Chloe Vaughn on Baltimore’s Legendary Dive Bar, Mount Royal Tavern
Download MP3Welcome to The Truth in His Heart, your source for conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee. Thank you for joining me today, and I am super excited to welcome my next guest. She's a bartender at Baltimore's iconic Mount Royal Tavern, a beloved dive bar known for its vibrant atmosphere and colorful stories. Please welcome, Chloe Vaughan.
Rob Lee:Welcome to the podcast.
Chloe Vaughn:Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Hi, everybody.
Rob Lee:See, this is this is the proper energy to come on with. Like, I almost wanna bring my energy level down, right, to to match where yours is at. It it's just, you know, balancing as we go along.
Chloe Vaughn:I'm high energy. I'm like a chihuahua.
Rob Lee:That's I've seen you in person. You are not. You're you're you're you're you know what? It's fine. It's fine.
Rob Lee:We'll we'll get there. We'll get there. So, again, thank you for coming on and spending some time. And as as I like to start, I always give sort of that that sparse introduction because I think there's I think a lot of times we do better introducing ourselves. So I wanna give you the opportunity and the space to introduce yourself and, you know, sort of share the story for you, Mount Royal Tavern, and all of that good stuff.
Rob Lee:What drew you to it? But, really, let's start off with introduce yourself.
Chloe Vaughn:Yes. I'm Chloe. I've, worked at the tavern since 2007 in one capacity or another. I started out as a doorman. That's what they called me.
Chloe Vaughn:I'm sheher but I was a doorman, and I started moonlighting there as a MICA student. The funny thing is I came my first visit to Baltimore was, like, 2,004 and I flew to BWI from Jacksonville, Florida where I was living. I took the light rail into the city, got off at Mount Royal, and the first building I went into was the Mount Royal Tavern, meeting a friend, the one person I knew here. And I walked in, I said, oh, this is a nice place. So, yeah, my Baltimore ignorance was high, but I quickly started learning things.
Chloe Vaughn:Quick students, I was very, very bored at the Maryland Institute. It's a great school, but I was very bored there, and I quickly got sucked into the nightlife. That's my that's my villain origin story.
Rob Lee:No. That's good. That's good. So so you're you're you're touching on, like, sort of first time up here about 20 years ago at this point. And Yeah.
Rob Lee:You know, being there, you know, you know, at the tavern, you know, pretty much for the majority of that time, being a part of that in one way, shape, or or another, you know, doorman as you as you started off with. And, you know, it's sort of that first thing that you see first place, like, oh, it's here. It's right here.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. Yeah. It's right there. And, it's funny the people I meet along the way, everybody knows it's right there. Like, not everybody goes there daily by far.
Chloe Vaughn:A lot of people do. Special people, which we will talk about. But the funny thing is is that it's ubiquitous. Everybody in the city knows the tavern. Love it or hate it.
Rob Lee:Yeah. And, you know, this this past year, like, it was one of those places where I was just like, I know there are, you know, spots that are around that are hiding in plain sight, and I kinda close out this podcast all the time of whatever it is. You just gotta look for it. And sometimes I just have to practice what I preach, and I'm like, what is this place? And I was curious about it for years, but never went in.
Rob Lee:Right? And then, you know, as I share with you a little bit, you know, sort of, you know, Adam being there and following him, I was like, I'm just gonna pop over one day. And, you know, during the summer, I worked Artscape. I did some interviews there. So I was like, oh, let's see what's happening and it's right there again in this sort of area.
Rob Lee:I was like, let's take my ass in there and let's see what's up.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. That's the funny thing because we've had national exposure, years ago. Esquire said we were one of the best bars in America. There's been documentaries on us. There's, you know, people say we're world famous.
Chloe Vaughn:People have sent me pictures of MRT stickers in Thailand, but we're also kinda clandestine. We're also kinda tucked away. You just have the neon sign and the reputation. And, if you don't know it, you do gotta seek it out. And if you do know it, you know it and you know what it is and you'll always love it.
Chloe Vaughn:So it's kind of like a funny thing of, like, yeah, we're a famous old dive bar. We have this hand painted ceiling that everybody loves, and then it's also like, we're a quiet regulars bar day to day.
Rob Lee:Right. Right. And, yeah, I I remember, like, sort of the first time I went in there, and it it had this vibe because it's it's people that are there that are regulars, and it's just a very fun and funny atmosphere. So it it brings me to sort of this next question. Like, I I see that as a part of your personality as well.
Rob Lee:Like, you know, humor, so it fits right in. Right? So from your perspective, like, how important is a good sense of humor when working anywhere, but specifically, you know, at, you know, MRT? And how does that kind of, like, help shape the atmosphere? Because it's a loose vibe.
