I am always on the lookout for places to play table tennis and I saw the Laughing Pint mentioned as a bar that features a ping pong table in a Guardian travel feature in Baltimore. That's right, I had to read a British paper (ok, website) to find out about a place in Baltimore. So a few days later I went to check it out. The bar is located in Highlandtown which already makes me like it. Highlandtown is not yet a trendy neighborhood and I like its diversity. If that makes me a hipster, so be it. I would also like to note that there's rarely a line at the post office there, which counts for something in my book but probably doesn't mean much to most people.
The beer is reasonably priced ($3 for a PBR, $4 for most "decent" brands). There's a large choice of food items the quality of which while not outstanding is superior to standard pub grub. The staff, or really the one guy John who was manning the bar at the time, is friendly. Luckily for my plan the bar was nearly empty, all the regulars being away at a fundraiser. This gave us ample room for the game and freed us from the worry of landing a stray ball in someone's drink. After queuing up some country, a genre that goes with bars and drinking like cheese on a pizza in my mind, putting the two halves of the tennis table on top of the pool table and setting up the net we were ready to go. There is a box of decent quality paddles and some balls available. Apparently the best time for tennis is Saturday afternoon and we were warned about a Swedish woman (Laura?) who will destroy you while wearing high heels. I will most certainly be back.