The Dizz
Nov 22nd, 2009 | By Caryn Coyle | Category: Baltimore Bites, PeopleThe Dizz, located at 300 W. 30th Street, has been named Baltimore’s best neighborhood bar by the City Paper. For twenty-two years, Elaine Stevens has run the establishment, initially called Buckley’s.
Elaine and her husband first named the bar for her husband’s grandparents. She changed it to Dizzy Issie’s when they divorced. Isabel – Issie – was an old family friend who worked in the restaurant’s kitchen. Elaine’s son nicknamed her Issie. He was fond of Issie’s eggs.
We ordered the Fat Ass Crab Skins, because Elizabeth Large had just named them one of her “Top Ten Restaurant Pig-Outs” in the Baltimore Sun.
Four potato skins are served with a side cup of sour cream for $12.95. Generous lumps of crabmeat under melted cheddar cheese, the crab skins do not disappoint. The added flavor of bacon combined with the potato itself was more than adequate for me. I didn’t need the sour cream.
Elaine Stevens
My companion ordered the Maryland crab soup ($6.95) which Elaine told us was homemade. The Dizz’s soups are all homemade. I tasted the soup and noted a touch of Tabasco. It was very “tomatoey” and loaded with vegetables and crabmeat. It did taste homemade, too.
Dizzy Issie’s became The Dizz when Elaine’s brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Darlene Basta, bought it.
The Dizz is located across the street from Charm City Cakes where The Food Network’s Ace of Cakes is filmed. The restaurant is popular with Duff Goldman, owner of Charm City Cakes and star of Ace of Cakes. He and his crew of cake artists would frequent Dizzy Issie’s after work, nicknaming it, “the Dizz.” The name stuck, and it is now officially called, The Dizz..
Melodie Rexroth
Our waitress, Melodie Rexroth recommended the burgers, which are made with Black Angus beef bought from a butcher in Fells Point every other day. I ordered the rum rubbed bacon and provolone cheese burger for $6.50.
The charcoal taste of the medium done burger was delicious. The bacon and provolone, perfect. I skipped the top part of the roll which is served with two generous slices of tomato and mayonnaise. However, the bottom part of the roll was soft, fresh. Just right.
My companion ordered the Italian burger, which was also $6.50. He said it “tasted Italian without being tomatoey!” It had roasted peppers on its provolone.
“Very good,” he said. “It has a nice, fresh taste. The Angus beef is superb!”
Our burgers were served with what tasted like Utz potato chips (good!) and a long sliced dill pickle.
Elaine, a native Baltimorean, grew up in the neighborhood where The Dizz is located. My companion remembered a pair of barber chairs that used to sit right inside the front door. Elaine told us that they were neighborhood relics. Someone she called Mr. Rose, who had lived on 29th at Huntington, had owned them first. She did not know if he was a barber, but the chairs were conversation pieces. When Dizzy Issie’s was being renovated to become The Dizz, the chairs were put in storage. But the warehouse in which they were stored caught fire and they burned.
Fat ass crab skins
Every table filled up as we sat and ate our lunch. There were folks in business attire, or uniforms, and some in baseball caps; casual. The atmosphere was inviting and the owners encourage it.
“If you don’t like the people you meet when you first come in, you will when it’s time to leave,” Elaine said. She added that she is known to switch tables around. She might even ask someone to slide over so someone new can sit with you.
Elane told us about their “open mic night” (Wednesdays from 9:30 PM to 1:30 AM) and “The Dizzember Festival” (Sunday, December 6, noon to 7 PM to support the Community School of Remington), “It’s like a family here. The people come from all over and the people who work here are good people, too. I love this place.”
View The Dizz in a larger map
Caryn Coyle is an adopted Baltimorean. Aside from anything chocolate, her favorite foods are Chesapeake Bay crab, silver queen corn, and Maryland tomatoes. She can be reached at greatgadzbee11@aol.com.
Photos by Caryn Coyle
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