Sue Conley, co-founder of Cowgirl Creamery
@ National Harbor
Q:What's your favorite food TV show or host?
A:"John Shields of 'Chesapeake Cooking.' He was a deep appreciation for local foods."
FOR A LONG time, "Baltimore style" meant cat-eye glasses and a bouffant 'do. But now, looking like a local might mean sporting a rugged necklace of reclaimed metal or wearing a slick tee emblazoned with a creepy-cool squid. That's because local designers, fueled by the city's many art schools, are turning out unusual handmade finds from soaps to ceramics. Some blocks of Hampden and Federal Hill now rival craft epicenters Brooklyn, and Portland, Ore., but, thankfully, sans any hipper-than-thou attitude.
» Clutch Hit: (Above) We're smitten with Pistol Designs— vintage-inspired bags, which designer Ali Dryer makes using handcrafted handles and pretty prints ($72, Doubledutch, 3616 Falls Road; 410-554-0055).
» The Chicest Link: (Click to view) Metalsmith Annie Chau of jewelry line Imogene fuses sterling links with colorful reclaimed chains in her newest necklaces ($150, Red Tree, 921 W. 36th St.; 410-366-3456).
» Tail Mix: (Click to view) Pink Kiss Pottery's Shawna Pincus handprints whimsical designs onto her high-quality glazed clay dishes, like this clever hunt-themed sushi set ($35, Red Tree).
» Full Swing:(Click to view) The voluminous shape and vibrant pattern make this linen skirt from RWB by Carrie Benney ($74) a punchy spring staple. It's from the in-house line at Benney's charming Federal Hill shop, Remember When (1005 S. Charles St., 410-234-0400).
» This Suds For You:(Click to view) Biggs & Featherbelle has earned a national following for its all-natural beauty products, including soaps made with olive oil or raw honey ($4.50 each, SoBotanical, 1130 S. Charles St.; 410-234-0333).
» Tee Time:(Click to view) The quirky-cool designs of SquidFire's graphic totes and tees (like the Moby Cat, shown, $25) are so popular, the label recently expanded to its own Hampden storefront (1100 W. 36th St.; 410-327-3300).
EVEN ON A snowy Saturday, the Sound Garden (1616 Thames St.; 410-563-9011) in Fells Point buzzes with browsers. A guy in a vintage Cro-Mags T-shirt flips through the huge heavy metal section; two older men argue about Thelonious Monk by the jazz CDs. Welcome to a sight far rarer than a 1970s Springsteen bootleg: a bustling record store in the age of iTunes.
This Fells Point audio trove, loaded with everything from Greek bouzouki music to Danish punk, seems immune to the slipping sales at other brick-and mortar music stores. "I feel it when I read the newspaper," says owner Bryan Burkert, "but we don't feel it as much here. One of the reasons is that there are so few really good record stores left."
Burkert opened Sound Garden in 1993, and, now, it's not just a really good record store — it amounts to a Baltimore institution due to its mammoth inventory (including obscure titles on — gasp! — vinyl) and knowledgeable staff. It helps that the place operates in a tunes-hungry city and an area where it faces little competition.
Continue Reading "The Sound of Here: Why Baltimore Really Rocks" »
IN THE ROM-COM hit "He's Just Not That Into You," Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, Bradley Cooper and other Hollywood stars meet in cute cafes, slurp cocktails at charming waterfront bars and play computer games in loft apartments with dreamy skyline views.
Is it another flick filmed in New York or San Francisco? Nope. The backdrop for director Ken Kwapis' ensemble piece turns out to be Baltimore, including the parks of Fells Point and the streetscapes of 19th-century 'hood Mount Vernon. Thanks to a weeklong shoot, signs of the town show up in many scenes, like when Goodwin's lonely singleton meets a pal at Fells Point pub the Waterfront Hotel (1710 Thames St.) or a down-on-his-romantic-luck boat driver moans about women from the nearby Ann Street Pier.
