Inside The Fountain, 21st century troubles slip away. Forget the woes of the modern world, the smartphone notifications, and saddle up to the lunch counter.

Post up on a vinyl barstool, marvel at the jukebox — a 1946 original — and let Chuck Jacobs, the resident soda jerk, do the talking.

“It’s all about the dismount,” said Jacobs, cradling an old-school glass with finesse as chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream swirled. “You pull it off, so it doesn’t just splatter. A lot of employees wear a milkshake on their first day.”

Jacobs has been manning The Fountain — equal parts diner and soda fountain, plus a bourbon bar to boot — since the trip down memory lane opened inside Dundalk’s Drug City Pharmacy in 2020.

“I always try to do the whipped cream like Barb Simpson’s hair,” he added.

The Fountain serves homemade delicatessen fare, shakes, floats, coffee and made-to-order sodas. Think lime Rickeys, egg creams and phosphates — that’s fruit syrup, carbonated water and phosphate acid for the uninitiated — along with classics such as cherry cola, root beer, almond smash and some old-timers’ favorite, a chocolate a-cream.

“If Yoo-hoo could be a soda, that’s it,” Jacobs said by way of explanation.

The retro joint is also a bourbon bar whipping up old-fashioneds, hard seltzers, boozy milkshakes and hard-to-come-by pours for customers of age.

Nearing lunchtime on a recent Thursday morning, Melanie Seymour and her brother, Ryan Silva, visiting from D.C., popped in for a quick bite.

“It’s so special,” said Seymour, who owns the Hard Yacht Cafe a few miles away. “Chuck just makes you feel like you’re right at home.”

History of The Fountain

Jacobs’ boss, George “Doc George” Fotis, took over Drug City, a North Point Road staple since 1954, a decade ago.

Fotis bought the store from its founder, Harry “Doc Harry” Lichtman, who built the small pharmacy into a massive business complete with a liquor store, post office and even notary services.

Before Lichtman bought the building, the spot where The Fountain sits was a barbershop that Jacobs remembers tagging along to with his dad as men waiting for trims chain-smoked in reclining chairs.

Over the decades, The Fountain’s storefront had stints as a tanning salon and a video and game rental store. When Fotis bought Drug City, he wanted to do something different with the space.

A bourbon connoisseur with a penchant for nostalgia, Fotis asked his friend, Jacobs, who lost his corporate job during the pandemic, to check out the space he was remodeling and consider managing The Fountain for a little while.

But Jacobs fell in love.

“When you see a senior citizen’s face light up,” Jacobs said, “because they say, ‘Chuck, I used to take the streetcar down Dundalk Avenue as a kid, and I would get off at one of my stops and there was a little pharmacy I’d run into and get a phosphate lime. It was great!’ And I said, ‘I can make that for you!’ ‘You can!?’ Like, it’s pretty awesome.”

Secret Pour Society

To the side of The Fountain’s entrance, those in the know, with a hankering for more than just a lunch counter pour, can enter an unmarked door in the corner of Drug City Pharmacy.

Up a narrow staircase (made accessible for customers with limited mobility) are hundreds of bottles of whiskey inside a lounge that would rival one at Bruce Wayne’s mansion.

“Doc George does love his toys,” Jacobs said with a laugh, gesturing to a bookcase-turned-secret-door accessible only by key or Fotis’ fingerprint.

Behind that door is another tasting room with more seating and more whiskey.

The Secret Pour Society, The Fountain’s bourbon club, meets regularly upstairs to try new whiskeys, Jacobs said, and it often entertains guests.

“Mike Rowe has come through. Yeah, the ‘Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe. He started his own whiskey called Knobel,” he said. “And, uh, it’s named after his grandfather, and Mike has come in multiple times to have a meet-and-greet with many of his fans.”

Jacobs quickly points to the tasting room’s focal point: a sculpted bronze bust that opens with the push of a button to reveal even more whiskey bottles.

“And when Mike came in and did a podcast up here as well, we decorated this with all Knobel bottles, had lights behind it,” he said.

Nostalgia bonds all

In addition to catering to adult guests, The Fountain does its best to look out for the littlest customers.

Last year the diner partnered with Charlesmont Elementary School to establish an attendance program in which the incentive for spending more days in class included a free kids meal every academic quarter.

“We made a soda just for them called the Charlesmont Roadrunner — it’s a blue Sprite," Jacobs said.

It’s one of the many ways The Fountain draws generations of Southeastern Baltimore County together.

“People s--t on Dundalk all the time. This is one of the positive staples,” Jacobs said. “Not only for me but for everyone that walks through that door and brings their parents that lived here. And there are all the people that worked at Beth[lehem] Steel that closed down now. There’s community here.”

Back at the lunch counter, Jacobs tends to Seymour and her brother, Silva.

The visiting sibling orders a Fireball whiskey and RumChata-spiked cinnamon toast crunch milkshake complete with a Luxardo cherry. (Maraschinos are for the kids, Jacobs said.)

“It’s like you’re teleported back in time,” Silva said. “It’s like it’s easier air to breathe, almost.”