Roger McQuinn when he was playing at my place, I had just gotten Microsoft Flight Simulator. And it was like, we’re going back windows 95 I don’t know what it was. No, it was on your 95 Okay. It would have been you know, it this was like an early 90 Maybe so he’s marveled by this and no, he showed me how to use it. He was an expert he he learned how to fly using flight simulator.

43:58

Hey Mr. Watson.

Nestor J. Aparicio  44:01

All right, fly up camera. Go go make some more grandchildren go sell some more beer. We have good people here in Fells Point if there’s nothing else we need to know there’s good people down here doing good things. I appreciate Patrick Samantha everybody here Colin the whole crew for making me feel at home our friends at the Maryland lottery as well as Liberty pure solutions. I got a water clear.

44:23

Should I scratch scratch

Nestor J. Aparicio  44:24

don’t sniff though. Does not a scratch and sniff we gave those out last year. We did a Christmas they had peppermint once they were scratch and sniff they smell like peppermint. Whoa bag smelly. Alright. Also our friends if you new multi care, we’re down here Cooper’s we’re doing it live. It is a Baltimore positive. I’m Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stopped talking Fleet Week. Good stuff happening here in Baltimore. Get down here. Get in on it.