Pasadena Resident Opens The Birdcage Restaurant On Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard In Glen Burnie

Ed Cashen is North County.

He graduated from Glen Burnie High School in 1975 and has spent the past 30 years residing in Pasadena. His grandparents were longtime Linthicum residents, and his father spent many years living in Ferndale.

When Cashen was 11 years old, he swept and mopped floors and learned to make shrimp salad and crab cakes at his great-uncle’s restaurant, The Wheel Inn, in Pasadena. A decade later, Cashen ran the kitchen at the same uncle’s next endeavor, The Cash Inn, in Orchard Beach. “I was always kind of in a restaurant somewhere,” he said. “I like the business and I like to meet new people.”

Now in his late 50s, Cashen hopes to cash in on Baltimore’s loyalty for the Ravens and Orioles that, as of the past few seasons, have given sports-hungry Baltimoreans exactly the sustenance they crave. The Ravens won a Super Bowl following the 2012 season and the Orioles have become perennial playoff contenders in Major League Baseball.

Cashen opened The Birdcage, a family restaurant and sports bar at 7089 Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard in Glen Burnie, on June 1, and he thinks he has put together the winning combination of food, service, live music and team loyalty.

“We’ve got good food; it’s not very expensive, and I think it’s a nice place to hang out,” Cashen said. “I really wanted to do something that encompassed the Orioles and the Ravens because that’s our main thing [in Baltimore].”

The Birdcage boasts several televisions adorning the walls, framed jerseys signed by Baltimore’s sports royalty, pool tables and a furniture color scheme based on the Orioles’ and Ravens’ team colors.

Fans of the NFL — even those who support the Steelers, Browns and Bengals — can watch any football game at The Birdcage via the NFL Sunday Ticket. Orioles fans, happy that the team is perched in first place in the AL East, can watch all locally and nationally televised games at The Birdcage. “The goal is to stay really tied to the community,” Cashen said. “Thank goodness the Orioles are playing really well.”

Food is really what keeps clientele coming back, according to Cashen. He personally is a fan of his crab tots — classic tater tots smothered in his homemade crab dip — and two versions of Maryland crab soup, which he guessed would soon end up entered in a local competition. Each Tuesday, patrons can enjoy “Just Wingin’ It Night” with deals on The Birdcage’s wings, complete with more than 200 sauce combinations. “I don’t know anyplace else that does that,” Cashen said.

The Birdcage is a new concept for Cashen, but its location is very familiar to the former sales and marketing manager. For the past six years, he was co-owner of Buffalo Wings and Beer, a locally franchised establishment with which Cashen said he never really felt comfortable. Much of Cashen’s clientele from Buffalo Wings and Beer remained loyal to The Birdcage, and Cashen said he feels his newest venture will be successful because “everything works.”

“This place is like a little Cheers — we have all our regulars and everybody knows each other,” Cashen said. “We are at a place now where people know what to expect. They come here because they know the food is good and they’re not going to pay an arm and a leg.”

For more information on The Birdcage, visit www.thebirdcage.us or call 410-760-2337.