Restaurant Exodus Hits Crime-Ridden Baltimore City

Another long-standing restaurant in one of Baltimore City’s popular bar districts is closing its doors, marking another casualty in the city’s imploding hospitality scene. While the farewell messages from these establishments offer little explanation for their abrupt departures, the broader message has been very clear: Years of lawlessness, gang violence resembling a war zone, carjackings, out-of-control youth, high taxes, and deteriorating public safety have taken a toll on business owners. Meanwhile, City Hall—under far-left Democratic control—continues marching the metro into economic demise as the city’s population tumbles to a century-low.

The latest restaurant that called it quits is Banditos Tacos & Tequila in Federal Hill. 

“Over the past 14 years, Banditos has become a neighborhood staple in Federal Hill and Baltimore City,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook earlier this week, adding, ”Banditos Federal Hill allowed us the opportunity to create an amazing brand that has grown to multiple locations, something we could not have done without YOU!” 

According to the restaurant, the Federal Hill location will be sold, and GameOn Bar+ Arcade will be moving into the space “in the near future.”

Banditos hedged its bets with locations outside the city, including in Towson, Columbia, and White Marsh, Maryland, and in Fairfax, Virginia. 

The restaurant did not mention the exact reasons for abruptly exiting the city, but a trend has become evident in recent months: 

• Mother’s Grille shuttered its Federal Hill location in January after nearly three decades in business. 

• The Riptide seafood restaurant in Fed Hill also closed up in January. 

• Across the Inner Harbor, Bondhouse Kitchen in Fells Point halted operations in January. 

The abrupt exit of these restaurants—some of whose operators are now focusing on locations in surrounding counties—follows more than a decade of far-left activism by social justice warriors in control of City Hall who have prioritized a woke agenda instead of actually governing the city like effective managers.

The result of failed leadership over the last 15 years has accelerated business exodus and population collapse. 

While violent crime may have declined last year, many residents have lost patience with the rudderless Democratic Party and its failed social justice policies, which have ultimately backfired into a firey mess.