A vacant storefront on Bel Air's Main Street is getting new life as Brookside Market, the Phoenix, Maryland restaurant known for brick-oven pizzas and Italian cold cuts, builds out a second location at 126 North Main Street. The project transforms a long-closed Gino's Burgers site into an 83-seat restaurant anchored at the corner of Main and Bond Streets, with construction underway and an opening targeted before the end of 2026.
According to WhatNow, the storefront is now under construction, and architectural firm ADW-Architectural Design Works has described it as coming to Main Street Bel Air soon. The Bel Air Planning Commission approved the site, landscape, and special development plans for the address in February, according to the Town of Bel Air, clearing the way for the vacant downtown property's conversion into a dual-street-facing eatery. That approval came with conditions, including parcel consolidation or a development agreement and a finalized landscape plan before the project can move to final sign-off.
From Bank Building to 83-Seat Dining Room
The approved plans call for expanding the existing 3,694-square-foot building by 1,070 square feet to reach 4,764 square feet total, per the town's filings. That expansion makes room for a 59-seat interior dining area plus a 494-square-foot outdoor patio with 24 seats, bringing total seating to 83, along with 41 on-site parking spaces and back-of-house storage, refrigeration, and office space. The added square footage also includes dedicated walk-in freezer and storage capacity meant to support high-volume kitchen operations, the municipal filings note.
Shipping and receiving operations will be tucked along the building's south elevation, screened by heavy foliage, according to the same filings. The site also carries a permanent title deed covenant requiring owner Casey Brooks and any future successors to keep a historic stone property line marker on the Main Street side of the building undisturbed in perpetuity. The site formerly housed a Gino's Burgers.
Noise Rules Will Govern the Outdoor Patio
Because the project includes outdoor dining, it falls under Bel Air Town Code Section 165-53.1, which bars amplified music, public address systems, and live entertainment on the seasonal patio between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. daily, and prohibits an outdoor bar altogether, per the town's code. Nearby residents voiced support for revitalizing the site during public hearings while emphasizing the need for proper trash screening and noise controls, according to the town's records. The property had also accumulated two town zoning violations, for excess recycling containers and missing right-of-way landscape buffers, before 126 NorthMain, LLC purchased it for redevelopment; municipal planners confirmed the recycling issue was resolved ahead of preliminary site approval.
A Flagship Formula Heading South
Brookside Market's roots trace back to March 2018, when owner Casey Brooks opened the original location in Phoenix, Maryland, at 14232 Jarrettsville Pike after running Casey's Bar & Restaurant in Parkville for a decade, according to Voyage Baltimore. At a February planning commission hearing, Brooks told officials the Bel Air expansion follows a copy and paste model of that flagship, bringing the same American-driven menu with Italian influences, brick-oven pizzas, and burgers south to Harford County.
The Phoenix location, which sells tens of thousands of Italian cold cut sandwiches annually and names its brick-oven pizzas after Brooks's children, operates under a Class B Beer, Wine, and Liquor license issued by Baltimore County and employs more than 50 workers, per the county's Board of Liquor License Commissioners. The business also runs off-site mobile catering through a food truck and a mobile brick-oven pizza unit, and it established a nonprofit, the Heart of Gold Foundation, to support community events.
A Prime Spot in Downtown Bel Air
The new location sits within Bel Air's B-2 Central Business District, directly across from the Historical Society of Harford County and the Harford County Department of Community Services, placing the restaurant at the center of downtown's commercial corridor. No exact opening date has been set, but Brookside's own website confirms a 2026 debut, and WhatNow reports the goal remains to open before the year is out.