Rob Lee:I enjoy it. I mean, it's a dive bar, obviously. So, you know, it's gonna have its, you know, its quirks, but tell me about that as a person that's been there for the better part of of 20.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. So I personally hate a boring bartender. When you go into a bar and the bartender's just standing there and oh, they get your drink, whatever, but, like, no conversation, no nothing. I hate that. I hate when you walk into a place and the bartender's like a funeral director.
Chloe Vaughn:Well, actually, no. I've met a lot of funeral directors. They're very funny people usually. And I think that might be part of it, Like, when you work in a difficult environment or a high stress environment, you just naturally gravitate towards a sense of humor. Like, working in the tavern's hard.
Chloe Vaughn:You're dealing with drunk people constantly. Drunk people like to be entertained. They like jokes. They wanna laugh. You know?
Chloe Vaughn:People go there to escape their troubles. We poke fun at each other. You know? It is a loose atmosphere. It's very, very old school Baltimore.
Chloe Vaughn:Most of the funny stuff that happens there is just you gotta sit there and watch, and you'll just see something uncanny that nobody has planned, and then we'll make jokes about it for the next 3 hours.
Rob Lee:No. That's that's that's good. Like, again, you know, I was sitting there and I'm, like, trying not to, as they say, ear hustle and and and eavesdrop for the folks' conversations. But I'm sitting there, and I was like, yo, this is silly, or I feel like secrets float around because of the sort of because of the bar. You have secrets float out there.
Rob Lee:It's like, I'm learning everything about the Oh,
Chloe Vaughn:yeah.
Rob Lee:Of certain people.
Chloe Vaughn:You you will hear the wildest things just being like a a barfly high on the wall, you'll hear some wild stuff. And, you know, we deal with a lot of, like, the gritty side of life too, And if you let it bother you, it'll bother you. You can't be there, you know? So, a lot of it we find the humor in even, you know, the uglier aspects of the tavern lights. You know, it's like we deal with the inner city problems, you know, addiction, drinking, all kinds of stuff.
Chloe Vaughn:And people really do go there to kind of, like, indulge and not be judged or bothered. And the way to handle that is to have, like, a healthy sense of humor. And, also, if I didn't laugh at everything, I think my blood pressure would be, like, medically unsafe.
Rob Lee:That's good. That's good. That's a good point. And, you know, the the times that I've gone there before I move into this this next question, the times that I've gone there and sort of the post, I guess, the post conversation, I'll I'll talk to folks. I'm like, yo, have you have you been there?
Rob Lee:You should go. Why aren't you going? Why aren't we going now? And I've I've just had a great time each time that I was there. Granted, you know, it's for a short period of time, you know, from the sort of middle of the middle of the week, and I was like, yo, I need this.
Rob Lee:And it makes the week go by so smooth because there is you know, I felt like initially, I've been to dive bars in other places, maybe the first place I've gone to in another city. You know?
Chloe Vaughn:Yes. Yeah.
Rob Lee:And just the outsider vibe is there, whereas, you know, the times I've gone to, you know, Mount Royal Tavern, it's been like, oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. Just get caught up a seat, chat it up.
Chloe Vaughn:We bring everybody right into the family.
Rob Lee:That's what it feels like. I I didn't know I was like, yeah. That's what it that's what it felt like. I was like, oh, yeah. I'm a be the the weird podcast cousin.
Rob Lee:I got a microphone on me.
Chloe Vaughn:People people have to prove themselves, unworthy, and it's very hard to do that to, like, not be right into the mix. Like, we are just, like, ready for people to come on in and, like, experience it and have fun. Yeah.
Rob Lee:So you you touched on, like, you know, sort of the the ceiling that's in there. There are certain things when it comes to the distinct atmosphere, the decor, and the design. The jukebox, handwritten tabs, How do you how do you see, like, sort of that contributing the aesthetic in all contributing to that atmosphere? You touched on the old school Baltimore component there, which absolutely, that's you put a really fine point on it. But how does that, like, yeah, that aesthetic, appeal to, like, being sort of in my head, the ultimate dive bar and bringing in such a diverse crowd of folks?
Chloe Vaughn:The best, way I've ever heard it described is that you walk in and it's like walking into your grandmother's house. Because everything is there the same way it always is. There's some stuff that might be junk that's been there for years. There's some stuff that might be like a really nice antique that's just next to the junk, but it's always gonna look the same and smell the same just like grandma's house and it's very, very comforting in a way. Like, you know what you're gonna get when you go to the tavern.
