They say the Sip & Bite is best enjoyed while intoxicated. So, after a Friday night of revelry in nearby Fells Point, I stumbled to the 24-hour eatery at the intersection of Boston and Aliceanna streets.
It's after last call and the joint is crowded. A guy at the door directs me to an open stool at the bar, and I amble in and take off my coat. The décor is not quite diner, not quite cafeteria.
Laughter and conversation fill the long, narrow restaurant while, in my stupor, I try to focus on the menu. When I look up, the guy who was two stools down has moved closer.
"Hi, I'm Jason," he begins. Hi, Jason.
He proceeds to tell me about his attempts to break into the Miami fashion scene as a novice photographer.
"You ready to order, honey?" The waitress with short black hair interrupts in a sweet but I-am-really-busy sort of way. "Yeah," I say -- then realize I don't remember a word from the menu. "Um, coffee. And, I still need a minute."
Meanwhile, Jason keeps talking. I don't know if he's drunk, too, but he's rattling on and on and I need merely nod to encourage more and more stories. He says, "Yeah, I had to come back up to Baltimore because my girlfriend got sick." What with all the unwarranted attention he's shown, I note the word "girlfriend" and relax a bit.
A cook flips dinner-plate sized pancakes on the grill behind the bar. I ignore the crowd noise and Jason's rambling to focus on the menu. Of all the choices, about the only way to blow the $10 budget is with a steak entrée or one of the $15 bottles of wine.
Jason tells me about walking in on a model shoot in Miami, "I, like, apologize to all the girls, and the photographer says in his stuffy French accent, 'Non, non. Stay. Ewe 'aff alreadee eenterrupted us.'"
I settle on the Lamb Gyro and Maryland Crab soup. Jason had also ordered the Gyro. "Me too," I say like a schoolboy rummaging through his lunchbox.
The waitress brings the coffee, takes my order and calls me "honey" a half dozen more times.
I reach over Jason for the sugar. Maybe it's my blood-alcohol level, but this is the best-damned coffee I have ever had. Jason tells me about an upcoming rave. "Yeah, some rich kid is throwing it in an attempt to make friends." I think to myself, there are a lot cheaper ways to make a friend -- like eating at the Sip & Bite.
The crab soup is good -- vegetable base with a decent amount of crabmeat. We finish our gyros and fries, while Jason tells me about his fight scene photo shoot. "I hired these two Towson boys and told them to go at it. They did. I climbed this light pole for an overhead shot."
The clock says 3:20 a.m. and the crowd has thinned out just a little. The cooks tirelessly scrape eggs and flip pancakes. Jason stops talking for a minute to sketch an idea he has on a napkin. Those pancakes do look good.
I take a quick break from Jason to talk to a couple a gals at a nearby table -- they complain that Metromix advertised the wrong trivia night at some obscure bar. I apologize and their smiles seem to say they won't hold any grudges.
I return to Jason and to pay my bill. The otherwise friendly waitress gives him a seriously dirty look for tearing his bill in half to use as scrap paper.
It's about 4 a.m. when I finally head for the door. Despite the earache I have as a result of all of Jason's talking, I still leave with a buzzed grin on my face.
Dish: Everything at Sip & Bite looked good. The Lamb Gyro was tasty and the fries satisfactory. The coffee, though, was incredible. Oh, and next time I'm ordering those huge pancakes.
Damage: Coffee, soup and gyro came to $9.40 or $9.60 -- the alcohol was still making things fuzzy when I paid. Just about everything on the menu would get you in under the $10 budget.
Decision: Sip & Bite would be fun anytime, but is especially appropriate if you want to keep the party going after last call. The food was good and the staff was as friendly as possible at 4 a.m. with a dining room full of drunks.
It's after last call and the joint is crowded. A guy at the door directs me to an open stool at the bar, and I amble in and take off my coat. The décor is not quite diner, not quite cafeteria.
Laughter and conversation fill the long, narrow restaurant while, in my stupor, I try to focus on the menu. When I look up, the guy who was two stools down has moved closer.
"Hi, I'm Jason," he begins. Hi, Jason.
He proceeds to tell me about his attempts to break into the Miami fashion scene as a novice photographer.
"You ready to order, honey?" The waitress with short black hair interrupts in a sweet but I-am-really-busy sort of way. "Yeah," I say -- then realize I don't remember a word from the menu. "Um, coffee. And, I still need a minute."
Meanwhile, Jason keeps talking. I don't know if he's drunk, too, but he's rattling on and on and I need merely nod to encourage more and more stories. He says, "Yeah, I had to come back up to Baltimore because my girlfriend got sick." What with all the unwarranted attention he's shown, I note the word "girlfriend" and relax a bit.
A cook flips dinner-plate sized pancakes on the grill behind the bar. I ignore the crowd noise and Jason's rambling to focus on the menu. Of all the choices, about the only way to blow the $10 budget is with a steak entrée or one of the $15 bottles of wine.
Jason tells me about walking in on a model shoot in Miami, "I, like, apologize to all the girls, and the photographer says in his stuffy French accent, 'Non, non. Stay. Ewe 'aff alreadee eenterrupted us.'"
I settle on the Lamb Gyro and Maryland Crab soup. Jason had also ordered the Gyro. "Me too," I say like a schoolboy rummaging through his lunchbox.
The waitress brings the coffee, takes my order and calls me "honey" a half dozen more times.
I reach over Jason for the sugar. Maybe it's my blood-alcohol level, but this is the best-damned coffee I have ever had. Jason tells me about an upcoming rave. "Yeah, some rich kid is throwing it in an attempt to make friends." I think to myself, there are a lot cheaper ways to make a friend -- like eating at the Sip & Bite.
The crab soup is good -- vegetable base with a decent amount of crabmeat. We finish our gyros and fries, while Jason tells me about his fight scene photo shoot. "I hired these two Towson boys and told them to go at it. They did. I climbed this light pole for an overhead shot."
The clock says 3:20 a.m. and the crowd has thinned out just a little. The cooks tirelessly scrape eggs and flip pancakes. Jason stops talking for a minute to sketch an idea he has on a napkin. Those pancakes do look good.
I take a quick break from Jason to talk to a couple a gals at a nearby table -- they complain that Metromix advertised the wrong trivia night at some obscure bar. I apologize and their smiles seem to say they won't hold any grudges.
I return to Jason and to pay my bill. The otherwise friendly waitress gives him a seriously dirty look for tearing his bill in half to use as scrap paper.
It's about 4 a.m. when I finally head for the door. Despite the earache I have as a result of all of Jason's talking, I still leave with a buzzed grin on my face.
Dish: Everything at Sip & Bite looked good. The Lamb Gyro was tasty and the fries satisfactory. The coffee, though, was incredible. Oh, and next time I'm ordering those huge pancakes.
Damage: Coffee, soup and gyro came to $9.40 or $9.60 -- the alcohol was still making things fuzzy when I paid. Just about everything on the menu would get you in under the $10 budget.
Decision: Sip & Bite would be fun anytime, but is especially appropriate if you want to keep the party going after last call. The food was good and the staff was as friendly as possible at 4 a.m. with a dining room full of drunks.
