French bistro owners to take over 44-year-old Fells Point scotch bar

When Will Mester heard quirky Fells Point scotch bar Birds of a Feather was closing, he said: “My immediate thought was, ‘I don’t want to see it fall in the wrong hands.’”

So the Le Comptoir du Vin chef and co-owner is buying the building at 1712 Aliceanna St., together with his business partner, Rosemary Liss. They, along with Mester’s wife, pastry chef Millie Powell, plan to reopen the pub “within the year,” he said.

The fare will be similar to what Mester cooks up at Le Comptoir du Vin, which features an ever-changing menu that emphasizes regional French and British fare. “It’ll be what I cook, which is just how I feel at any given time,” Mester said.

Mester declined to say who will be manning the kitchen at Le Comptoir du Vin while he’s at the new concept, but said the Station North restaurant will remain open.

The planned sale was first reported by The Baltimore Sun.

The changing of the guard at Birds of a Feather, which was in business for more than four decades and officially closed last weekend, comes at a time when many other longtime haunts in the neighborhood have found new owners or else shut their doors. Chef Jesse Sandlin took over aging Ann Street watering hole the Wharf Rat and reopened as Bunny’s, while South Broadway’s Bertha’s Mussels closed for good last October.