Business partners Charlie Gjerde and Carrie Podles sat at a table while contractors painted, drilled and demoed. They were working to transform Papi’s Tacos, a Mexican chain Gjerde and Podles opened one year ago on the ground floor of an apartment building at 4801 Harford Road. Starting Saturday, if all goes according to plan, the restaurant will become Alexander’s Tavern.

Both hope Alexander’s will prove a better fit than Papi’s, which Gjerde says “just wasn’t a big hit” for the location they’ve come to call “SoHa.” (Their landlord came up with that name as an homage to the address, which is at the intersection of Southern Avenue and Harford Road.)

Like the original Alexander’s Tavern in Fells Point, the eatery will feature an extensive gluten-free menu as well as a few favorites from Papi’s. Podles, who follows a gluten-free diet herself, said she has struggled when going out to eat. “You get sick of just eating a salad wherever you go,” she said. With Alexander’s, she’s proud to say that almost any item can be made without gluten. USA Today readers even voted the Fells Point branch the fourth-best restaurant in the nation for gluten-free dining.

Gjerde and Podles, who are brother- and sister-in-law, own seven concepts in Maryland. But Alexander’s, which they first opened nearly two decades ago, “is my baby,” Podles said. It even shares a name with her son, who was just 6 when it opened.

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Gjerde said the new Alexander’s Tavern, which has an extensive burger menu, could help satisfy customers who miss Hamilton Tavern, which used to be about half a mile north on Harford Road. Like many in Baltimore, Gjerde ate there frequently in its heyday and called it “probably one of the most successful restaurants over here.”

He’ll need that inspiration now, as he and Podles navigate what Gjerde said is the toughest market for running a restaurant in his decades in the business. People approach them to open new eateries all the time, but Gjerde said right now they’re struggling to maintain the properties they already have.

He attributes the tough time to a “perfect storm” of higher costs of goods and payroll coupled with a decrease in sales. “Every week you hear, ‘Oh, you know, Nacho Mama’s is going out of business. Oh, Mother’s is closing,” he said. “I think when we look back at this time, you’re going to see there was a large chunk of restaurants that didn’t make it.”

Meanwhile, the old Hamilton Tavern has remained vacant since it closed several years ago. State Sen. Cory V. McCray introduced special legislation to restore its liquor license after it expired in 2023. At a liquor board hearing last November, attorney Stephan W. Fogleman said the building’s new owners are still planning on opening something there.

To this day, foodies in Baltimore often talk on social media about how much they miss the late Hamilton Tavern, said Tom Creegan, the restaurant’s original owner. “There is a need” for something like it in the neighborhood, he said. “It should be filled.”

Coincidentally, Creegan now works with real estate developer Sam Polakoff, who coined the “SoHa” name and owns the SoHa Union building where Alexander’s Tavern will sit. Rebranded, Polakoff thinks the new restaurant will be a success. After all, he says: “What was [President] Hamilton’s first name again?”