Chloe Vaughn:And I've become like, I'm I'm sort of in this weird position where I bridge the gap between, like, old school tavern and new school tavern because I'm the only one left bartending there from the old school and, you know, the previous ownership. And the new ownership came along, and I've become sort of like the tavern historical society because I'm like, you guys can't touch anything. You can't do this. No. You can't change this.
Chloe Vaughn:The blue bar top, everybody loves that. What are you thinking? You know? And they're like, well, it's falling apart. And I'm like, I don't care.
Chloe Vaughn:Fix it.
Rob Lee:It's it's like that scene. I don't I don't know if you ever watched that show, that was on Netflix, the toys that beat us, and they're they're talking about, like, sort of, Battle Cat and, like, He Man. It's like, it's not the scale. I don't give a shit. Put a put a saddle on them.
Rob Lee:Don't care.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. Exactly. Just deal with it. It's fine. I was like, it's fine.
Chloe Vaughn:I can I can walk on this bar top? See? And they're like, please don't do that. I'm like, I do this every night. It's fine.
Chloe Vaughn:Solid as a rock.
Rob Lee:So I I I didn't really that didn't make I didn't make that connection initially. So going from sort of the the the the older management to sort of, you know, the the current, like like, tavern and being in that role of, you know, you're here, you know, coming up, like, 20 years ago, you know, for that initial trip. And then now being in that spot where it's just like the history is, you know, the connective tissue is there with you. How how does that feel?
Chloe Vaughn:It's a heavy weight. I always tell people I deal with every problem and every complaint because, you know, the customers complain to me, my coworkers complain to me, the owners complained to me. Well, I could probably complain to them more. But but, you know, I have to carry this weight and then people come in and they say, oh, well, thank God you're here, Chloe, because I don't wanna be here if you're not here. And I'm just like, well, sometimes I'm not here.
Chloe Vaughn:I'm not I don't live here, you know. And it's also, a a hard process of, like, kinda getting new people to feel comfortable as well with, like, the tavern regulars and, like, the, you know, eclectic, eccentric vibe. And some people, you know, are very confused and put off of, like, why we deal with the crazy man who sits in the back and yells at everybody. And it's like, oh, we deal with him because, you know, he's been coming here for 40 years, and he used to be a Baltimore City school teacher, and we love him. We don't care if he's crazy.
Chloe Vaughn:You know? Like, he's a great guy. Just deal with it.
Rob Lee:And I think, like and that's and that's a good point. Like, you know, where we start we start thinking about, like, preserving, like, history and cultural landmarks. That's one of those things. Like, you know, I I think where the tavern situated within walking distance of all these these different, you know, areas, and and we'll talk about that a little bit later, all these different, like, landmarks. And, you know, we can look over on the other side where sort of station north, the concentration is at, and kinda see certain things disappearing and then things shifting.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah.
Rob Lee:And wanting to keep something that is a landmark there. Like, it's right there within that sort of Mica neighborhood, and you have your your Mica ties there. So that's a a chunk of it. And if that, you know, sort of is gone or people stop sort of showing up or stop, you know, appreciating the charm and what makes a place a place, then what happens? That's that's lost.
Chloe Vaughn:That's my biggest fear and, something that I really have to applaud the new ownership, Marlon, Dan, Derek, and Nick for, like, endeavoring in this because imagine walking down the street, walking down Mount Royal towards Dolphin and there's no tavern. Like, imagine that Baltimore. I would leave the city, but
Rob Lee:Come out of here.
Chloe Vaughn:Also an extremist, but can you imagine, like, it would be and we're losing so many places as well, like, left and right, places are closing, the dives are dying out. They have these new, like, concept bars opening a lot and they're like, we're a dive. And I'm like, no. No. You're not.
Chloe Vaughn:You can't be a dive. You just opened. Like, that takes decades. That takes decades of fucked up in this to earn that title.
Rob Lee:It it reminds me of the the back in the day of the the FetLife community. It's like so many dudes are now like, yeah. I'm a, you know, I'm a I'm a daddy. I'm this. I'm a tot.
Rob Lee:Like
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. It's like, are you are you though?
Rob Lee:You're you're 22. What are you saying?
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. You're 22. You're not a daddy.
Rob Lee:What a daddy.
Chloe Vaughn:I have a dungeon where I can beat them up at the bar too. Oops. Shouldn't say that.
Rob Lee:That is delightful. So you you touched on, like, you know, the, you know, sort of, like, new, I guess, owners or what have you. You mentioned first names, but some of those are, like, large names. I Some
Chloe Vaughn:of those are large names. Yes. Hometown Heroes, Derek Adams, he's from Park Heights. Of course, everybody knows he's world renowned painter, visual artist, and an extremely wonderful kind soul. He's like Zen when it comes to dealing with problems which is very good for me because I am not Zen.
