The cut rate goes upscale

I was reading about the protesters ejected from the Professionals in the City Cuban Embassy party and stumbled on an upcoming event in Baltimore - a wine tasting at the "wine underground". The address - Evans Chapel Road - seemed oddly familiar.

And then I realized why - the "Wine Underground" was where my roomates and I bought beer in college before we turned 21. It used to have a different name back then though - Frank's Cut-Rate Liquors.

See, we didn't have any of those fancy fake ID's, so we had to find a pathetic enough liquor store tha would't bother carding us, and Frank's was it. Located in an old house, with 70's era paneling and shag carpet, and cut-rate prices on those college staples, Shaffer Light and Ruble Vodka.

Shopping at Frank's was always an experience. Once, the guy behind the cash register appeared to be sipping on vodka as he rang us up. On one occasion, one of my then-roomates was carded. As he pretended to look for ID that wasn't there, the guy behind the counter noticed his college ID and said that it would do, since he just wanted to make sure he wasn't a cop.

The point-of-sale system at Frank's was also, umm, interesting. It once rang up a 40 and a small bottle of Kahluah, and declared a total in the neighborhood of $750.

I wonder if anything has changed, other than the name and the umm, professinals in the city.