Sandy Lofgren-Sargent and Rick Sargent are the new owners of the Wharfside Bar and Grill in Edgewater. The Warfside Bar and Grill sits just off the road on Central Avenue in Edgewater, an area of the county that has dramatically changed since 1940 when the original restaurant opened.
Inside Wharfside Bar and Grill there's modern high-top tables, flat-screen televisions hanging above a gleaming marble bar, an outside patio with umbrellas and tropical flowers. If you fired up your laptop, you could click into the restaurant's free wireless Internet access.
And the regular customers, local residents who have frequented the place for years, know that today's Wharfside is quite a departure from the beer joint it used to be 60 years ago. The restaurant sits just off the road on Central Avenue in Edgewater, an area of the county that the restaurant's patrons and owners said has dramatically changed since 1940 when the original restaurant opened.
The youngest of seven children, Mrs. Lofgren-Sargent grew up in Edgewater and has watched the area transform from a rural hamlet to a growing waterside urban area. She said she and her siblings took turns working at local businesses, with the girls clocking in at the fruit stand while the boys pumped gas at a Texaco across the street.
"Riva Road was a dirt road when my family moved just a road down from the restaurant on Rolling Road," she said. "It too was a dirt road with grass growing up the center."
She said she dreamed of owning the restaurant, which used to be an infamous "beer joint" that her parents warned her to avoid even though her older brother was able to drink there.
"This used to be my playground," she said. "I used to say that one day someone would buy this place and do it justice. When you grow up here and you're a native of the area, you want to preserve it."
Mrs. Lofgren-Sargent, who owns a real estate company and her husband Rick, a builder, purchased the property last year and opened the restaurant Sept. 20. She said the building had been vacant since December 2006 and she saw the For Sale sign as a chance to cash in on her dream. The couple decided to keep the name Wharfside, given by previous owner Donna Thompson.
Over the years, the business has become an institution for the local population, a place where people can walk through the door, eat a good meal and chat with other locals, Mrs. Lofgren-Sargent said.
"It doesn't matter what class of people you are, we all wear the same boat shoes," she said. "It's like a reunion every time I walk in here."
Mr. and Mrs. Sargent said they received an warm reaction from the community when they decided to reopen the business, in spite of some criticism for making such a bold financial move in shaky economic times.
"Everybody thought we were crazy," she said.
But Mr. Sargent said those customers who had been frequenting the establishment for years told the couple they were "so glad" they decided to open.
Mrs. Lofgren-Sargent said the economy has derailed some of their plans, but still the restaurant is growing and earning.
"On Sundays, we do a couple hundred breakfasts and we're only open until 1 p.m.," she said.
She said her background and relationships in the area have helped bolster the restaurant's business.
"It's consistency and it's reputation and it's being a native of the area," she said. "We're hands-on and part of the team, we're not spectators."
Mr. Sargent said he and his wife know many of their customers by name and they run the gamut "from the old timers to the young 20s," he said.
When the restaurant opened in 1940, then-owner Lillian Sames named it The Countryside Inn, serving home-cooked comfort food during the day and slinging beers at night. Ms. Sames married and became Mrs. Cook, working the business with her husband. Soon, locals began referring to the neighborhood watering hole as Cookie's and it developed a "rowdy" reputation: a beer joint filled with smoke and a place for roughnecks to drink, dance and party, said Jimmy Lee, a regular patron and former employee.
"It used to be a honky tonk and get a little rowdy," he said. "It was a meeting place. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, we would all sit at the money table and if you sat at the table with the local boys, you had to be able to buy everyone a round."
As Mr. Lee nursed a Budweiser at Wharfside's bar, he recounted story after story about the building, its patrons and its history. He recalled Mrs. Cook sitting in a corner chair each night, riddled with arthritis. He remembers when the Cooks sold the Countryside Inn to "Pee Wee" Frazier and the place became known as Pee Wee's, but the atmosphere remained the same.
Mrs. Lofgren-Sargent said Roy Clark, a country music singer and the star of the variety show Hee Haw, lived in Davidsonville and used to frequent the restaurant to drink beer and listen to music. She said his sister still comes in to eat and visit.
Mrs. Lofgren-Sargent also said Wharfside continues to succeed because people appreciate the history and character.
"We are pleased and humbled to carry on with an establishment that has been an icon in our community since 1940. We are able to take a trip down memory lane every time we walk through the door," she said. "It is a privilege to see our friends and neighbors and to be a part of their lives. After all, those were the good old days but we hope to create more."
