A Hampden Tradition Since 1930
The Hampden business known as “Zissimos’ Bar” was established in 1930 by Athanasios (Atha) Zissimopoulos. Atha was born in 1890, in the town of Simos, Nafpactias, Greece, but left his hometown almost twenty years later to travel to America. As a steerage passenger on the vessel Giulia, he sailed from Patras on April 11, 1907, to the Port of New York, arriving on May 3, 1907. Although Atha had planned to visit an Uncle in Chicago, he instead traveled to Paterson, New Jersey. With no money for a room, Atha would hide under park benches, hoping to sleep undisturbed. Luckily, a police officer spotted him and after hearing his story, took Atha to a friend’s bar and asked him to give Atha a job. Starting out as a busboy, Atha tried to learn all he could about the bar and restaurant business. While working in Paterson, New Jersey, Atha met and married Eva Rege, who worked as a pianist in the local theater. After saving enough money, they moved to Baltimore in 1914 to start their own bar and restaurant business.
The first restaurant was “Coney Island Café” at 413 E. Baltimore Street which had to be closed after eighteen months due to a lack of business. While they saved their money to buy another restaurant, Atha was forced to take on various jobs. It was during this time that son William and daughters Alma and Anna were conceived. Son Louis would come later. Then, on July 7, 1930, for a price of $13,000, Atha and Eva purchased the property known as 1023 W. 36th Street. This location was a perfect spot for the Zissimos family since most of the neighbors on the block had emigrated from either Greece or Russia. Additionally, millwork was plentiful in Hampden which meant the outlook for business was great. Soon the door of Zissimos’ Bar was opened and the family settled into their three-bedroom apartment upstairs.
Tom died on July 15, 1955, from complications of an appendectomy. Eva then became the owner of the Land and Building. The two brothers, William and Louis, became equal owners in the Business and worked together until 1961 when Louis sold his share to William and his wife, Loma. After Eva died in 1972, Louis, as Executor of her estate, rented the upstairs apartment to several tenants to help defray costs. When the last renters, a family of Rumanian gypsies, destroyed the apartment in 1975, they were evicted. In June of 1975, Louis sold the Property to Everett L. and Catherine E. Ashby. In March 1979, William and Loma Zissimos sold the Business known as Zissimos’ Bar to James H. Standiford, II. Mr. Standiford also made an acceptable offer to the Ashbys and became the owner of the Property and the Business. Problems followed and on October 22, 1980, the Baltimore City Circuit Court acting as the United States Tax Court in a foreclosure proceeding, transferred equal shares of the Property and Business to Nicholas P. (Nick) Zissimos, a nephew of Atha, and his wife Joan. On February 3, 1982, Nick sold the Property and Business to a Limited Liability Company (LLC) known as The Hampden Taproom which operated under that name until it was sold back to Nick and Joan Zissimos on June 30, 1987. In December 2004, Geli Ioannou and his wife JoAnn, a great-niece of Atha, purchased the Bar, which they continue to operate to this day.
In 1922, Atha was issued his Certificate of Naturalization which included authorization to change his name to Atha Zissimos. To people who knew him, though, he was already being called Mr. Tom or Tom. Tom had many friends and acquaintances involved in Baltimore politics and when he decided to campaign for various political offices, his business provided him with a natural platform for speaking to his friends and neighbors. The front of the Bar had a large picture window that opened to the street. Just inside the window, Tom had put his grill where he sold hamburgers and hotdogs to passersby. Sometime later when the Zissimos brothers, William and Louis, were running the Bar, they replaced the window with a solid pane. This window became a hazard, however, as the brothers would use it as a passageway to throw out rowdy patrons. After having to replace the glass several times, the space was bricked up with the exception of a much smaller window which remains in place today.
An interesting part of the Zissimos’ Bar history is the fact that Eva’s sister, Lolly Cristillo, was the mother of the famous comedian, Lou Costello. Lou often came to Baltimore with his mother; and, as early as 14, performed amusing stunts in the Bar. Lou started his career in burlesque and after teaming with Bud Abbott, clowned in vaudeville, nightclubs, movies, stage, radio, and TV. Abbot and Costello are probably best remembered for their classic comedy routine “Who’s on First”. During his career, Lou visited his Aunt Eva several times and while she fixed his favorite meal in her apartment upstairs he would perform in the Bar. According to Eva, Lou would hand out autographed dollar bills to the kids who watched his stunts. Once he even performed on the Hippodrome stage with Leiloni Pardue, Tom and Eva’s 4-year-old granddaughter, who sang popular songs of the day. The last time Lou Costello came to visit was in 1957 when he was in town to perform at President Eisenhower’s 2nd inauguration. Lou Costello was a much-loved and successful comedian who died in 1959 at the age of 53.
The Zissimos Grandchildren are pleased to present this 'History', a culmination of family stories as we know them, to the current owners of Zissimos’ Bar and to its many patrons. We are grateful to have had this opportunity and would like to extend our sincerest best wishes for the continued success of this iconic destination.
-The Zissimos Grandchildren
The Hampden historic district is an approximately four hundred-acre residential and commercial area initially created to support the industrial activities of the state's largest nineteenth-century textile milling area. Generally bounded by Jones Falls on the west and south, 40th Street on the North, and Wyman Park on the east, the community is distinguished by its sitting on various high ridges that overlook the Jones Falls Valley. Here, in the valley, a group of mill-owning families took advantage of the rushing waters of the Jones Falls to establish several neighboring mill villages beginning in the mid-1830s. Initially, these mill owners provided housing near the mills for their workers and by the end of the Civil War several distinct villages had sprung up in the valley. Its early, surviving stone and frame mill housing, dating from the late 1830s to mid-1860s, distinguishes this area of Hampden. In the 1970s development spread east to the crest of the hill, on Falls to Keswick Roads, where local developers put up single, paired, and rows of frame and brick housing. By the 1890s population, increases led to the building out of the area with traditional city row house types. Building types also include commercial structures and churches.
The Hampden historic district is significant for providing a largely intact picture of the development of a self-sufficient working-class community, based upon a single major industry, which flourished for nearly a century. Its mainly locally-built homes help provide an inventory of major types of vernacular, working-class housing built in mid-nineteenth century America. In 1899 this relatively small geographical area produced more cotton duck than the combined output of any other milling centers in the United States. Examples of company-built mill housing date from the late 1830s into the 1880s and offer an in-depth look at forms of worker house design that relate to early company towns elsewhere in the U.S.. Operating at their peak in the 1890s, the Hampden and Woodberry mills boasted some 4,000 employees. By this time company-built housing could no longer provide for the community's needs and a host of local builders and investors stepped forward to fill the void. By the later 1870s and the rapid expansion of mills, a variety of local builders and investors took over the job of supplying reasonably priced, practical, yet still stylish homes for the always-growing number of mill workers. It was not really until the late 1890s that the blocks of Hampden located to the east of Falls Road began to fill up and that the commercial center of town, along 36th Street, began to take on an urban aspect. From this point on the development of Hampden followed urban models and was influenced by the stylistic forms of Baltimore City architecture. All information on this page is from the City of Baltimore website.
There's lots to do in Hampden & we can keep you busy from morning to night!