Kwapis, who shot the Kevin Bacon-Elizabeth Perkins romance "He Said, She Said" here in 1991, knew what many other auteurs do: Charm City's varied landscape, old architecture and modest size make it an ideal spot to film a flick. This combo appeals to both directors looking to capture Baltimore itself (native sons John Waters and Barry Levinson) and those seeking a place to fill in for other locales.
Continue Reading "The Reel World: Filmmakers Love Baltimore" »
WEATHERED COBBLESTONES IN FELLS POINT. Mount Vernon townhouses that look zapped in from "The Age of Innocence." Creaky-yet-chic Victorian rowhouses in Federal Hill and Canton. Everywhere you look in Baltimore, there's character and patina. It's not surprising that, in this zone of centuries-old neighborhoods and quirky history, even the antiques stores seem cooler and more colorful than any Chippendale-hawking outfitter in Georgetown.
"I think there's a certain yearning for something that has a history, a provenance," says Ben Riddleberger, co-owner of Housewerks, an eye-popping architectural salvage trove not far from Ravens Stadium. "Anyone can fill their house with beige and brown." Indeed, it is a coloring outside the lines of sorts that propels Baltimore's used-goods scene, where vintage men's vests, antique church benches and kid's books from the Little Lord Fauntleroy era are just some of the unexpected offerings.
FILL YOUR HOUSE
Credit the cheaper real estate or the glut of old fixer-uppers in these parts with Charm City's wealth of architectural salvage outlets. Riddleberger's Housewerks (1415 Bayard St.; 410-685-8047; Housewerksalvage.com) is worth a trip just to ogle the space: a 1885 gas valve house with soaring ceilings and moldings fit for a palace.
Pieces here that would help rehab — or just reinvent — your pad range from lead glass windows hung from the rafters to a terrifying looking perm machine ($695) with octopus-like arms bearing little metal curlers. The spooky (yet clean) basement yields finds like a carnival sign reading "To Midway/To Animal Land" and a metal factory tripod light ($225) ready to be repurposed as a reading lamp. "It becomes a new old thing," says Riddleberger.
A similar spirit of reinvention also rules nearby Second Chance Inc. (1400, 1501, 1600 and 1645 Warner St.; 410-385-1101; Secondchanceinc.org), a series of cement-floored warehouses crammed with old church pews, cast-iron porch columns ($595 each), fireplace mantels, a hodgepodge of furniture, and accessories like a gilded Styrofoam bust of what seems to be a grouchy Trojan warrior ($25).
"We're trying to keep things out of the landfill," says manager Lynn Fingles. "We get stuff from donations and deconstructed houses." This often makes for a wild range of merchandise. Recently spotted: a copper building facade with its original glass lights ($2,500) and a dark wood back bar ($9,000) straight out of an old Western. "We even had some stuffed lions in here a year ago," says Fingles.
FORGET ABOUT FACING the hassle of packing, international air travel and the ridiculously low value of the dollar.
Instead, head up I-95 to Baltimore, where globe-trotting is as simple as walking a few blocks — Little Italy famously greets anyone who wanders east of the Inner Harbor. It's bordered by the up-and-coming Spanish Town, and it's not too far from the Polish and Ukrainian communities tucked into Fells Point and Patterson Park. And just a bit further east is Greektown, where old men sitting around card tables playing backgammon can make you lose track of which continent you're on altogether.
"It began because we're a port, and immigrants have to land somewhere," explains Anne Garside of the Maryland Historical Society.
Indeed, many sources claim that Baltimore ranked second after Ellis Island as an entry point to the United States throughout the 19th century — millions of people's first view of the country was Charm City. Quite a few of them, apparently, decided to stay put.
There are hints of this history wherever you look, whether it's Slainte Irish Pub (1702 Thames St.) in Fells Point — where owner Patrick Russell has photos of three of his Irish forebears on the walls — or the Jewish Museum of Maryland (15 Lloyd St., 410-732-6400), whose campus includes the Lloyd Street Synagogue, which dates back to 1845.
