Baltimore Grows

Get a head start on Mother’s Day with the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance’s First Annual Tour of Kids’ Spaces on Saturday, May 9, from 10 am to 3 pm, in historic Federal Hill. This self-guided walking tour, which features everything from historic gems to quirky row houses, will showcase the work of urban parents who have transformed limited or awkward spaces into amazing places for kids. It’s a great way to treat an expecting, new, or even seasoned mom!

DBFA counts among its goals attracting new families to Baltimore City and encouraging others to stay as their children grow. To that end, the house tour will demonstrate how parents are raising their children in the city with style. The tour will feature 8 to 10 houses over several city blocks and take approximately an hour to an hour and a half to complete, rain or shine.

WHAT: DBFA First Annual House Tour of Kids’ Spaces

WHERE: Federal Hill and South Baltimore

WHEN: Saturday, May 9, 2009, from 10 am to 3 pm

WHO: Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance

SIGNIFICANCE: The house tour is DBFA’s foremost annual fundraiser, with 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales going toward DBFA’s mission of improving, supporting, and advocating for family life downtown

Event Flyer (PDF)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cost: $25 per ticket ($5 discount for DBFA members); $30 day of event

Tickets: Purchase in advance at www.dbfam.org/housetour or day of at Spoons Coffee Cafe, 24 E Cross St

Sponsors: Currey Real Estate Group and Indigo Ink Digital Printing

For More Information: To volunteer, nominate a house, help sponsor the tour, or place advertising in the program guide, please see www.dbfam.org/housetour, or email housetour@dbfam.org Continue Reading »

Be sure to vote for Baltimore as one of Travel & Leisure “America’s Favorite Cities” for 2009.  Click on the link below.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/afc/2009/newcitiesvote

Brewer’s Art, right here in Baltimore, topped the recently released list of Best Bars in America by Esquire Magazine.  http://www.esquire.com/bestbars/ 

When you tire of inebriating yourself with tallboys and “Natty Boh,” you head for the Brewer’s Art, housed in an old mansion. Belgian-style home brews are always on tap.

My favorite thing about Brewers Art (www.thebrewersart.com - 1106 N Charles St) is throwing on a blazer and hanging out in the front room upstairs.  With the stately old fireplace and a giant chandelier in the converted mansion, it makes me feel like a millionaire having a party with a group of friends.  The downstairs bar has a bit more casual and trendy atmosphere.  The dining room is classy, and the food is delicious.  The best part is the beer….brewed in house…their Resurrection Ale cant be beat.  Perhaps Brewer’s Art will be in contention for Best Beer in America next?

According to Esquire, the rankings can change based on user feedback, so make sure you visit the site and vote. http://www.esquire.com/bestbars/bb-BrewersArt

jeffcantonite@yahoo.com

Baltimore based Legg Mason just squeaked onto this year’s list of Fortune 500 companies, taking spot number 500 and making it now one of two fortune 500 companies within the Baltimore City Limits.  Legg Mason will share the spotlight with Constellation Energy which took the #125 spot.  Towson based Black and Decker ended up at number 408. 

The addition of Legg Mason to the list will undoubtedly be a selling point for Baltimore which has lamented the loss of many Fortune 500 companies in its past.  While Legg Mason has taken a hit from some bad investments, it has fared must better than most financial institutions in this climate, contributing to its advance in the rankings.

Click Here to Read the Article in Baltimore Business Journal

http://www.leggmason.com/

jeffcantonite@yahoo.com

For the past couple of years, many Baltimoreans had been lamenting the fact that no Baltimore City Chinese restaurant served Dim Sum.  The last place that served it, The Chinatown Cafe, stopped the practice about two years ago.  After that, the next closest place for Dim Sum was Jesse Wongs Hong Kong in Downtown Columbia, but that has reportedly closed as of December.  Chinatown Cafe has since closed as well, but in its place is a new Chinese Restaurant called Zhongshan that is bringing Dim Sum back to Baltimore (323 Park Ave (410) 223-1881).

Dim Sum basically consists of moderately priced small plates and is sometimes served on carts.  Many people consider Dim Sum menus to be more authentic than the typical Chinese food one might pick up at PF Changs or the corner carry-out.  Supposedly Zhongshan will serve Dim Sum every day from 7am to 3pm.  Lots of times people like to eat Dim Sum for brunch on weekends.  If you haven’t tried it before, I would recommend it…just a word of caution for those with some food aversions…many Dim Sum menus contain items like Chicken Feet and Honeycomb Beef Tripe. Not into Dim Sum? Zhongshan will also serve the standard Chinese fare that we’re all familiar with.

Click Here to see the Baltimore Sun Article

I haven’t make it over to Zhongshan yet, so anyone who has, please post your thoughts as a comment.

jeffcantonite@yahoo.com

We’re happy to have another guest post today courtesy of Urban Discoveries Living Blog. Check out all their great content.

The State Center was supposed to be one of those far-sighted projects that would help transform Baltimore into the vibrant, accessible city of the future. Though it wasn’t scheduled to be completed until 2018, even just the vision had a lot of people excited. The idea:  to redevelop and reshape the 28 acres around the current State Center, an area that currently includes huge city offices, a light rail stop, and… a lot of parking lots and chain-link fences. The State Center development was supposed to change all that, reconnecting neighborhoods and creating a vibrant livable community. But problems have cropped up—new legislation, worrisome language in the state budget—that have some people worried that Baltimore is just going to end up with more of the same.

Why spend so much time and money on the area anyway?  Well, there are plenty of assets not being taken advantage of here, is the thinking—not only does the area already boast a much-used transit hub (both the light rail and the subway stop here), and it’s here that vibrant neighborhoods (Mt. Vernon, Seton Hill, Bolton Hill) would come together, if there was anything there worth coming together for. So the stuff is there, for the most part; it’s just not connected well at all. Continue Reading »