Chloe Vaughn:The other guys, I have known them all for, like, 20 years because I met them all at the tavern. And that Derek was the only one who was new to me in the owner's group, and now he's my favorite. Sorry, Marlon. But, no. The other guys I knew because, of the art scene back in the day, you know, Wham City and, Nick and Marlon went to Micah with me, and we all just used to hang at the tavern.
Chloe Vaughn:And then, when I knew that my former boss was going to sell, I basically called Marlin crying, like, they're gonna sell the tavern. I'm worried. I don't know what's gonna happen. And he said, well, we can't let that happen. And I felt instantly better.
Chloe Vaughn:And then he, put down this you know, put together this amazing group of people that are all artists in different capacities, very diverse. Everybody is so different personality wise. And, I mean, we can't have a meeting. It's crazy. But it it works.
Chloe Vaughn:It works, with the tavern lifestyle, you know, we're all crazy. And it
Rob Lee:and it and it goes with sort of the the other DNA that's baked in here. It's is is Baltimore, so you have sort of because because Dan is Dan Deacon. Right? So Dan
Chloe Vaughn:is Dan Deacon. Yes. And he has given a lot to this city in terms of, you know, he I remember when he was putting on shows at the copycat. That's how I knew him. And he was not, you know, he wasn't Dan Deacon.
Chloe Vaughn:Well, he was, but he was, like, nobody knew him. And we would just go party at his place. And, you know, humble humble beginnings. And he really fed the music scene, here for a long, long time. And now he's doing soundtracks and stuff.
Chloe Vaughn:It's really cool. You know? And I'm thankful he's able to, you know, dedicate time to this project because it's it takes a lot. It takes a village.
Rob Lee:100%. And and I and I love that when those, you know, sort of opportunities come together where you know, I did an interview couple months back, for one of the, like, sort of club music, like, landmarks, and it was a you know, I was talking with Ducky Dynamo, and we were discussing, like, sort of, you know, saving. I think it was Gatsby's or it may have been a one of those. Yeah. And
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah.
Rob Lee:You know, I'm just it it hit for me because of what I touched on earlier. There are places that are closing left and right, and I think Yeah. Have a mixed use place, but put that somewhere else. Don't don't start taking these landmarks. Actually invest in them.
Rob Lee:Keep them around because you start keeping the culture replaced and seeing that folks who have gone on to be very successful and have a lot of notoriety in in in doing really big things are like, yeah. We gotta keep this. We gotta keep this around. How can we how can we how can we keep it around? Yeah.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. Yeah. And the, you know, the tavern is so unique and I'm so glad that these guys get that because we are really the bar, for people to go to that probably can't go to other bars. It's a good way to put it. Out.
Rob Lee:It's just a byline right there.
Chloe Vaughn:Be honest. And do we really want a 100 crazy alcoholics out on the loose in Baltimore? No. We need a home, and that's the tavern. So
Rob Lee:music is a thing. Like, I I I hear about the the jukebox. Right? And Yes. You know, anything from Misfits to Tom Waits.
Rob Lee:Talk a bit about the importance of sort of, like, music, you know, in the the tavern sort of, like like, history. And is is there, you know, a song or or series of songs that, like, pops on and it's like, yeah, this is this is gonna this is gonna amp things up real quick.
Chloe Vaughn:Well, it's so funny because the Jukebox is something I probably get the most compliments and complaints about because some people absolutely love it and some people absolutely hate it. We know it's outdated. There's nothing I mean, there might be some early 2000 stuff in there now. You know, there's some nineties hip hop, nineties grunge, but that thing has music from the thirties till the early 2000. And people say all the time, why don't you get a touch tunes?
Chloe Vaughn:Why don't you get a touch tunes? And I'm like, yeah. But then what would happen? Then you would hear the same music that you can hear in any other bar. And the truth is there is a lot of things in there that you can't hear anywhere else.
Chloe Vaughn:There's, like, custom CDs people have who have made that are no longer alive. There's cut like, you know, the tavern has always had how an in house band. Yeah. Charm City Drug Band was one of them. Very, you know, old Baltimore, crazy plate on trash started by some of the old bartenders who are no longer there.
Chloe Vaughn:The probably, I would say the most tavern song that's in the jukebox is, called Sally's Garden. And it was written by Eric Myers and Papa T. Tyrese Dixon. We call him Papa T. And it's about the little memorial garden right next door to the tavern.
