John Waters' 5 Places to Visit in Baltimore
from the New York Times (7/1/2024)
Baltimore Magazine Awards
2024 Best of Baltimore Martini Service
Homage must be paid to the OG martini at Peter’s Inn in Fells Pont. The martini (your choice of vodka or gin) comes chilled and filled to the brim in a coupe glass. The drink is served with a sidecar—a cute carafe filled with more spirits—on ice. It’s basically two drinks in one. An assortment of garnishes—a hot pepper, a cocktail onion, a caperberry, a baby gherkin, and a pimento-stuffed olive—are also served on the side so you don’t have to decide. The whole shebang arrives on a silver tray. A more elegant version of the drink, purportedly invented at the Ritz Paris, does not exist.
2019 Top 50 Best Restaurants
"they’ve gathered for the begrudgingly dependable charm—the tattooed waitstaff, the famous garlic bread, that perfectly seared petit filet. (Not to mention Bud’s own pot de creme desserts.)" Read more
2012 Best Restaurants
2012 Readers Poll: #1 Dining Secret and #3 Old Favorite (or Landmark)
2011 Readers Poll: #2 Dining Secret
2011 Urban Gourmet (#2)
2010 Best Resturants (#28)
2009 Best Restaurants (#35)
2008 Best Restaurants
2006 Best Restaurants 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006
2002 Best Neighborly Bar
The Baltimore Sun
Chef Karin Tiffany, a straight-shooting, funny lady, doesn't take Peter's Inn's success for granted. "I'm always so flattered. I know it seems corny," she says with a laugh. "Some things on my menu might cost what people make in an hour. That's your hard-earned money. It's a big responsibility."
Baltimore Sun - #4 Best Restaurant 2015;
October 12, 2015
Every week a new Karin Tiffany menu appears on the blackboards. Every night, customers arrive early, before the kitchen opens, to stake out a table or a barstool in the Fells Point restaurant. Peter's Inn is the kind of place a Baltimorean points to and says, "Now do you see why I love this city?" Read more
Baltimore Sun - #4 Best Restaurant 2014;
November, 2014
Baltimore Sun - #4 Best Restaurant 2012;
November 16, 2012
Baltimore Sun - Critics Pick;
October 27, 2011
Top 50 Restaurants 2010 (#4)
Baltimore Sun Online Dining Guide: The Restaurants; Only in Baltimore
City Paper Awards
2013 Best BLT:
Peter’s Inn @ Fells Point Farmers Market
2009 Best of Baltimore Dining Winner
Best Restaurant - Wine List
2008 Best First-Date Bar
2006 Best of Baltimore Dining Winner - Best Bathroom
2003 Best Restaurant
2002 Best Steak
Zagats
Zagats Review
FOOD: 4.5 | DECOR: 3.5 | SERVICE: 3.9
Reviews
The Dish: How Peter’s Inn turned garlic bread into a signature Baltimore app
By Christina Tkacik
Baltimore Banner
July 2025
Thirty years in, Karin Tiffany is still getting surprised by life in her Fells Point restaurant.
With plenty of booze and butter, Peter’s Inn is quintessential Baltimore.
By Lydia Woolever
Baltimore Magazine
August 2023
Karin Tiffany is embracing change these days. At 57, she’s seen plenty of it, with more than half of her life spent on the quiet, tree-lined, 500 block of South Ann Street near Eastern Avenue at Peter’s Inn.
Google Reviews (4.8)
Facebook Reviews
Latest Facebook Review: 1/27/2020
Dined here on Saturday for my husbands birthday. Hands down one of the best restaurants around. We were in B'more from NOVA and will definitely be back. BETH is a Rock Star!!! Food is inventive and tasty. Atmosphere, albeit small (maybe 12-14 tables) is cozy and comfortable. Trout Pate - Yummo. Halibut with Black Lentils, scrumptious and Razor Clams w/Sausage and Pasta was a HIT!! We will definitely be back. This place is a must try, but make a reservation if you don't want to wait an hour or more on a Fri/Sat night.
