The nondescript building on North Clinton Street in Highlandtown was a daily contradiction. Upstairs, at meetings of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, addicts described their struggles to stay clean. And downstairs was a neighborhood bar.
When the building went up for auction, Larry DeAngelis, a recovering heroin addict who runs of a string of halfway houses, had an idea: Why not turn the place into a bar without a bar?
The result -- a restaurant and hangout for recovering addicts called Stepping Stones -- still has knotty pine walls, a loud jukebox and lots of smoke. But the strongest thing on tap is coffee.
At a grand opening ceremony yesterday, several dozen recovering addicts -- some clean for days, some for decades -- gathered at the restaurant at 129 N. Clinton St. to watch City Council President Sheila Dixon cut a ribbon across the front door.
They included Patti Craig, an Edgemere housewife first arrested at age 38 -- and arrested 28 more times within the next five years. There was Kristina Hocking, 28, a new mother who calls DeAngelis a vessel of God, and Tommy Reed, a local singer clean since Halloween.
"I've been sitting here ever since," Reed, 45, said as he lounged on a Stepping Stones' barstool.
DeAngelis, 57, expects plenty of business. Because of its burgeoning drug problem -- with an estimated 60,000 addicts in Baltimore alone -- Maryland has become a center for 12-step meetings. Narcotics Anonymous reports that 689 of its 30,652 weekly meetings worldwide take place in the state.
Surveying the scene at the restaurant yesterday, recovering addict Joe Cashen remembered the days when loud, intoxicated voices seeped through the floor as people upstairs told their stories. "What a perfect place to take the enemy out," he mused.
Cashen, 43, plans to attend the restaurant regularly to talk people through their struggles -- and to share his newfound enjoyment of everyday things. "You get clean, you start to help another person," he said. "I go outside, I see sunshine and it excites me."
The restaurant is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Representatives of local neighborhood groups showed up to lend support to DeAngelis, who also owns a Fells Point gift shop and coffeehouse geared to recovering addicts. They said that with about seven recovery houses in the area, a need existed for a substance-free hangout.
"This is the first time I've seen 40 or 50 people in a bar not falling down drunk and making passes at their girlfriends -- and everybody's having a good time," said Herb Wetherington, president of South Ellwood Community & Good Neighbors Inc., a Highlandtown neighborhood organization "I will be back myself."
Dixon reminded the crowd that she had lost a brother to AIDS that stemmed from drug abuse, and that places such as Stepping Stones were key to keeping people from that tragic end.
"No matter where you are, you make a mistake -- you get up the next day and you try harder," she told the crowd. Yesterday, visitors feasted on a spread of crab balls, wraps, vegetables and fruit punch. But on a normal day, the eggs and toast are cheap, and the talk often weighty -- about real-life nightmares escaped, families destroyed, prison terms survived and friends who never made it here to enjoy a simple cup of coffee.
Most of those minding the kitchen -- run by Craig -- are still living in the 11 recovery houses operated by Courage to Change Foundation Inc., the nonprofit organization DeAngelis founded.
They work in exchange for room and board, which usually costs about $100 a week. DeAngelis hopes that besides being a resource for recovering addicts, the restaurant ultimately will make money to open more houses and programs, including a treatment center planned down the street.
In a back room of the restaurant is what DeAngelis calls the first museum in the nation of the 12-step program, full of rare literature -- bought on the Internet and through friends and other connections -- that traces the evolution of groups such as NA and AA.
Much of the memorabilia belonged to a fellow addict who, in getting clean, became hooked on the saving steps. He hoarded programs and tapes from 12-step conventions, as well as coffee mugs and inspirational letters. With his friend DeAngelis, he formed the notion of a museum to display it all, and DeAngelis bought the collection from him.
But the steps didn't save him. He died two years ago after a relapse, DeAngelis said. To his friends, the addict's story is a reminder of how fragile even long-term sobriety can be -- and how much they need places to talk to each other.
"Even in his death, he is still carrying the message," DeAngelis said of his friend. "The message is to keep coming back."