Chloe Vaughn:And there's some lore about that because people say, oh, she well, Sally was an art student. She died of a heroin overdose, and she got the drugs at the tavern. I looked it up one day, and, Sally had lupus. But the lore exists. You know?
Chloe Vaughn:We don't know what happened to Sally. I'm not gonna pretend to know, and I'm not gonna destroy the lore either because something happened
Rob Lee:to her.
Chloe Vaughn:But, Eric calls me one night, and he he passed sadly in, 2000, but he also he worked at the tavern for, like, 30 years. And he calls me one night and he says, hey. I need you to pick me up. I'm at a pay phone in West Baltimore, and some kids stole my shoes. But he said, but me and Tyrese wrote a song you're really gonna like.
Chloe Vaughn:He just got out of the mental hospital. It's called Sally's Garden. And that is number 6301 in the jukebox, and it is a favorite of the regulars. And it's, the lyric is sitting here in Sally's garden for a moment just to rest my head. And anybody who has gotten day drunk at the tavern can relate to that.
Chloe Vaughn:Because what do you do? You walk outside, you're too drunk, you sit in Sally's garden.
Rob Lee:Good point.
Chloe Vaughn:So, I think that's our most, like, you know, secret cool song that's on there, and it's nowhere else. You can't hear it anywhere else. We can't hear it. Sometimes I think maybe, oh, if I gotta touch tunes, yeah, all the younger people would be happier. But then we would hear, you know, sexy red over and over.
Chloe Vaughn:Love her. Love her. But it's like, is that gonna ruin the vibe? I don't know.
Rob Lee:What what that reminds me of, and I I think there's something in it because I I think people are being more and more aware of this recently of sort of I'm a DVD snob. I'm a movie snob. Right? And I have a bunch of DVDs. I'm recording in my my studio.
Rob Lee:I have a bunch of DVDs in here, and I'm like, oh, look. Director's cuts and deleted scenes and all of this stuff. And Yeah. I hear it from people all the time. Oh, why don't you just, like, stream it?
Rob Lee:That's, like, not not getting the director's cut or that other stuff that's there. Sometimes the older version is better. You lose something when Yeah. Because, like, who's it for? You know?
Chloe Vaughn:You do. You do lose something and, you know, I'm I'm not gonna age myself, but I I think we're both from, like, a media generation when you went out and bought an album and you had the whole package. You you know, you could open it and see what's inside. You know, people ask me sometimes they're, like, 22 and they're, like, how do you work the jukebox? And I'm, like, well, it has these things in them called CDs.
Chloe Vaughn:You know? And it's like they're shocked. And when I go over and show them, you know, and I was like, I promise you'll find something you like. Like, there's something in there.
Rob Lee:So after they enjoy their time, you know, figuring out what a CD is and using a CD, and they need to get a ride home, do they use the rotary dial to call a taxi? Or how how does that work?
Chloe Vaughn:They well, I call their moms on on my little, you know, old bread phone. I call their moms to get them.
Rob Lee:That's good. That's good. It's just like everything here is just dead tech. That's just what it is.
Chloe Vaughn:That's what we like.
Rob Lee:So in in doing my preparation and the research, I I I see the name, dirt church, come up a lot as it relates to the tavern. Could could you explain and enlighten me and the the listeners? Because I I I think it's a I think it's a cool name, but I don't know what it means.
Chloe Vaughn:I can't because I don't know when that happened or who made it up. And, it start I guess I started hearing it maybe, like, 10 years ago, And I know why. It makes sense because we have the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and we're dirty. So it's the dirt church and you come drink your beer and you're worshiping at the dirt church. I have no idea who invented this phrase.
Chloe Vaughn:And Eric and I actually hated it. When we started to hear we thought we're like, what? Fuck them. You know? And, and I thought it was a reference to heroin at one point.
Chloe Vaughn:But, at the it grew on me over time because people started, like, making their own merch. And I would see people wearing sweatshirts that said dirt church, and I was like, oh, that's cool. You know? And people would be like, oh, come down to the dirt church. And then it was like a secret thing where it was like you could say where you're going, but you couldn't you didn't have to say where you're going.
Rob Lee:Nice.
Chloe Vaughn:So I now I think it's cool. I still call it the Taz or MRT, whatever, but, I I now I've come around to dirt church fully, and I think it's cute.
Rob Lee:I think the first time I saw, I saw the the the phrases on one of Harvey Adams'
Chloe Vaughn:pieces. Yes.
Rob Lee:Yes. What is that? I was like, I am from here. What is this lore I'm from unfamiliar with?
