High 5: Smoke 'em if you got 'em

With the smoking ban looming, Metromix visits B-more's smokiest bars

By Robert Jacobs

December 7, 2007

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While the dreaded smoking ban looms, the wolves are circling, and they're closing in. There will be no escape from the ensuing feeding frenzy of the smoking police, as they sniff out smoke like a feral beast sniffs out its prey. You can run, but you can't hide. (Though, we don't imagine you'll be able to run far with that Camel unfiltered dangling from your lips.) It won't be long now, children of the leaf, before you'll be shivering next to a dumpster behind your favorite bar, banished to the margins like lepers.

The countdown has begun, and you have until midnight on Jan. 31 to enjoy your cigarettes in the comfort and warmth of a smoky city tavern. You know, that place once considered a safe haven from the world, where you could share a laugh with friends or, in more contemplative moods, sit quietly to nurse a wounded heart over a glass of Jameson's (neat of course) while enjoying a really fine Dunhill. Well, that place is soon to be as distant a Baltimore memory as Memorial Stadium, Blaze Starr, Billie Holiday and Edgar Allan Poe—nevermore! So, we bring you our top five smokiest bars in Baltimore while we still can. Anyone got a light?