Diner

At 2 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning, the Sip and Bite on Boston Street was packed. A salvation for the inebriated, a sanctuary for the sleepless and fellowship for the lonely, the small Canton restaurant has been serving great old school diner food since Truman was president. And newly renovated inside and out, it's still as good as ever. Walking in, the comforting sound of spatulas hitting the flattop griddle made us feel right at home. The interior has gotten a face lift over the past year and a half — fresh paint, new equipment — but still keeps its old school diner feel.

Spike Gjerde is coming to Belvedere Square. The Woodberry Kitchen owner has signed a lease for the multi-level restaurant space that has been vacant since Crush closed in November. His Belvedere Square project, Gjerde said, will be part canning kitchen and part diner. Gjerde said he will bring Woodberry Kitchen 's canning and preserving operations up to the Belvedere Square space, which was a Hess shoe store before its conversion into a restaurant space. "I love Belvedere Square," Gjerde said.

First I went to a fancy dinner, then I had lunch at a cheap diner.At first glance there seemed to be no similarities between these two meals. Nor was there at second glance.But by the time I got around to giving them a third glance, it was getting close to deadline and I began to see subtle connections between the two meals.Especially when I pulled out the old "compare and contrast" bTC technique. The last time I remember using the procedure was when I wrote themes for English class. And as readers of this column can attest, it has been a long time since I have been in an English class.

Some dozen Baltimore restaurants will be adding soft-shell crab specials to their menus for Baltimore's fifth annual Soft-Shell Crab Celebration. The restaurant promotion, sponsored by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, will run May 24 through June 2. The participating restaurants include Alexander's Tavern , The Black Olive , Diamond Tavern, Grille 700 , J. Paul's , Kona Grill , Miss Shirley's , Pabu , The Oceanaire , Phillips Seafood , Regi's American Bistro , Roy's , Ryleigh's Oyster, Ten Ten , Townhouse Kitchen & Bar and Vino Rosina . On the eve of the 10-day celebration, Downtown Partnership and Vino Rosina will host a five-course soft-shell crab tasting featuring chef Jesse Sandlin's contemporary interpretations of classic recipes.

The musical version of Barry Levinson's "Diner," the much-admired 1982 movie about longtime buddies in Baltimore, is going to take longer to reach Broadway. The previously scheduled April 10 opening has been postponed until the fall, the New York Times reports. Seems that "Diner," a collaboration between Levinson and Sheryl Crow, who has written the songs for the show, needs more time to be developed and, especially, to raise money for its $9.5 million budget. The musical percolated in workshop form in New York last fall, a process adversely affected by ... Hurricane Sandy, according to producer Scott Zeiger.

The "in" thing in the restaurant business these days is to open a diner, be it an old-fashioned one or a nouveau diner that has the look and feel of the good-old days but offers the cuisine of the idiosyncratic 1990s. This region soon will have two more diner additions. The well-known Double T on Baltimore National Pike is opening a second diner in Pasadena later this summer and Frank's Diner will be serving home-cooked food in Jessup early next year.Nostalgia buffs will love Frank's, especially if they fondly remember the days of diner-dining of the 1950s -- or wish to learn what it was like.

A "Diner" musical? Yes. Sheryl Crow is writing the songs. Help her. Write the lyrics to the opening number titled "You Gonna Finish That?"

Bryan Voltaggio's diner project, coming later this spring to East Street in Frederick, has a name. It's Family Meal. The term has a sweet double meaning. It's of course what some folks call the meals they share with their own family, but it's also an industry term for the meal that a restaurant staff shares before evening service begins.  If you want to be part of Family Meal's family, there's going to be an employment open house on May 15 and May 22 at Volt.

We've got good news and bad news for those clamoring to see how the iconic Baltimore movie "Diner" is adapted into a musical. First the good news: The show's debut is set. It will open in San Francisco this fall. The less good news: Because of the San Francisco dates, the anticipated fall opening of the show on Broadway is now being pushed back to spring of 2013. News broke last September that Barry Levinson has adapted "Diner," his well-regarded 1982 movie, for the stage, with music and lyrics by rock singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow.

There are a lot of stories I remember reading in The Sun , many of them about sports - the story about Baltimore getting an NFL football team, and the story about the St. Louis Browns moving to Baltimore. But the review of "Diner" is the one that sticks out, because "Diner" was the first movie I wrote and directed, and The Evening Sun 's Lou Cedrone, who reviewed it, was an established and important critic in Baltimore at that time. It was one of those reviews where you pick it up and go, "Oh, my God. This is devastating.

Baltimore's Sip & Bite restaurant is one of the restaurants featured in Guy Fieri's new book, "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: The Funky Finds in Flavortown," in which Fieri takes readers back to some of his favorite finds from recent seasons of his long-running Food Network show. Apparently Fieri really had a good time at the Sip & Bite .  "I'm not allowed to watch the rerun of Sip & Bite because I fall off my chair laughing," Fieri writes in the new book. "These guys are some of the funniest people I've met in my Triple D travels.

