

Original owner Antonios Vasilades's grandson Tony Vasilades now runs the 24-hour diner (lauded fo its “Best Breakfast … Best Late-Night Dining … Best Crab Cakes … Best Cheap Eats” – AOL City Guide, 2005) with his wife Sofia. The Sip & Bite is a family business that has been serving homemade diner and Greek delicacy food in town since 1948. Grating goofball gourmet Guy Fieri (you know, the guy with the gruff throat-cancer voice trying way too hard to be cool with his SoCal Porn Star Look – dyed-blond hair, tats, earrings, Oakley wrap-around shades – and his shirt worn out to cover his fat belly, as is the current Hipster Vogue) visited the legendary Sip & Bite restaurant in Fells Point in April of 2012 for an episode of his Food Network television show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The DEA agents then moved in for the arrests.Baltimore's legendary “Sip & bite” restaurant was profiled on the Food network. on January 14 where they made the exchange with the defendants, according to Bilek. “The CS stated that Politis, along with Vasiliades, were interested in purchasing kilogram quantities of cocaine and believed CS has connections to facilitate this transaction,” Bilek said in the affidavit.Īfter a meeting in Washington, D.C., the group agreed to swap “two for fifty” (spoken in Greek), meaning two kilograms of cocaine for $50,000, a few days before the Arlington rendezvous, according to a cell phone conversation cited in the affidavit.Īn undercover detective, posing as the source of supply for the cocaine, accompanied the CS to a restaurant parking lot at 2:30 p.m. The two began discussing sources of supply for cocaine, according to the DEA Special Agent Beau O.C. ()Ī confidential informant (CS) met Politis, who lives in Baltimore County, at a social gathering last October. Tony Vasiliades with celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

The sting was organized by agents from the DEA and Arlington Police Department, who had been investigating a Virginia drug ring. Zwerling, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Vasiliades could not be reached today, and the Alexandria lawyer who represented the two men in court, John K.
#Sip and bite baltimore closed tv
With a reputation stretching far beyond Baltimore, the restaurant has been featured on TV food shows as well as provided late-night fare for hungry celebrities visiting Baltimore. The Vasiliades family have operated the round-the-clock eatery since the 1960s. The two charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute are punishable by “not less than 10 years” in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines.

Federal courts do not require bail however, Vasiliades surrendered his passport and has pledged not to leave the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, according to court records. Politis and Vasiliades were arraigned before U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia.Īfter they allegedly took the sack of cocaine and started to drive off, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) blocked the exit and surrounded the car. The owner of the popular Canton eatery, Sip & Bite, has been charged with possession with intent to distribute 500 or more grams of cocaine following a federal sting operation in Alexandria, Va.Īnthony “Tony” Vasiliades and accomplice Minas Politis were arrested in a parking lot on Wednesday, January 14, after they handed over $50,000 in cash to a government informer, who gave them two kilograms of cocaine, according to a government affidavit submitted in the U.S.