Chloe Vaughn:And Arvey still owes me a sweatshirt because I don't even have one. But I saw him at the ravens game, the last ravens game, and he said he's got one for me. So but I love when I love when creators do that. Like, I love when people, like, include the tavern in some way in their work or, you know, it's so cool and fun and organic because we have people that come in and then we'll just bring an instrument and start playing it, like, in the bar. Or people come in and they bring their pastels and paper and they just draw the people in the bar.
Chloe Vaughn:It's it's really cool and, like, it it still has it's, like, bohemian flavor because, every regular that comes in there, like, has a hidden talent and it blows me away. One time we were participating in the Station North Arts Walk and, they sent us this little band that was playing in there. And I was like, it was hilarious because our regulars kept going up and, like, taking the mic and singing with them. And, like, the funny part is they were good.
Rob Lee:It's true. Yeah. Look. You know, I we're we're doing a podcast right now. Don't, you know, don't tempt me to come down with a mic and a you know?
Chloe Vaughn:Come down with a message. You should. That's that's what you should be interviewing is, like, I want somebody to collect the stories of, like, all my regulars. You know? That's that's, like, my dream.
Chloe Vaughn:I don't have time to do it. I don't do a podcast. You know me, dead technology. You're lucky my iPad's working. But Well, I mean, there's a lot of people with a lot of stories, you know, and that's what keeps me going to work every day.
Chloe Vaughn:And that's what keeps me invested after, you know, 17 years.
Rob Lee:Yeah. No. That's that's good. We we we we will chat about this. I think this is a good idea.
Chloe Vaughn:I'm full of them.
Rob Lee:I'm full of something. I'm also full of good ideas as well. So I got I got a couple more real questions for you. I want to get a sort of like, you know, we have these these moments like I've been in like, the bars, the places where one can get the, the giggle juice, as I like to call it, that I go to, they always have a certain vibe or what have you. And once that that vibe is gone, then, you know, I think it's a I think it's a conversation around taste, you know, sort of quality.
Rob Lee:Like when I went down to the tavern, I was like, I like this place. I can go here at least once a week. I dig it. And there are other places that kind of fit that bill. And then there are some other spots that are this is trendy.
Rob Lee:This is cool. Not really for me. You know? I I like a little I like a little dirt with my whiskey. Right?
Chloe Vaughn:Yes.
Rob Lee:So during the the course of, like, maybe it's a week, maybe it's a day, but but talk about sort of those those maybe lulls or those moments when sort of the energy shifts. Is it, you know, as it gets later in the day and and sort of folks then out, or is it parts of the year where we are jumping jumping? Talk about, like, sort of that at the tavern.
Chloe Vaughn:Well, it's interesting what you say because, yeah, the tavern is kinda known for sometimes its bad reputation. And like John Waters, we have bad taste, but bad taste is a thing. You know? Trash is pizzazz. I've been in the tavern when it's been one bum and one businessman.
Chloe Vaughn:You know? And, they'll sit there and talk to each other or talk to me. You know? We this is our time of year when we're extremely busy, you know, football season, and you don't think of the tavern as a football bar. But let me tell you those Raven games are popping.
Chloe Vaughn:We get real excited. You know, and then we do have lulls February, you know, where our our heating system's very old. Yeah. And you can walk in and there's, you know, die hard regulars bundled up. And I'm still wearing a tank top and leggings because I wear that all the time.
Chloe Vaughn:But, you know, we survive, these lulls and these, you know, that's the bar business in general. Nobody's busy all the time. Nobody's the most popular forever. Even the most popular gig in town is, you know, how long is that gonna last? We survive because we are blessed with a community of regulars who will come every day.
Chloe Vaughn:And, you know, we treat them like family at the end of the day. And at the end of the day, we we maintain the lowest possible prices for us to survive. And I think that gives people an incentive to be able to come to that place more often than they would. You know, you can't go to the Penbury 4 times a week, but you could easily go to the tavern 4 times a week, not break the bank. You know?
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Chloe Vaughn:So yeah. I think I think the energy is relatively the same, depending on the you know, it's very busy or very quiet. You're still gonna get your bartender that you know and love that's gonna be giving you their best material, whatever they got. You know? Yeah.
Chloe Vaughn:Just telling you what's what about their crazy day, and it's always happening.
Rob Lee:Yeah. We're it's it's always something going on.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. Sometimes I don't people everything.
Rob Lee:So this is this is the last sort of real question, and I've been adding last fire questions as we've been talking because you've given me material to work off of. So what is the funniest or most unforgettable, like, moment that you experienced? I'm gonna I'm gonna put a, you know, a a governor on it, if you will, in the last year because when you start talking like In
Chloe Vaughn:the last year.
Rob Lee:Yeah. Yeah.
