One-Eyed Mike's to close after more than 20 years in Fells Point

One-Eyed Mike’s closed at the end of April, ending a more than 20-year run on South Bond Street and stripping Fells Point of another bar that helped define its independent waterfront character. For many regulars, the loss was not just a shuttered tavern but the disappearance of a neighborhood institution built around seafood, late nights and the Grand Marnier Club.

The Fells Point spot first opened in 2003 and was founded by the late Mike Maraziti, who ran the bar for 13 years before his death on April 1, 2019. What began as a bottle club grew into a signature hangout with about 3,500 members, a setup that helped give the place its own identity in a waterfront district already packed with bars and restaurants. Membership reportedly cost $50 every three months, and the club’s Grand Marnier display became one of the most recognizable parts of the business.

Akbar Vaiya, a Washington, D.C., native and French-trained chef, bought One-Eyed Mike’s in 2016 with his mother, Susan Hormozi, after auction bidding that started at $900,000 and ended at $1.25 million. The business later went up for auction again in 2023, but that sale did not proceed after bids fell short of Vaiya’s price. Earlier reporting also noted that Vaiya was dealing with a Chapter 13 filing tied to a loan dispute, while the restaurant said it remained open and operating at full strength.

The closure lands at a difficult moment for Fells Point, where longtime hospitality names have faced fresh pressure and turnover. The building that housed Bertha’s Mussels until October 2023 was condemned in March 2026, another sign that the neighborhood’s older anchors are getting harder to keep alive. One-Eyed Mike’s had long stood as part of the answer to what made Fells Point a destination in the first place: small independent spots with distinct personalities, not interchangeable concepts.

In announcing the shutdown on social media, the restaurant urged customers to stop in before the final night and said it wanted the last few weeks to be busy and memorable. That appeal reflected what the bar had meant for years on South Bond Street: less a simple place to eat and drink than a marker of the neighborhood’s changing identity.