Health experts say they’re worried that fatigue over pandemic restrictions will make people less vigilant about following public health recommendations as the weather cools, leading to an even greater surge in cases.
Baltimore is closing several streets to vehicle traffic, in particular in Fells Point and Federal Hill, the police department has hundreds of extra officers at the ready and some establishments plan to close early.
Taqueria el Rodeo has opened at 1101 Light St. in Federal Hill. The restaurant space at the corner of Light St. and E. Cross St. was the former home of a couple Peruvian chicken concepts. Taqueria el Rodeo has another location in Langley Park, MD.
Taqueria el Rodeo is open Monday to Friday from 6am to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 9pm.
The menu at Taqueria el Rodeo features different dishes with meats such as chorizo, ham, el pastor, chicken, roast beef, and beef tongue. The dishes include breakfast items served with eggs, beans, bananas, and tortillas, as well as tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, burritos, tamales, yuca, and tortas (sandwiches) using the different meats and vegetables.
It also sells Mexican drinks such as Jarritos, Horchata, and Tamarindo.
Taqueria el Rodeo has a small dining room and an ordering counter for carryout.
The post Taqueria el Rodeo Opens in Federal Hill first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Crepe Crazy recently opened at Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. Crepe Crazy built out its space in a previously unoccupied stall in the east end of the market between Steve’s Lunch and Sobeachy Haitian Cuisine.
Crepe Crazy was started in 2007 by Owners Vladimir and Inna Giterman in Austin, Texas. Vladmir and Inna Giterman both immigrated to the United States in 1996 from the former Soviet Union; Vladimir is from Russia and Inna is from Ukraine.
The Gitermans vended at fairs and festivals, including SXSW, where they quickly earned popularity. They expanded to a food truck and, in 2014, opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Dripping Springs, Texas. The company continued to expand and now has three food trucks and a second restaurant in Austin.
Not only are the Gitermans and their children deaf, so are most of their employees and contractors. Their hearing workers are also fluent in American Sign Language. The family supports the local deaf community by offering job opportunities, understanding the challenges deaf people often face to find work.
Franchisees Ruslan and Betsie Kulikov, who have been vending at festivals in Maryland since 2015, operate the Crepe Crazy stall at Cross Street Market.
Their expansive menu features a variety of sweet and savory crepes, including breakfast, vegetarian, and gluten-free options, as well as a kids’ menu with crepes like “Lil’ Piggy” and “Nutty Buddy.” They’ll also offer paninis, salads, and seasonal soups, in addition to select French wines and mimosas.
The ‘mid century modern-inspired stall design’ features wood accents, white subway tile, hanging plants, and an orange tree wallpaper.
Cross Street Market reopened last year after receiving an $8.5-million renovation by Caves Valley Partners. There will be a total of 23 food businesses in the market. There are currently two stalls available for lease.
Photos below courtesy of Crepe Crazy
The post Crepe Crazy Opens at Cross Street Market first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Sponsored Post from West LLC Builders:
A three-townhome project on the 1400 block of Haubert St. in Locust Point recently sold in 30 days. The four-level, 3,950 sq. ft. homes from developer Chester Street Associates LLC each sold for more than $700,000.
The project at 1441, 1443, and 1445 Haubert St. was built by West LLC Builders Management Group, designed by architect Justin Seto of Seto Architects, financed by Bay Vanguard, and sold by Eric Figurelle and Greg Morris of Cummings & Co. Realtors. The townhomes replaced a row of 16 one-story garages.
The large homes are filled with luxury features including three-car garages; a gourmet kitchen with top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, an island with a breakfast bar, and a walkout deck; four spacious bedrooms inducing a luxurious master suite; a wet bar leading out to a four-story deck; and a large rooftop deck with 360 degrees views of the city and waterfront.
Bill West of West LLC Builders said two of the three homes were sold to out-of-town buyers relocating to Locust Point. “The market is still there for the high-end houses,” said West, who noted that he is trying to find opportunities to build more of them in South Baltimore.