The Hollywood Diner will continue with its current operator, Richard T. White, at least for the immediate future. The Board of Estimates pulled the diner's lease termination from its agenda after Comptroller Joan M. Pratt agreed to give White more time to secure funding. The board was to decide at Wednesday morning's meeting whether to terminate White's 18-month lease early; the original lease wasn't set to expire until next spring. But in a side room prior to the Board of Estimates meeting, Pratt informed White that her office was granting him more time to right the diner's finances.

The Hollywood Diner has had a turbulent history in Baltimore. Here's a look back. 1981 - Location scouting begins for the MGM production “Diner,” which is to be filmed in and around Baltimore. The Hilltop Diner, the northwest Baltimore hangout that inspired Barry Levinson's screenplay, has by this time devolved into a liquor store, unrecognizable as its former self. The production team eventually discovers and leases the diner it wants from Paramount Modular Concepts of Oakland, N.J. The diner, which was manufactured by Mountain View Diners of Singac, N.J., was formerly the Westbury Grill on Long Island, N.Y., according to Paramount sources.

The Baltimore City department responsible for leasing the Hollywood Diner is asking the Board of Estimates to to terminate the rental agreement with the restaurant's operator. But Richard T. White, who runs the diner, is vowing to continue at the city-owned property, made famous by Barry Levinson's nostalgic 1982 movie “Diner.”  In its first six months of operations, the diner reported revenue of about $18,900 and expenses of $24,600, according to a report by the Department of Real Estate. In addition to being a traditional diner, it also serves as a culinary-arts youth training program  - a requirement for operators of the city-owned property.

Not only is Patsy Cline's 1962 hit "Crazy" among the choices on the little jukeboxes perched on the wall at the Bel-Loc Diner's booths, the country singer with the smooth, sultry voice once ate there. So have singer Brenda Lee and comedian Redd Foxx. The Baltimore Colts legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas was known to drop in as well, and Orioles "Iron Man" Cal Ripken Jr. once graciously signed autographs during a meal. "He (Ripken) tipped pretty well," waitress Rachel Fisher recalled.

Lost City Diner is open again. When Lost City Diner opened, suddenly, in August 2010, it was a surprising twist in a long-running story that played out for years on the corner of Charles and Lanvale, a half block up from the Club Charles. A diner was always coming, and it never came. And then it did. The brainchild of Club Charles owner Joy Martin, Lost City Diner was beautiful, with antique fixtures and fanciful retro-industrial elements evoking the giddy atmosphere of a Buck Rogers serial from the 1930s.  Then, in February 2012, just as suddenly as it opened, the Lost City Diner closed.

Another classic American film set in Baltimore is headed for Broadway, but unlike "Hairspray" this one may be a less obvious fit. Barry Levinson has adapted "Diner," his well-regarded 1982 movie, for the stage. With music and lyrics by rock singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, the new show is scheduled to open in New York next fall. "The book is written," Levinson said. "And Sheryl has written about 16 songs now. What we're going to start now is to adjust and fill and see what we need to take care of. " The popular film, set in Baltimore in 1959, tells the tale of six 20-somethings who have been friends since high school.

Few films in movie history — and maybe no other film by a first-time writer-director — proved to be the breakthrough moment for as many talents as a made-in-Baltimore comedy-drama called "Diner. " Viewers still respond to all the people in it, not as old friends but as fresh discoveries. That seductive fellow with the voice that flows as fluidly as his pompadour — my God, it's Mickey Rourke. That gal with the asymmetrically alluring mouth and the heartbreaking way with a line — could it be Ellen Barkin?

One of Pikesville's most charming and well-loved buildings - a 1937 Art Deco structure fronted by a stately marquee - could soon open its doors to movie patrons for the first time in 30 years. The Baltimore County Council will be asked on April 15 to approve a zoning measure that would allow two 80-seat theaters to be added to what currently is the Pikes Diner on Reisterstown Road. "Even though the Pikes Diner operated as a movie theater for many, many years, for some reason that's not currently one of the permitted uses of that facility," said County Councilwoman Vicki Almond, who has drafted a change to the current zoning classification that would rectify the oversight.

Richard Bell hardly had time to look up during the first hour of ladling rich cream of crab soup into bowl after bowl at a fundraiser to benefit Baltimore residents struggling with homelessness, hunger and poverty. In that time, the general manager of Squire's Restaurant spooned out about half the 30 gallons of soup his restaurant donated to St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore's biggest fundraiser of the year. The nonprofit's event, "Empty Bowls," drew 2,000 guests for lunch and dinner seatings Saturday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.