Chloe Vaughn:Man, this is the hardest question I get because there's so much hilarious stuff. Also, my brain is full of holes from drugs and alcohol. But and also funny as relative because what I think is hilarious, people think is disturbing. For example, last week, a woman brought in a bag with 7 dead birds in it.
Rob Lee:What?
Chloe Vaughn:And in a plastic bag and she opens it. She was like, look what I found. And I was like,
Rob Lee:oh. Oh.
Chloe Vaughn:And I was like, you can't you can't bring this in here. Right? And she left. Little did we know we're cleaning up at the end of the night and I see the fucking bag. She left the bag.
Rob Lee:Holy nuts.
Chloe Vaughn:By the ATM and I was like, this isn't it. Is it? And I open it and the doorman Anthony starts screaming and he's like, what the fuck is that closing? That shit smells. And I was like, well, it's the dead birds.
Chloe Vaughn:And we all started laughing because it was just the most bizarre thing Right. Ever. Like, where does this happen? You can't make this up. And, you know, then I threw it away.
Chloe Vaughn:I didn't did, you know, 7 tiny holes and bury them like I should have. I guess. You know, proper funeral, proper burial. But can we take get rid of the birds? There were some nice warblers in there.
Chloe Vaughn:It was very sad, but also to me hilarious.
Rob Lee:I mean,
Chloe Vaughn:I mean,
Rob Lee:to me, is
Chloe Vaughn:Only at the tavern.
Rob Lee:Why? Because it it feels like something that and and maybe it's on the nose, but something that would pop up in Always Sunny. It was just like, yo. Yeah. What?
Rob Lee:What? Did they're they're dead birds here? Yeah. And there's somehow an Orioles reference of them, like, losing in the playoffs or something like that?
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. I it was, like, the same time frame that the Orioles were out. And I was, like, this is bad omen. Another funny thing that happened this year was, we have this guy, we call him the jukebox fucker because he will literally make love to the jukebox. He stands there and he gets so into it when his Rick James song is playing.
Chloe Vaughn:He just really start, like, holds the top and starts grinding and I'm like, yeah. If boys, get the jukebox fucker away from that. You know? These are things that happen. Funniest of all time
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Chloe Vaughn:If I may. I have seen in my life a mouse eating crack cocaine on the floor.
Rob Lee:Yo.
Chloe Vaughn:Which is just wild. I mean, I saw that with my own eyes.
Rob Lee:Oh, they they they don't make them like they used to, I guess.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. Yeah. That's really something. I mean, I'll never I'll never forget that. On my deathbed, I will be thinking about that.
Rob Lee:Oh, Mickey.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. That and then, like, somebody got mad and, like like, went to go hit the mouse, and somebody Eric said, no. I wanted to keep him as a pet.
Rob Lee:I'm well, I mean
Chloe Vaughn:Like, only at Baltimore would this happen. Only in
Rob Lee:The mice the mouse has chutzpah and,
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. He ran away quick.
Rob Lee:Very fast. Very fast.
Chloe Vaughn:Very fast.
Rob Lee:He he was trying to pawn something later. I don't know why, but he was trying to pawn something. It was very weird. Very weird mouse.
Chloe Vaughn:There might be a lifetime supply for him out back. I don't know. He might be okay.
Rob Lee:That's good. That's good. So that's kinda it for the real questions. So I wanna throw a few rapid fire questions. You're welcome.
Rob Lee:So as I always tell everyone, do not overthink these. You do whatever you think. You know, first thing that pops in here, that's that's gonna be your answer, Abby. So Yes. I'm gonna start off really easy.
Rob Lee:I have one that's a little longer, but I'm gonna start off really easy. Here's the first one. What is your favorite color? Red. That that tracks.
Rob Lee:What is a hobby or activity that you do that might surprise people that you work with?
Chloe Vaughn:I garden a lot. Oh, well
Rob Lee:well, that is that is surprising. Yes.
Chloe Vaughn:It I I do have a nurturing side.
Rob Lee:Well, I mean, you're you're you're nurturing the history of the tavern. So so here's here's the next one. So I reached out to you initially on Instagram, and, you know, in a podcast that I used to do, which has similar letters to, MRT, it's just MTR was my thing.
Chloe Vaughn:Okay.
Rob Lee:We had a bit about alligator news. So if you will, could you tell listeners who don't know your aren't following you what your Instagram handle is and the significance upset handle?
Chloe Vaughn:Yes. I am gator whore on Instagram. And the reason why is I simply I love alligators. I'm from Florida, right near the Everglades. My dream was to become an alligator wrestler.
