The Vortex of Towson

As previously stated, I have worked in and around Baltimore County for over a decade of my life. In that time, I have bared witness to many of strange things: the Towson Grits, the sudden disappearance of Heater Skateboards, the Recher getting turned into a bullshit dance club. All of them pale in comparison to 7 E Chesapeake Ave. To those of you that merely visit Towson from time to time on a whim, you wouldn’t notice 7 E Chesapeake Ave as anything more than a random, locally owned eatery. 

Random being the key word. For me, I first discovered 7 E Chesapeake Ave as a great Italian carry out. I remember being heart broken the day my coworkers and I walked up to order a few chicken parm subs only to find the doors locked with a makeshift closed sign in the window. After that, it was World of Crepes, which was really good but was short lived. After that, an insane homemade taco shop with an absurd amount of options that all tasted great. My father and I made it our personal mission to try every taco which we completed after the brick and mortar location shut down and returned as a food truck. After that, a Caribbean Cuisine joint that wasn’t worth the time of day. 

Back then I was too young and naive to notice a set pattern with all of these places. Despite the epic quality of locally made food, none of them stayed open past a year. Even if it did manage to hit twelve months, the business would slowly die off, until there was only a handful of dedicated followers left trying to keep the lights on with multiple weekly lunch orders. What was it about this single location on a Towson side street that seems to be a lose-lose situation for any and all restaurateurs? Is it as simple as rent being too high in a area of town that’s undergoing continuous gentrification? Or could it be something other worldly? That investigation is still on-going. All I know for certain is, it still breaks my heart not having freshly made tacos just a block from my job.

In the past three years alone, 7 E Chesapeake Ave changed hands three times. First as Homemade, a breakfast place with overpriced scraps, then Truffle Butter Bistro, a place that had decent food but a disgusting name (thanks a lot Drake!). After that it was College Town Dogs, which may have been open for all of a month. I don’t know for sure because every time I tried to go there on my lunch break, the place was locked up tight. No one at my job was upset to see them evicted.

Now, Holy Cow Ice Cream is the proud resident of 7 E Chesapeake Ave. And while the chips might be stacked against them with the ends of winter still beating down on us, I wish them all the luck in the world in the hopes that they will finally break the mysterious decade long streak of quality eateries going belly up year in and year out.

For more info on Holy Cow and all of their confections, check out their Instagram page located here.

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