Wet City Craft Beer Bar Opening in Mt. Vernon

I had the chance today to visit Josh and PJ Sullivan at their soon-to-be-open beer bar, Wet City in Mt. Vernon. The brothers (along with their Dad and staff) have taken the much loved neighborhood fixure, Dougherty’s Pub, and created a welcoming light-filled bar, which will open to the public on Thursday, July 21. Hours will be 4pm-close seven nights a week and on Sunday and Monday nights, no food will be served.

As I walked into the bar – located at 223 W. Chase Street – the fresh white paint and wood flooring and design accents by Good Wood Design made the space feel open and inviting. I immediately was drawn to the shiny new tap system, which will offer 20 beers on tap, including one house beer to start. Many of the beers will be new to folks (except for craft beer nerds like Josh and PJ), as they plan to feature unique craft beers from all over the world. Eventually, they’ll brew on premise and hope to have four house beers on draft at any given time. The first house beer is “Fling”, a Black Saison collaboration between Wet City and Handsome Brewing of DC. I had a taste and was immediately impressed. (I love my job.)

Wet City has a larger food menu than I had imagined they would – everything from snacks like charcuterie, popcorn and wings to entrees like burgers, tacos and shrimp & grits. The chef is Chuck Allen, formerly of Sascha’s just a few blocks over on Charles. I was immediately impressed with Allen’s laid back demeanor and smart approach to food. He and the owners want to serve food that they would like to enjoy with a beer, while also appealing to the area’s business crowd and college students.

In addition to beers, they will serve a limited number of cocktails, which is no surprise if you are at all familiar with Josh Sullivan’s creative cocktails and popular blog, Post Prohibition. They’ll start out with a Summer Shandy, a Gose Margarita and about five more cocktails.

The opening tap list is as follows:

Fling – a Wet City & Handsome Collaboration
Black Saison: ABV 6.5%

Summer Saison – by Blackberry Farms
Saison: ABV 6.06%

Little Brett – by Allagash
Brett Ale: ABV 4.5%

Tenacity (/te’nasede/) – by Stillwater Artisanal
Brett IPA: ABV 6%

BeerBera – by LoverBeer
Grape Sour: ABV 8%

Fierce – by Off Color
Berliner Weissbier: ABV 3.8%

Summer Eclipse – by Burley Oak
Dark Sour: ABV 4.8

Nautilus – by Omnipollo
Blueberry Vanilla Sour: ABV 4.5%

Raja – by Avery Brewing Company
DIPA: ABV 8%

Ponzi – by Atlas Brew Works
IPA: ABV 7.3%

Aurora – by Omnipollo
DIPA: ABV 7.2

Hidden Hopyard Vol. 3 – by Manor Hill Brewing
IPA: ABV 6.5%

Duet – Alpine Beer Company
IPA: ABV 7%

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
German Hefeweizen: ABV 5.4%

Medium is the Message – by Handsome Beer Co.
Abbey Pale Ale: ABV 5%

Brut Cider – by Le Brun de Bretagne
French Cider: ABV 5.5%

Heavy Metal Parking Lot – by Union Craft Brewing
Belgian Strong Pale Ale: ABV 8%

Summer Session – by Peak Organic
Pale Wheat Ale: ABV 4.4%

On Nitro: Rubaeus by Founders
Raspberry Fruit Beer: ABV 5.7%

Wet City
223 West Chase Street
Baltimore MD 21201