
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
simulated sex with a potted palm tree." Before The Sun, he was a reporter at the Miami New Times. He's also written for Miami magazine, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sarasota Herald Tribune and the Gainesville Sun. Got tips? Gripes? Pitches? He's reachable at
erik.maza@baltsun.com. Click
here to keep up with the dumb music he's listening to.
Midnight Sun covers Baltimore music, live entertainment, and nightlife news. On the blog, you'll find, among other things, concert announcements, breaking news, bars closings and openings, up-to-date coverage of crime in nightlife, new music, round-the-clock coverage of Virgin Mobile FreeFest, handy guides on bars staying open past 2 a.m. on New Year's Eve and those that carry Natty Boh on draft. Recurring features include seven-day nightlife guides, Concert News, guest reviews of bars and concerts, Wednesday Corkboard, and photo galleries, as well as reader-submitted photos. Thanks for reading.
Comments
simple - jimmy's seafood on holabird ave.- they renovated recently and prices are still relatively cheap
Posted by: eddie | May 27, 2008 4:23 PM
Bill's Cafe...me and my friends drank there and the prices were affordable and the people were awesome. that place again is Bills Cafe on Holabird Ave.
Posted by: J.M. Giordano | May 27, 2008 4:42 PM
HOLY CRAP do they serve 10 oz. Buds in dundalk!?!?!? Anywhere?! I must have them!
Posted by: Evan | May 27, 2008 4:44 PM
Does Costa's Inn count as a bar? They have karaoke + beer, which = retirees from Bethlehem Steele with hard-core Bawlmer accents reminscing about the Colts and singing frank Sinatra :-) For that reason alone ... if they qualify as a bar then they get my vote. And the crabs ain't too bad either, hon :-)
Posted by: TotalVicky | May 27, 2008 5:46 PM
Howards Pub, no doubt.
To play pool, I would say The Seahorse.
Posted by: Drew from Greektown | May 28, 2008 7:40 AM
I'm going to have to go with Dick's Dock Bar. I've had a good time there through many different establishment names.
On a separate topic, Sam, have you or could you consider doing a FFF on the best place that truly makes a "cocktail" in every sense of the word? I don't know if there are five places in Baltimore that could do that, but it seems that we have very few drinking establishments that take mixology and bartending to another level. I believe that you have said that Ixia might be one of them, but I haven't been there in about 18 months.
The reason that I ask is that I went a bar in Manhattan called Little Branch. It feels like a speakeasy, and in typical West Village fashion, has no name on the door, but once downstairs, the bartenders were true artists with their cocktails. I had a Pimms Cup to die for, followed by the best Old Fashioned that I've ever tasted.
The bartender that I talked to said that they get there three to four hours before their shift to do prep work and they liken themselves to chefs at fine dining establishments. Every drink takes 5 minutes or so to make, and you can definitely tell.
It got me thinking that there are no places like that here in Baltimore, or at least no place that I can think of.
Posted by: Eutaw Street Historian | May 28, 2008 12:34 PM