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Iconic Shake And Bake Family Fun Center Re-Opens After Renovation

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A decades-old Baltimore icon has re-opened on Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore.

The neighborhood roller rink and bowling alley was closed last summer. But now, Pat Warren reports, Shake and Bake is back.

It has a brand new look and is expected to bring new energy to the neighborhood.

"When I shut it down you would have thought I shut down heaven," Mayor Catherine Pugh said Friday. But "the roof was falling in, the floor was buckled, you were hard-pressed to find matching skates in here."

But thanks to a $300,000 upgrade, the floors are new and the heating and AC systems are in top shape.

Touring the new renovation with the mayor Friday was former Baltimore Colt and family center founder, Glenn "Shake and Bake" Doughty.

"What excited me most is to be able to see Mayor Pugh come in and say, 'We gotta regroup. We need to go ahead and upgrade this because this can be a world-class facility,'" Doughty said. "And it is a world class facility, ya'll."

Doughty first opened the center in 1983 and two years later he sold it to the city. There have been financial challenges along the way, but the purpose has remained the same.

"One of the things that I love about what Shake and Bake represents, it's like an oasis within some challenges in the neighborhood," says Doughty. "But people and families can come here and enjoy quiet, enjoyable recreation and shake and bake for days."

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