Business

Is there a joke about a banker walking into a comedy club? If so, Irwin Weinstein, owner of Give a Hoot Comedy Club in Gaithersburg, probably wrote it. Weinstein, who’s day job is as a business banker at SECU, partnered with comedian and friend Ken Watter (who happens to be an accountant) to open Give a Hoot in late 2022. The club is the first and only comedy club in Montgomery County, and it operates in partnership with La Mexicana restaurant with shows every Friday and Saturday with occasional Sunday and weeknight shows.

The Maryland Public Service Commission has suspended the license of SunSea Energy LLC, a New Jersey-based retail energy supplier, claiming the company has racked up numerous violations in its dealings with gas and electric customers in the state. The PSC, the regulator of energy suppliers and utilities, on Friday said that SunSea must immediately cease enrolling new customers in Maryland and stop marketing.

The minds behind Silver Spring’s Quarry House Tavern are getting ready to open Charley Prime Foods, a steak-forward American bistro this month at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg. Longtime business partners and Quarry House Tavern owners Jackie Greenbaum and Gordon Banks aim to recreate the lively bar scene they have in Silver Spring in Gaithersburg.

Under Armour Inc.’s most recognizable athlete, former NBA MVP Steph Curry, is cashing in on his new long-term partnership with the company in the form of millions of shares of Under Armour stock. The Baltimore-based athletic apparel company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday that it is giving a trust associated with Curry $75 million worth of shares of Class C common stock (NYSE: UA), which have no voting power.

Maryland should see a boost in direct public funding toward manufacturing and lab space later this year as Gov. Wes Moore said he plans to sign a bill that will help build out the state’s science and technology industries through a new fund. Prior to his keynote speech at the TechStars Equitech Demo Day this week, Moore said he planned to sign Senate Bill 549, or House Bill 552, “as soon as it’s on my desk,” which would authorize the creation of the “Build Our Future” grant program to fund infrastructure projects in a variety of technological fields.

News that Diageo North America, the parent company of Guinness, will lay off around 100 workers and shut down the Maryland plant that manufactures Baltimore Blonde and other beverage brands stunned the local brewing scene. Left in doubt is the future of Baltimore Blonde — the lager with a logo that includes a Maryland flag — that Guinness began brewing in Relay in 2017 and has since become a popular offering everywhere from Camden Yards to local stores.

A new facility for so-called “living funerals” complete with a catering hall and bar is being developed at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens as the ageless task of mourning adapts for the 21st century. The funeral home is in the works for a corner of the 70-acre cemetery at 200 E. Padonia Road in Timonium, said John O. “Jack” Mitchell IV, president of the Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, which has owned the site that also has a pet cemetery and cremation center since 2008.

Maryland’s environmental agency filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Fleischmann’s Vinegar over allegations that its North Baltimore plant has discharged unpermitted pollutants into the Jones Falls stream. The state’s lawsuit comes a day after Blue Water Baltimore, the local environmental nonprofit, also sued Fleischmann’s and its parent company headquartered in Ireland, Kerry, Inc., in federal court for failing to meet requirements under its environmental permit with the state and for violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act.