AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
Brought to you by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi
and Lean On Dee Senior Home Care
We traveled the byways last Thursday to Edgewater, Maryland where we stopped at CHAD’S Bar-B-Cue off Route 214. Owned by Chad Sargent, who grew up in Severna Park, the quirky eatery dates back to 1948. Like other motorists, we were initially attracted to the restaurant by the supersized metal chicken out front and by the sign beneath the name “CHAD’S” that was blinking “Dogs Welcome to the Patio”. While common in Europe, few American restaurant’s welcome dogs. We later found out the chicken has a name. He is Marco Pollo.
The chicken in front of Chad’s is named Marco Pollo and definitely attracts attention. 
The electrified sign beneath the restaurant’s name blinks different messages including one welcoming our canine friends.
Entering the restaurant mid-afternoon, we observed several folks having a late lunch while others had arrived just ahead of happy hour. We found owner and executive chef, Chad Sargent, on the patio with his Mastiff Luka, the eatery’s official mascot.
After a final doggie kiss and several licks, Sargent took Luka to his second-floor hangout (where patrons can observe him onscreen through the miracle of security cameras) before chatting with us about CHAD’s long history.
Luka bestows a kiss before going back to his 2nd-floor hangout. The name Luka means “bringer of light”. 
The screen to the left of the bar enables patrons to observe —- while he’s upstairs hanging out or dozing.
“Construction on the building we’re in was started in 1947 and completed in 1948 and it has been some type of restaurant ever since,” Sargent said. “It’s had a series of owners and I don’t know all of them but can go back through four or five. Before I took over, it was owned for five and a half years by my father and stepmother Rick and Sandra Sargent and was called Wharfside Bar & Grill.”
According to her stepson, Sandy grew up in Edgewater on Rolling Road. She used to walk to work at a fruit stand nearby when she was a kid. At the time, the area was sparsely populated so there wasn’t much traffic on Route 214.
“She’d walk by the restaurant each day on her way to work and say to herself, ‘One day I want to own that place,'” Chad Sargent said. “Sure enough, she willed it and it happened.”
He added that, before the Sargents owned it, there was an original but short-lived Wharfside Bar & Grill. Prior to that, it was called Peewee’s and owned by a gentleman who went only by the name Peewee through most of the 1990’s.
“In 2017, Peewee actually came in for a visit and I was able to get a photo with him at the bar,” Sargent said.
Before Peewee’s, Sargent was told, the restaurant was called Cookie’s and owned by a gentleman named Cookie and his wife, Miss Lilian. The couple lived in a house on the Sargents’ property that is now home to The Painted Cottage clothing and gift shop – a building with a history of its own that the family leases to the business owner.
For as long as he can remember, Chad Sargent’s passion has been food. He grew up in Arnold and Severna Park and attended Jones Elementary School in Round Bay and Severna Park Middle School and then spent a year at Severna Park High School before transferring to Boy’s Latin in Baltimore.
Moving to Annapolis in the late 1990’s, he bought a home there in 2001 while honing his culinary and managerial talents in the hospitality industry in Baltimore and Annapolis. He was a chef during the ’90’s and early 2000s and eventually was Executive Chef at Harry Browne’s in Annapolis. Being an executive-level chef tends to be a fast-paced 24/7 job. Like others before him, he became burned out and took a break from the hospitality industry for a while.
Eventually, Sargent discovered he missed the creativity and chaos of the restaurant business – a business for which he’s well-suited. Like others who have attention deficit disorder, Chad enjoys being pulled in different directions so running a restaurant enables him to thrive. He made up his mind that, if the opportunity should arrive to have a place of his own that would make the long hours one must put in worth it, he’d jump at it.
That opportunity arrived in 2013, when he took over the operation of the eatery and renamed it CHAD’S Bar-B-Cue. Long before that, his wife Kristi gifted him a smoker for using at home. Sargent began to experiment with smoking meats Southern style (which was different from what he’d been trained to do as a chef). He’d come up with other dishes that were complementary so, by the time he started CHAD’S, he already had the basic recipes for a menu of casual comfort foods that patrons really liked.
“We’re always testing new dishes and adding them to the menu or making them as specials and, if they’re popular, making them a regular item.”
