Quiet, friendly, out of the way with a great view of the Chesapeake Bay! A charming & affordable waterfront venue.
(301)
2542 Island View Road
Essex, MD
21221
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1969...
It wasn't always called the Island View
📷It started as “Tom's Tavern” named after the man who dreamed of owning his own bar. Tom’s was a cavernous place, decorated in timeworn beer signs (Arrow, Hamms, Gunther, National) from the 1940’s & 50’s. It had a pool table, shuffleboard, juke-box, pin-ball and cigarette machine. There was an old wall mounted public telephone with 5¢ 10¢ 25¢ coin slots that doubled as the business line (it’s still the same today 687-9799). Centered on the back bar was an ancient cash register with rows of whiskey bottles lined right and left. Other shelves held the Natty Boh beer glasses, ci**rs and racks of potato chips. Red, round, bar stools lined the front bar with ash trays (in full use) for every seat. On the bar there were jars of hot sausages, pickled eggs, pickled pig’s feet and coddies for sale - 25¢ each. The beer coolers were full of National and Pabst Blue Ribbon, 7-up and Coke. Even the rest rooms (complete with “novelty” machine) were fascinating with the odd door k***s*, toilet tanks mounted on the wall and a long trough in the men’s room. No Air Conditioning in 1968, only large screened windows and black oscillating fans humming back and forth to the screech and bang of the swinging screen doors as customers came and went. In the winter the only real heat was a large brick fireplace and an Army pot belly stove that customers fed to keep warm. A true community bar where generations learned to play pool and behave themselves. Sadly, Tom passed away in 1984 marking the end of an era leaving his children to begin the next chapter. In the summer of 2000, we tore the old Tom’s Tavern down and built the new Island View overlooking the Chesapeake. We miss Tom (and Fran) and the old smoke-filled tavern, the breaking pool balls, the clack of shuffle board quakes, the clattering, ringing pin-ball machines. But we have a lifetime of memories and friendships that can never be torn down and are still with us today and will be forever.
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