Or, possibly, you'll run into Peggy Friedman, who dons a lacy white shirt and an indigo hat with matching feathers to lead the weekly immigration tour (Saturdays at noon, April-November, $10) presented by the Preservation Society (812 S. Ann St., 410-675-6750). "I'm dressed as an Irish immigrant from the 1880s," she'll explain, before leading her group along the water near Fells Point to expound on the various tribes that landed in Baltimore — Acadians from Nova Scotia, Haitians fleeing an uprising and then Germans, Irish, Poles, Ukrainians and more.
The ones who decided to linger often established small communities right around Fells Point. "This area offered immigrants the dream. There was housing, and jobs in canning, caulking and shipbuilding," Friedman says.
The proof is in the pierogies. As the tour strolls through Broadway Market, it's hard not to drool over the sausages at Sophia's Place. A similar menu awaits over at Krakus Deli (1737 Fleet St.) and Ostrowski's (524 S. Washington St.).
The prevalence of these businesses has everything to do with the proximity of St. Stanislaus Kostka, a Roman-Catholic church at the corner of Aliceanna and Ann streets. But though the building's facade remains impressive — and a plaque details its importance to the city's Polish residents since it was blessed and opened in 1880 — it's been shuttered since 2000.
Continue Reading "Explore Baltimore: Say Ciao To Charm City" »
ERIN TSCHANTRET, HANDS hands on her hips and a glint in her eyes, stands on the deck of a 52-foot-long ship anchored in Fell's Point. In her tricorn hat, short leather vest, gray skort and red sport sandals she looks like a cross between Captain Jack Sparrow and the mom next door. And as she faces the crowd assembled on the deck of her double-masted, skull-and-crossbones flying vessel, the Fearless, it becomes clear that's the point. In this zone where 19th-century American privateers (pirates for hire) harassed the British navy so much that they deemed Baltimore "that nest of pirates," Tschantret and her co-workers have launched a latter-day swashbuckler rebellion.
Tschantret heckles a staffer, a shaggy-haired man dressed in a leather cap and ruffled shirt. "Tell them how you came by your name, Scarnose Jim," she calls. Grinning, Scarnose (aka David Lustig), replies, "When I was a wee pirate, I tried to pick me nose with me sword. I missed." The crowd cracks up.
Corny jokes and yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum talk has been floating around the Inner Harbor since July, when Tschantret and her mates, er partners, Cara Joyce and Lauren Bolin started taking guests on pleasure cruises as the Urban Pirates. On one-hour trips, these latter-day, not-so-high seas adventurers commandeer the Volvo engine-powered boat around the Inner Harbor.
The trio got the idea for the buccaneer biz after Joyce's son attended a nautical-themed birthday party in Annapolis. They thought a modern pirate ship would be an ideal fit for Baltimore, where, in Fells Point, a fair bit of swashbuckling went on during the War of 1812. "I think people simply like to act like pirates because it's a little release for them on the weekends," says Joyce. "Pirates can behave however they like!"
Now, Tschantret and co. lead trips geared toward both kids and adults. Tonight's quest: a "bring your own grog" adventure for revelers 21 and up. Family-friendly trips —which feature more games, and no bottles of rum — take place on Saturdays and Sundays during the day. There's also a free pirate story time Fridays at 10 a.m. when the ship is docked at the Ann Street Pier.
Tonight, however, ain't kiddie book time. Booze cruisers, who range in age from their 20s to their 50s, come aboard, bearing bottles of Captain Morgan's rum and Miller Lite longnecks. Staffers help them into rogues regalia: colorful beaded necklaces, vests, bandannas and even an eye patch or two. "It's funny, though; most adults come dressed already," says Joyce. "We've had mermaids, Peter Pans and many Captain Jack Sparrows."
YOU THOUGHT THE pride of Baltimore was the aquarium, didn't you? It's not bad, not bad at all, though not quite as cheap as Artscape. This annual affair is the largest free public arts festival in the country — that means craftspeople, artists and designers putting their work on display for your perusal.
