Postcards: Sunk Costs at the Off Track Betting

Well, that was a bad time.

Dear Fellow Expat:

Nick’s Grandstand is a crab house/seafood restaurant in the middle of a horse track.

It’s the kind of place you'd venture into if you were feeling a bit adventurous, like when the world is ending and you need to make a bet.

There’s an “Off-Track-Betting” on the location.

It’s chock full of men foaming at the mouth - holes in their Walmart sweatpants - swearing at thoroughbreds through cracked flat-screen televisions.

The type of crowd that would eat tin cans or discarded lottery tickets if you bribed them.

In what is one of the most confounding uses of real estate, Timonium, Maryland, has a massive horse racing track that’s only used for a week each year during the state fair.

Why does this exist?

To boost the cash flow of this very expensive real estate, they opened Nick’s and an OTB location a few years ago. It has the feel that people receive a fine if they smile in there. Nobody’s happy.

Well… as you know, I like blue crabs.

So, I went there tonight since it’s just…