Coming soon downtown: Baile's Cask & Kettle, with bagels, pub grub and beer brewed on-site

At Baile Cask & Kettle, you can soon grab a bagel with your breakfast brew — then come back for pub fare and another brew after work.

In a few weeks, owners Christopher and Kerry Keene hope to open the much-anticipated bagel shop and American-Irish pub in the Updegraff building at 53 W. Washington St. in downtown Hagerstown. This week, they cleared a significant step as the Washington County Board of License Commissioners approved a limited beer, wine and liquor license for the pub.

The Keenes will be brewing their own beer on site, and they've designed the pub so you can watch that, too.

But while you wait for the opening date announcement, we're going to give you a little preview:

It's a family affair at Baile Cask & Kettle

Chris Keene told The Herald-Mail his whole family is involved in the business — his brother Kerry is the brewmaster, and mom Christine is in charge of the menu.

"My mother's involved. My brother's involved. My wife's involved, my mother-in-law and I," Keene said, "so yeah, we're all involved. We're knee deep into it. And hoping to make a change downtown."

They want the bagel shop to be kid-friendly, so they've invested in some vintage gaming machines and an old-fashioned popcorn popper.

"We've tried to make decisions that kind of not only make sense to us, but you know that will make sense to the community."

The whole family has been involved in the food-service industry, including his late father — whose Navy portrait will hang prominently on a "service wall" up front — which leads to the next point.

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It's a new business with an eye on history

The pub and bagel shop will occupy the ground floor of the newly renovated Updegraff building (or more colloquially known as the former "Potomac Bead building"), which has been redeveloped by Northern Virginia-based Blackthorn Capital Partners. The Blackthorn team of Tony and Hank Brown have attempted to merge the building's vintage elements with modern needs and amenities, preserving architectural features wherever possible.

That will be evident at Baile's. The space originally served as a department store marketing, among other things, the Updegraff hats and gloves that were manufactured in the floors above — where there now are 21 new upscale apartments.

The pressed-metal ceiling, a fireplace, woodwork and exposed brick walls have been preserved at Baile's. The Browns even acquired a sketch of the original store (you can see it at the Blackthorn website) that inspired the light fixtures in Baile's, designed to match the original gaslights that illuminated the store.

The Keenes have hopped happily onto that bandwagon, with antique bar furniture and an extraordinarily preserved grain bin for storing and displaying "merch."

You'll even get to see a little of Updegraff's original handiwork — Keene managed to find and purchase a pair of authentic, Updegraff brand cycling gauntlets. And you'll know they're genuine Updegraffs by the small but distinguishing Updegraff buttons on the side.

Keene plans to frame and display them in Baile's.

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You can get right into the thick of it

In the pub area, you'll of course find the antique bar. But you can also perch at a separate, sort of spectator's bar to watch the brewers at work — and even ask about what they're doing.

Outside, right on Hatter's Plaza on the Cultural Trail, there will be about a dozen tables for patrons — perfect, the Keenes hope, for attracting post-game customers during the remainder of the Flying Boxcars' season at Meritus Park.

You can also watch the brewing process from out there, as large windows are in place to display all the equipment.

Yes, they're still planning to come to Williamsport, too

The license Baile's obtained last week will permit the Keenes to brew their beer for the pub only — but looking ahead, they've been working with Port 44, a group of women developers focused on Williamsport, to open a second location there that will give them a larger brewing operation.

But for now, the Keenes' priority has been to get the Hagerstown pub open, as development incentives they received from the city of Hagerstown have a deadline.

Nevertheless, "we're very much thinking kind of 'out,' not what's right in front of us. We're thinking of what we can be in five or 10 years," he said, and that includes major plans for Williamsport.

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They picked us over … Frederick County!

"We moved from Urbana, Ohio, we had the plan to do a brewery and a bagel place. And the initial plan was in Urbana."

But they bought a farm in Boonsboro (where they grow, you guessed it, hops) — and after hearing from Leslie Hart, the recently retired county agriculture business specialist, they saw a different potential.

"And we just kind of decided Washington County was where we're gonna end up," Keene said.

It's an 'American-Irish' pub

Plan to catch a soccer or rugby game at Baile's, but you'll find entertainment to fit local tastes as well.

"I don't like calling it an Irish pub," Keene told the liquor board. "I call it more of an 'American-Irish' pub. And for that we want to really be cognizant not only of what we all love — baseball, football, all that, but also soccer, rugby."

You'll see that in the menu, too.

"The menu in the mornings is pretty cut and dry; it's gonna be bagels, bagel sandwiches and coffee," he said. "But at night, we get into Irish pub food, doing kind of an authentic take on Irish pub food like shepherd's pie."

But don't expect fried foods.

They want to be part of the downtown renaissance

This veteran-owned business (Keene still serves in the National Guard) is being planned around the changes and development in downtown Hagerstown.

"When it's all said and done, what we really want is, you know, people thinking that we're making that change," Keene said. "And, you know, we can do it in Hagerstown; and then we'll help do it in Williamsport. That's the plan."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Baile's Cask & Kettle bringing beer and bagels to downtown Hagerstown