Dutch Courage

Dutch Courage opened in December 2019 at 2229 N Charles Street in Old Goucher, Baltimore's first gin-centric cocktail bar, from industry veterans Brendan Dorr and Eric Fooy in a 1,500 square foot rowhouse. Dorr's design brief was a small rebellion against the prevailing style: so many cocktail bars are dark and moody, he said before opening, but they wanted somewhere you could have a cocktail at night and actually read the menu. The name is the English idiom for the courage found in a drink, which for a gin bar is about as apt as it gets. Snacks run to pickled vegetables with a herbed buttermilk dip. It serves from 4pm daily, to 1am on Friday and Saturday, with happy hour weekdays from 4pm to 6pm and reservations through OpenTable.

The non-alcoholic list is the reason The Baltimore Banner wrote that this gin haven is redefining the non-alcoholic scene with its creative mocktails — a strong claim about a bar whose entire identity is a spirit. The N.A. Groni is the signature: a botanical gin syrup with orange oil and orange bitters, lengthened with jasmine-flavoured Tortuga kombucha, which supplies the fermented acidity that makes a negroni work without either the gin or the Campari. The First Lady is built on Seedlip Grove 42 with grapefruit, rose water, a sparkling non-alcoholic chardonnay and rosebuds — a genuine three-component drink rather than a spirit-and-mixer. The Emerald Mage works lemon and rosemary against a spiced grenadine. The list rotates, and the bar publishes its menus as PDFs that cannot be read online, so prices and the current roster are best confirmed on arrival. Worth noting for anyone comparing: the same owners' rum bar Pink Flamingo, a mile away in Remington, was a 2026 James Beard semifinalist.