CRISFIELD — A popular waterfront tiki bar and the adjoining Olde Crisfield Crab Steakhouse that have been closed since last summer are now listed for sale at $1.25 million, putting to rest numerous rumors about its future.
“As of the 2012 season, Old Crisfield is closed and for sale. Thank you for your patronage and support,” the restaurant’s website: announced.
Tillie Doyle, a real estate broker with Tull Price in Crisfield, also spread the word on Facebook this week.
“I just put it out there in case anyone wants to buy it,” she said Tuesday. “I could use part of that commission.”
Doyle said the listing agent is from a Coldwell Banker office in Annapolis., and the property is not in the multiple listings for the lower Eastern Shore.
Crisfield residents have been speculating for months about the property, particularly the tiki bar, which was a popular gathering spot on summer evenings.
A few months ago, patrons of the tiki bar launched a Save the Crisfield Tiki campaign on Facebook.
“Unless the community, and all the lovers of our little slice of heaven come forth and show their support, and promise, we will just have a colorful building with palm trees on the water, with a big for sale sign where our tiki bar used to be,” someone wrote.
The page has since been removed from Facebook.
Crisfield Mayor Percy Purnell said the restaurant’s owner, Jerry Hardesty, left a voice mail message about a month ago saying he had renewed his liquor and trader’s licenses and might open up this summer.
Since then, Purnell said he had not heard from Hardesty.
The closing leaves another empty restaurant building in Crisfield. The former Captain’s Galley also has been sitting vacant for a long time.
“It’s troubling, but I can’t fix it,” Purnell said. “It’s not in my area of expertise.”
Olde Crisfield Crab Steakhouse opened after the former Side Street Seafood and adjoining Capt. Bud’s Tiki Bar on 10th Street were purchased by Hardesty from Sotirios “Sam” Lambrou in 2009.
Hardesty is the owner of Middleton Tavern and O’Brien’s Oyster Bar in downtown Annapolis.
Around the same time, city officials used part of a $70,000 Community Legacy grant from the state to make streetscape improvements in front of the restaurant on 10th Street.