West and Chester Street Associates also worked together on a large home on Webster St. in Federal Hill that sold for more than $1 million in 2018. Chester Street Associates also does rowhome rehabs and just completed a renovation at 1539 S. Charles St. and is under construction on another at 1627 S. Charles St.
The post Luxury Townhome Project on Haubert Street in Locust Point Sells in 30 Days first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
The owners of The 8×10 live music venue in Federal Hill have launched a GoFundMe to raise money to keep this longtime Federal Hill business afloat. The 8×10 has been open in Federal Hill since 1983, but it has been closed since March 13th due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The GoFundMe aims to raise $100,000 and has already raised almost $40,000 just a day after it was launched. From the GoFundMe:
Unfortunately, it has come to this. The 8×10 needs your help.
For those that don’t know about The 8×10, we are a live music venue in Baltimore, Md. Under various owners, the location in Federal Hill neighborhood has been providing a home for live music since 1983. My wife Abigail Janssens and myself, Brian Shupe have owned and operated it since 2005.
The 8×10 is legendary for its intimacy, its pristine sound, and most of all, its rabid and fiercely loyal fanbase. We get told all the time by bands that we are their favorite venue east of the Mississippi. We have poured our souls into the venue to live up to those standards and provide a fertile ground for bands and audiences to connect seamlessly.
The 8×10 shut its doors on March 13th 2020 and has been dark ever since. Being an entertainment venue, we are going to be the last industry to recover. While bars and restaurants have been open for several months, we just have been permitted to open at 25% capacity.
The problem breaks down into two main issues. Safety and Revenue.
SAFETY ISSUES
The last thing we are going to do is create a situation where our family of customers, bands, and employees get sick. We have been going back and forth about when would it be safe to open, when the outbreak at The White House happened, that put everything into perspective. How fast it spread, How many people were infected from one little gathering. And that was outdoors. The 8×10 is a small venue. There is hardly any way to socially distance. Even with lower capacity, masks, temperature checks, if someone unknowingly came to a show, The 8×10 would be a super spreader. We couldn’t live with that.
REVENUE ISSUES
Right now we can open at 25% capacity. Do I want to put my staff at risk of bringing home COVID-19 to their children or elderly parents for 25% of their usual tips? Our doorman is going to have to interact with every single patron multiple times a night, what kind of risk is that? But that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. Where are we going to get bands? Bands aren’t touring yet out of fear and simply not being able to find enough venues that are allowed to open. Is a band that usually plays to 300 people and makes a couple thousand dollars going to be able to cover the exact same expenses from 25% of their normal ticket sales? And are you the public going to risk coming to shows? What should we do? Should we start charging four times as much for the tickets to make up the difference? We just can’t stomach charging $60 to our faithful patrons for the same show they normally pay $15 to attend. There are no easy answers.
COST OF DOING BUSINESS
Meanwhile, we are still paying our expenses to the tune of $15,000 a month. Our rent alone is $10k a month. Every month. Our landlord has been very generous to offer us some relief and has promised us he will do everything he can to ensure The 8×10 survives this, but he is struggling too. The 8×10 is all about doing the right thing, and we can’t run out on our commitment to him or any of our other vendors and monthly responsibilities. Rent, Gas & Electric, Insurance, Telephone, Internet, yada yada yada.
We were lucky. We got an emergency relief loan through the government and we have been able to meet our responsibilities up to now. And we can still make it but probably only to the end of the year. But this is a loan, not a grant. It is not a forgivable package, but a loan. That means after working so hard and struggling to serve the community for 15 years, once we had finally pulled our head above water, COVID-19 struck and derailed our retirement plans and now were are once again in debt. The $150,000 dollars that has been keeping The 8×10 from bankruptcy is going to have to be repaid and it is going to come out of Abigail’s and my pocket. It’s the cost of doing business and we know it. But the government is not helping our industry. Live music venues, movie theaters, theaters for plays and musicals are all suffering the most and going to be the last industry to recover. Since there is no second round of loans or aid on the horizon, it has come to this. We have to turn to the people that come to, and play at The 8×10 for help.
