Photo by Rory Finneren

It looks as if the whispers about the selling of the Brickskeller have developed into a full-on roar. This morning, WTOP reporter Adam Tuss tweeted about a conversation he had with the new incoming owners of the bar — and Megan Merrifield and her husband, who own a few hotels around the city, divulged some of their ideas for what they plan on putting there in its place.

According to Tuss, Merrifield will close on the property on December 23, and will reopen under a new name — Rock Creek — on December 26.

“We are buying the Brickskeller with the intention to keep the regulars that are going there, going there. We will offer them their favorite beers,” Merrifield says.

The bar may get some new hardwood floors and a facelift for the bathrooms.

“We don’t intend to change much. We intend to keep it the institution that it is and just essentially do a facelift,” Merrifield says.

“We are not making it into a brand new, fancy, modern place. We are going to make it the place that it once was.”

Or, as Tuss succinctly put it: “so, in short — you’ll still be able to go to the Brickskeller, even though it won’t be called the Brickskeller…and your bathroom experience will be better.”

This is slightly contradictory to what both Dave Alexander, the current co-owner of Brickskeller, and Bob Tupper, host of the Winter Holidaze Tasting Extravaganzee, alluded to last night in the upstairs bar of the Brickskeller. Alexander called all closing talk “premature,” and Tupper announced further events in January and February that will be “taking place here.” However, as with all deals and transactions, it would make sense to keep business as usual going until all contracts are signed and things are turned over. While the ink may not have dried on the papers, the likelihood of the Brickskeller finally becoming a new beer bar with intent of being the old beer bar but better is quickly becoming a reality.

I, for one, welcome our new beer overlords.