There are so many exhibits and performances taking place over the course of the weekend that I suggest you click here to plan your visit instead of having us try to direct you (I'll just mention that Joan Jett, Roberta Flack and Rusted Root are all performing). Between Artscape and Baltimore's seafood options, it's well worth the 45 minute jaunt north.
» 1200 Block of Mt. Royal Ave., Baltimore; Fri.-Sun., July 18-20, free; 877-225-8466.
Photo courtesy of Middleton Evans/Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts
SURE, MANY PEOPLE head north to Baltimore lured by old-fashioned pleasures — Berger cookies, cobblestone streets in Fells Point. But there are many new reasons to visit.
» Hampden Haute Fashion
John Waters' 'hood used to be a zone of beehives and tiger-print twin sets. But lately, a slew of fresh women's clothing boutiques have made the Avenue and its side streets into fashionista central. The latest addition, Form (1115 W. 36th St.), fills a loft-like room with party frocks by Vera Wang Lavender Label, jackets by Milly and high-end bags. It joins style sisters like indie label-rich Shine Collective (1007 A W. 36th St.) and Doubledutch Boutique (pictured, 3616 Falls Road). The latter stuffs an aqua-walled, are-we-in-Brooklyn? space with affordable clothing by Kenzie Girl and Sailor Jerry, plus truly quirky accessories, like an airplane necklace with a working propeller and locally made Pistol Designs handbags.
Continue Reading "Fresh From Charm City: Baltimore's New Treats" »
IN ITS 250-PLUS-YEAR HISTORY, Baltimore's Harbor has drawn shipbuilders, sailors and pirates. But water of an indoor sort attracts Olympic swimming team hopeful Katie Hoff, 18. She practices 10 times
per week at Mount Washington's North Baltimore Aquatic Club, where six-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps used to train.
Her lane time there has already yielded results: She holds the world record in the 400 IM (individual medley) and U.S. records in the 200 IM and 400 free. She expects to be at the Olympics in Beijing this summer, making her second appearance at the games.
So, where does this aqua girl hang out when she's not practicing flip turns or trying to reduce her race times? Besides couch surfing with her boyfriend (they love "O.C." reruns) or rope swinging at Beaver Dam, Hoff spends her non-pool time at spots all around B-More and its environs.
» EXPRESS: Practicing as hard as you do, you must work up quite an appetite. Where do you go to refuel?
» HOFF: There's this rotating sushi bar in Towson that's amazing. It's called Kyodai (1 W. Pennsylvania Ave.; 410-339-7500). It's healthy fast food, because you sit down and get a plate right away. They have a great variety of fresh sushi.
Continue Reading "Explore Baltimore: Strokes and the City" »
UNTIL RECENTLY, it seemed like the faux fur-upholstered headboards and Pop Arty nightclubs of the boutique hotel boom might have passed Baltimore by.
But in upcoming months and years, more than a dozen new properties are slated to open in Charm City, many of them of the artsy, quirky kind that made brands like W and Kimpton overnight sensations.
"Baltimore has a rich supply of historic buildings, which many boutique hotel brands like to convert due to their atmosphere," says Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit group promoting commercial development in the center of town. "They don't want to provide a cookie-cutter experience."
We're not sure whether this means we'll finally get our dream Charm City hostel — a B&B shaped like a giant crab, overseen by women in "Hairspray"-style beehives — but it does signal an expanding market for accommodations as unusual as Bawlomor itself. Upcoming conversions taking older structures from creaky to chic include trendy Hotel Indigo, opening this summer in the grand, 100-plus-year-old B&O Railroad Building; and the Aloft Hotel, a new urban inn from Starwood (W's parent company), debuting in 2010 in the Broadway Recreation Pier Building — the stand-in for police headquarters on "Homicide: Life on the Street."
Continue Reading "Hitting the Hay: Baltimore's Best Boutique Hotels" »
Addison Road