Chloe Vaughn:Sadly, I have not made it yet, but I will. And it's, it's, yeah. It can be read a lot of different ways, but, I go with it. At this point, I can't change it because everybody you know, my boss makes fun of me, for it, and my sister is a yoga teacher, and so he calls her yoga whore.
Rob Lee:It's good.
Chloe Vaughn:It's good. But, yeah, I love I love I just love alligators.
Rob Lee:That that is my favorite animal. So we're Oh, cool.
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. They're the best.
Rob Lee:I had this this bit because I I wanted to do I wanted to talk about how, was it was working on a treatment for a a TV show about nonprofits, and it was gonna be set in Baltimore. And I was just like, yeah. You know, we have, like, a nonprofit that's focused on, you know you know, activism around alligator rights and running bid. There are no alligators in Baltimore, but we're being there. It just
Chloe Vaughn:it just slaps me up. There's 1 or 2.
Rob Lee:Right. It's good.
Chloe Vaughn:I I, went to a, store on Howard Street once. Right? When I when I first moved to the city, I lived, Howard and Monument And I would walk around Howard Street, you know, half of it's full, half of it's empty. Go and tell little stores, you'll meet my neighbors. And one place, they had a tank with some came in in it.
Rob Lee:Really?
Chloe Vaughn:And, yeah, I was fascinated. And I would go in there and play with them. The guy would just let me, you know. And short lived though. Short sadly short lived.
Rob Lee:Because, certain certain point, those came in
Chloe Vaughn:That's a certain point. There's a problem. Yeah.
Rob Lee:Then you
Chloe Vaughn:are just wrestling, though. Yeah. I like to handle them. Yeah. So I like the answer.
Rob Lee:Don't we all? So so here here's the last one. This is the one that's a little bit longer. So, the tavern is near MICA, obviously. It's a I I look at it as kind of, like, you know, kind of a MICA bar, not a MICA bar, kind of a MICA bar.
Rob Lee:University of Baltimore and multiple, like, arts and culture related landmarks. Like, that that cluster is just it has to be, like, creative folks that are always popping over there. So with that in mind, what are if someone's visiting, right, obviously, they're gonna go to the tavern. They they have to get the real experience. But what are the 3 must do things in Baltimore that you would, you know, suggest a visitor do?
Rob Lee:They're coming to visit. They're here for a weekend. They're gonna check out the tavern. What else should they also check out?
Chloe Vaughn:Yeah. Well, I I tell them all 3 bars.
Rob Lee:Okay.
Chloe Vaughn:But I tell everybody that comes in from town, I tell them, yep. Go to us. Go to Club Charles. Go to Autobar. That's what I tell people to do.
Chloe Vaughn:Maybe I should tell them oh, yeah, go down to our the BMA, it's free. No. I like to have fun. I tell people what I do and what I do is go to Autobar and Club Charles. So I tell them that.
Chloe Vaughn:Or I tell I do tell people if I know of, like, a cool local show or, you know, a lot of my friends are DJs and have events and I push people towards that. That's at least a little more culture. But let's be real. When people are visiting this city, they wanna get fucked up and meet someone. So I tell them the the bars to go to in the area, the ones I like.
Rob Lee:That's good. That's good. I the only one I haven't been to is is Club Charles. I meant to knock that off the list.
Chloe Vaughn:But No. You gotta go.
Rob Lee:Autobar is a regular. Autobar is a regular location. Shout out to the homie, Dror.
Chloe Vaughn:Yes. I love Dror.
Rob Lee:That's it now for the rapid fire. So we've wrapped up the full gamut. So I passed. You passed. You're off the hot seat.
Rob Lee:You didn't melt. You like danger, but you didn't melt. So as we wrap up here, there are 2 things I want to do before we close out. 1, I want to thank you for spending some time with me. This has been a treat.
Rob Lee:And Yeah. Absolutely. And 2, I wanna invite and encourage you to share with the listeners sort of this is the shameless plug portion. Social media website, any anything that you wanna, you know, plug in these final moments, the floor is yours.
Chloe Vaughn:Yes. So, like I said, the tavern has always had a house band. My band is called Skrybabe. It's s k r y b a b e. It's me and, Rusty Burke plays guitar, and my drummer, Skurge.
Chloe Vaughn:They both moonlight at the tab doing the door, and we have our first show coming up at the depot November 22nd. So I would love to see people come out.
Rob Lee:That's fantastic. I just one on the IG just followed, so see if I could pull up.
Chloe Vaughn:Thank you.
Rob Lee:Absolutely. And there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank Chloe Vaughan from Mount Royal Tavern for coming on to the podcast and tell us a bit about those experiences at the dive bar and in and around Baltimore. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community in and around your neck of the woods. You just gotta look for it.
