Man I remember Bickford's, which is amazing because I don’t remember ever being sober there. It was the 24-hour place to sober up in Manchester NH, and surely many other New England towns.

You can edit this part out but … When you drink, you gotta take a leak. And your friends do too. Having a urinal conversation, and I turn to respond ... Good thing he was wearing plastic flip-flops instead of shoes.

Anyway, there is one Bickford's left, in Burlington, Mass.

https://www.bickfords.com/about/

I wonder if they relocated the Bickford's around the corner and just used the same tile front with the lettering. If you compare where the letters are on the original tiles to the current view they look identical.

The cigar and fedora guy is priceless, as is the guy essentially mooning the camera. Quite a sketch. Baltimore you say? I'm shocked!

Look what I found:

How could any 1943 photographer know how fascinating the scene would look to us? If you took a pic like that now, would anyone in 2105 be interested?

Was Bickford's a chain? Woody Allen mentioned it once in a story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bickford's_(restaurant)

But I wouldn't count on clean on the inside. There are legions of pictures indoors on Shorpy of restaurants, food shops, etc. that are utterly filthy. I think it is just a matter of the standards for hygiene being completely different

Given Shorpy's attentiveness to apostrophes, it's noteworthy that the name on the building front is missing its apostrophe, though the window has one.

Bickford's (1933-1973), a Democratic political hangout, had two related nicknames: "10 Downing Street" (though its address was 3 North Calvert Street) and "the kibitzing capital of Baltimore City."

Among its habitues presumably were Nancy Pelosi's father and brother, both mayors of Baltimore during its existence.

[This Bickford's, as noted below, is on West Fayette. - Dave]

Ah, Bickford's was a chain. Starting from the Shorpy photo, it was .4 mile walk to the political hangout where you might have seen the toddler Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro.

As a former health inspector, I would think that you could eat off the floor in Bickfords if the cleanliness on the inside is anything like the cleanliness of the outside. That place looks spotless!

He's gotten a little behind in his work.

You have to feel a bit sorry for the window washer. He had a chance to be immortalized for posterity in a photo, but it didn't quite work out.

Alpha Photo Engraving apparently made Orioles baseball cards. I think this might be the site in the picture, although there's no third floor on the left building.

Well, pal, you better pay up, see. Wouldn't want to have to put any of these here trash barrels to another use.

Tony R, aka "the bender" (3 piece suit, cigar and fedora) in charge of the local loan sharking racket, is shaking down one of his regulars who owes him $50 +50% interest, but lost it Saturday on what his booky swore was a "sure thing." Meanwhile, the two undercover G-men immediately to the right are noting everything.