Classic cocktails · Cosy atmosphere · Great food · Creative cuisine
Back from the fire: A quick bite at the recently renovated Peter’s Inn in Fells Point
By Christina Tkacik | January 03, 2020
photos by Karl Merton Ferron
The Baltimore Sun
There isn’t a sign or an address marker on the Ann Street row house where Peter’s Inn is located. Just open the door and hope that you’re in the right place.
The lack of signage isn’t an effort at secrecy, says chef and co-owner Karin Tiffany. “I just didn’t have enough money to get it,” she said. "People seem to know it’s there.” Advertisement Play Video
Previously, big painted letters spelled out the restaurant’s name on the front of the Fells Point building. But that sign was destroyed in a fire Dec. 28, 2017, while Tiffany and her husband, Bud (they run the restaurant together), were asleep upstairs.
After months of construction and wrestling with insurance companies, the place has fully reopened and is thriving. Owners were helped by $22,000 raised through GoFundMe, a testament to how customers feel about the place.
By the looks of it, Baltimoreans are still very much in love with Peter’s Inn, which was packed tight during a recent weekend visit.
First impressions: The dining room is cozy and personable — with fewer knickknacks than before the blaze. A 233-pound marlin Bud Tiffany caught decorates the wall above the bar. “It still has character, but it’s not as junky,” Karin Tiffany said of the restaurant. “I’m kind of a hoarder. A lot of what you don’t see is above your head.” We were seated in a lovely back room, beneath the serious faces of century-old portraits of Karin Tiffany’s relatives, which survived the blaze.
Must-tries: Our charmingly theatrical server gently guided us through the handwritten menu, offering confident recommendations that we followed like obedient schoolchildren. He raved about the garlic bread, slathered in the restaurant’s own “Streckfus Spread,” a pesto-like mixture of pine nuts and gorgonzola with enough garlic to ward off vampires. We fell in love with a $36 New York strip steak, wonderfully fatty and served with a ribbon of buttery mashed potatoes. “When people come here and pay that much money for a steak, it better be spot on,” Karin Tiffany said. “People tend to take customers for granted.” These days, she doesn’t take anything for granted.
A side dish of creamed spinach ($9.50), with bacon, sauteed fennel and a splash of Pernod, was so decadent that my companion threatened to drink it from the bowl; it initially arrived cold; the kitchen quickly reheated it for us. For dessert, we tried an innovative beet cheesecake that arrived with a chocolate banner that said “Congratulations" on it. We wondered if there had been a mix-up in the kitchen, but Karin Tiffany explained in an email that all desserts come with such kudos, “for absolutely no reason.”
Special touches: Tiffany names all the drinks herself. “I typically come up with these ridiculous names for no particular reason," she said. We ordered “Dolly Parton Is a Goddess.” (As my dining companion pointed out, you can’t not order a drink called “Dolly Parton Is a Goddess,” though the concoction of bourbon and apple cider was too sweet for his taste.)
A note on the menu and website says “RIP -> SGH,” an homage to former staffer Sam Holden, a prominent Baltimore photographer who died in 2014.
Pro tip: We made our reservations via email. Book ahead: no same-day Friday or Saturday reservations are permitted, but the restaurant always keeps a few tables open for walk-ins.
Bottom line: There is something so very Baltimore about Peter’s Inn. The restaurant is brimming with history and character, with a reassuring steadfastness and the resilience to come back from tragedy. Despite whatever imperfections in our meal — the cold spinach comes to mind — it’s hard not to appreciate it. And the steak, as promised, was spot on.
If you go 504 S. Ann St., Fells Point. petersinn.com. Serving dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Accepts reservations.
Baltimore Sun Review
March 3, 2016 by Suzanne Loudermilk
At Peter's Inn, food evolves but some things never change
For 20 years, Baltimoreans have entertained a love affair with Peter’s Inn, the cozy rowhouse with the bright red door that still doesn’t take reservations. The affection is fitting, given the fact that the restaurant is fueled on romance, not just heat from the kitchen.
