Say it Ain't So, Johnny?

After 91 years the last remaining Polock Johnny's is closing its doors for the last time on Saturday, December 15th.  
 
For the locals that know the impact that this iconic Mecca of Polish sausages & lemonade  has had on Baltimore over the past century, I share your pain, it even exceeds the heartburn from the No. 1 with sauce & onions.   

The closing is coming as a result of the landlords decision to expand the property and not renew the lease to Polock Johnny's.  Though there are plans to reopen in a new location, which has yet to be determined, it will not have the same aged character of this landmark. The tin plated back wall, the hand painted mirror and the random animated characters painted on the exterior walls cannot be properly relocated to another spot.  These are items which simply evolved over decades and generations of business at the same location and they will become little more than a fond memory to those of us who where blessed to have enjoyed this little hidden gem over the years.  For those unfamiliar; you have now idea what you have missed in the simplistic pleasures of a No. 1 with sauce & onions and a lemonade.

I may be getting sentimental here, but I remember scraping together pocket change as a kid and riding my bike to the nearest Polock Johnny's, at the time located on Liberty Road to order a No. 1 with sauce & onions and a lemonade.  I do hope to see the rebirth of Polock Johnny's somewhere in the west Baltimore area and pray it doesn't go the way of Little Hut Hamburgers and Jack's of Lombard Street.

Goodbye, old friend.  You will be missed.