Patrons particularly like that the restaurant has a lot of character thanks to a number of unique touches. Both Chad and Kristi are music lovers, and, at her suggestion, they mounted album covers on an interior wall.
On other walls there are menu boards, newspaper clippings about the restaurant from the past and quirky little signs.
Though the casually decorated, dog-friendly outdoor patio already existed, Sargent decided to cover it in October of 2019 six months before the COVID pandemic… which proved a huge blessing.
To everyone’s surprise, the pandemic was an absolute boon for CHAD’S. Because the restaurant already had a thriving counter takeout business, Sargent was able to easily shift to a drive-thru operation for 14 months by retooling the patio.
“We took out one of the long tables on the end, took out the bannister and installed a ramp from the back door to a takeout window we had specially built,” he said.
“We were so successful and busy with the drive-thru that we were running out of food and had to close on Tuesdays in order to dedicate that day to being a delivery prep day so we would have food when we reopened on Wednesdays, said Sargent. “The kitchen and waitstaff were having a hard time keeping up as it was. So, it was good having those two days to catch up.”
(CHAD’S continues the practice of remaining closed for dining on Tuesdays, with a lot of paperwork plus delivery and prep work taking place behind closed doors. They are open Wednesdays through Sundays.)
The dine-in business rebounded after COVID restrictions ended but the takeout business remains stronger than it was before the pandemic.
According to its owner, CHAD’S clientele is quite mixed “which is wonderful”. Many are regular customers who are locals but people from Severna Park, Arnold, Annapolis or Crofton drop by from time to time as well… sometimes with their canine companions. They are surprisingly diverse vocationally.
“We’ll have guys come in and sit at the bar covered in grease because they’re mechanics on their lunch break and they’ll be sitting next to a doctor or attorney wearing a suit and a bright white shirt. They’ll all be sitting there chatting and maybe drinking a beer and getting along, Sargent said.
“This is a place where we treat people, when they walk in the door, like family. I always tell my staff to say ‘hello’ as customers walk in and ‘goodbye’ when they leave…and do it sincerely like they mean it. This building has a lot of charm. I think of it as our house – a place for our patrons to feel comfortable.”
Sargent noted that he’s been asked numerous times if he’ll expand the business. His answer is always no because he and his staff like the charm of the building the way it is.
Customers love to sit around the bar which is relatively small and cozy. High-top tables in proximity provide extra seating and extend the feeling of camaraderie.
Happily seated at the bar while we were there were Lori Cebulski and her husband Art, Jaimie Navarro, Bea Veall and Kim Magnussen. While the Cebulskis 8and Navarro had come in for happy hour, Veall and Magnussen were lunchtime regulars who raved about the Nashville Chicken Caesar salad which they order often.
Should you be driving the byways and have a yen for some ribs or Carolina Pulled Pork or simply have an interest in South County history, you’ll be welcome at CHAD’S at 156 West Central Avenue in Edgewater. You can check them out by visiting Chad’s BBQ – Edgewater, Maryland (chadsbbq.com).
Life of Joy Day on Saturday, June 10 at The Church at Severn Run
The third annual Life of Joy Day will be held Saturday, June 10 from 11 am till 3 pm at The Church at Severn Run, 8187 Telegraph Road in Severn. There will be music, vendors, a scavenger hunt, kickball and other fun activities for the whole family. All proceeds will support the Life of Joy Foundation which helps spread awareness for holistic mental health and suicide prevention. For more information, visit Life of Joy Foundation, Inc..
Cabaret Performance & Silent Auction to Benefit SPAN at Boone Station Hall
Once again actress/singer Laurette Hankins-O’Connell is donating her time and talents to create a cabaret performance to benefit SPAN, Inc. Called ” Musicals, Movies and Moxie—Oh My!”, the performance will take place at Boone Station Hall at 623 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard on Saturday, June 17 at 7 pm. Pianist Anita O’Connor will accompany Hankins-O’Connell and sing several duets with her. The show is an “exuberant and sometimes irreverent” salute to a wide array of Broadway and movie musicals from six decades.
Tickets are $25 with 100 percent of the net proceeds going to support SPAN. Tickets must be purchased in advance via credit card, PayPal or a check sent to SPAN at 400 Benfield Rd, Severna Park, MD 21146. For additional information, visit SPAN Serving People Across Neighborhoods (spanhelps.org).
The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center.)
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.