Owners Bud and Karin Tiffany bought the place the day after they got married in September 1995. They’ve been hands-on operators ever since — Karin as the chef, and Bud, who also cooks, as the “execution guy.”
“We hadn’t gone out in search of a business,” said Bud Tiffany. “It fell into place.”
He credits Peter’s longevity to “constantly trying to challenge ourselves and entertain ourselves.” It helps that the menu changes weekly, he said.
Diners can count on beef and seafood options among the dozen or so dishes etched on the restaurant chalkboard. But regulars know to start a meal with the thick, herby garlic bread and salad that are not on the menu. You should, too.
There is a ritual at the restaurant, named after former owner Peter Denzer, who founded the restaurant in 1977 and died in 2014. Insiders know they need to get to Peter’s when it opens at 5:30 p.m. to assure a spot for dinner, which starts service at 6:30 p.m. It doesn’t take long for the eclectic, 37-seat space to fill up.
The friendly servers are as charming as the quirky, white-tableclothed restaurant, whose walls are packed with photos, knickknacks and even a trophy swordfish snared for eternity in tiny lights. Waitresses wear old-fashioned aprons a la the Betty Crocker era. Waiters are bohemian casual in plaid or plain colored shirts.
It’s not unusual to hear Baltimore patois like “youse” among the staff, a reminder of its beginnings. Old timers remember its biker bar days in the 1980s, when Denzer and Bud Tiffany rode motorcycles and Karin Tiffany, who learned to cook in the U.S. Coast Guard, was beginning her days in the kitchen.
As owners, the Tiffanys have spawned a new era.
“It slowly got to be more and more less of a bar and more of a restaurant,” Bud Tiffany said. “The menu has gotten more complicated and nuanced.”
That doesn’t mean diners can’t still get a Guinness, martini or glass of chardonnay at the bar. On Wednesdays, select bottles of wine are half price.
Before “the kitchen is open” sign lights up for the night, Karin Tiffany is prepping ingredients for dishes like steamed clams with tagliatelle pasta and lamb chops with cherry bordelaise sauce.
The menu can be confusing because there is no distinction between appetizers and entrees. Usually, the first couple of dishes listed are starters, our waitress said.
We began our meal by sharing the excellent tuna poke, which came with a seaweed salad that got an extra crunch from jicama sticks, and another dish featuring dreamy balls of creamy burrata snuggled up to roasted acorn and butternut squashes with a balsamic reduction. Hazelnuts scattered like marbles on the plate gave the cheese a sweet kick.
Our main dishes were wow-worthy. In one, juicy, slow-cooked duck leg confit moistened fat, cassoulet-style beans for a hearty version of the classic French dish. For a fish entree, a plump halibut fillet was treated simply with vermouth butter and pine nuts but became even more inspired with a rich spinach risotto.
A tender petite filet mignon surpassed a standard meat-and-potatoes preparation with a blue cheese fondue sauce ennobling the roasted fingerling potatoes and charred red onions.
There are a few dessert offerings, but they’re not afterthoughts. A silky chocolate pot de crème was luscious with a cap of fresh whipped cream and a dish of caramel gelato.
We were most excited the fruit clafouti was being baked in the kitchen on our visit. Served in a hot skillet, the French country dish showcased a baked golden batter studded with mixed berries. The lemon curd on the side added bright citrusy notes to the old-fashioned dessert.
As Peter’s Inn embarks on its 21st year, Bud Tiffany is focused on preserving the restaurant’s legacy. When people ask him why he doesn’t expand the successful venture into the next building, he has this answer.
“It wouldn’t be the same. You wouldn’t have the same experience,” he said. “People would always say, ‘Remember the old days?’”
He’s fine with the way it’s always been.
2025 Peter's Inn and Waterfront Technologies.