We hate the fact that we are asking for charity, but if comes down to begging or letting The 8×10 disappear due to some pandemic…We have no pride. We will do whatever it takes to keep The 8×10 alive for our community of music lovers. There is no shame in that. If there was another way, believe me we would be doing it.
OUR GOAL
Honestly, we know 2020 has been a screw job on everybody and finances are tough for everyone. We are just hoping that Many Hands Make Light Work. There have been hundreds of thousands of people that have come through the doors of The 8×10. If we can spread the financial burden of keeping The 8×10 solvent over all the people who have come and had their minds blown by the magic coming off the stage, celebrated with their friends a marriage, birth, promotion, birthday, or just that it is a Friday night. If we can spread it out over the thousands of bands that have played there over the years and told us how much they love The 8×10. If everyone who has ever been touched by what The 8×10 does can just donate what they can afford then the burden won’t seem so heavy.
Our bare minimum goal would be to put six more months of expenses into savings. Maybe just maybe by then we will have a vaccine or some semblance of our normal lives back. But in March we were sure it would be over by June. In August we were saying it has to be better by October, yet nothing has changed.
Whatever we can raise we will be grateful for. I can tell you that every cent of the money will go to expenses at The 8×10 first and foremost. If by some miracle we are able to open soon, 100% of the remainder of the money will go to paying back the $150k loan.
We need your help. We need you to spread this website to every person you know. Do you have a contact with any of the big bands that played The 8×10 back when they were coming up? Send them a link, ask them to give back if they can. Do you have a contact with a music magazine or online community? Represent for us and tell them what we stand for and ask if they can throw us a few.
Please, please know that we are only asking for you to give an amount that makes sense for your situation. Every donation will add up, so please don’t try and be a hero and end up putting strain on your situation.
This is such a horrible situation. We have put 15 years of our blood, sweat, tears, and love into The 8×10. And you have put the same effort into coming and supporting us by seeing show after show. None of us want The 8×10 to go under.
The post GoFundMe Launched to Help Save The 8x10 in Federal Hill first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
After a $1-million donation to support the redevelopment of Rash Field, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) will have signage at the new Inner Harbor park. BGE will have naming rights and signage will present on the new pavilion and nature park which are part of Phase I of the project that is currently under construction.
The project is led by Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore in partnership with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks.
The $16.8-million Phase I will renovate the western section of the 7.5-acre park. This phase will add a redeveloped pavilion with a café, outdoor patio, overlook with a partially green roof, bathrooms, a shade structure, and amphitheater seating; a skate park called Jake’s Skate Park; a children’s nature park; a children’s kinetic playground; and new plants and landscaping. These new features will replace a small parking lot (not the one designated for the Maryland Science Center), a green space, a brick patio with a sandbox, and the western edge of the concrete bleachers.
Jake’s Skatepark is named in memory of Jake Owen, a South Baltimore resident, avid skater, and sports lover, who was killed in 2011 when he was five years old by a cell phone-distracted driver.
Waterfront Partnership President Laurie Schwartz said BGE and Waterfront Partnership liked the pavilion location because of its prominent location and the nature park because of BGE’s “commitment to the environment.” BGE wants to see programming at the nature park similar to the Patterson Park Audubon Center, and sees this as an ideal area for employment engagement opportunities through plantings and educational events with kids.
The signage must be approved by the Baltimore City Council. The plan already received unanimous approval by the Baltimore City Planning Commission.
The City will contribute more than $9.5 million towards design and construction costs, and Waterfront Partnership has raised an additional $4.3 million from the State of Maryland and fundraising from additional private sources.
Schwartz said construction, which began in May, is going smooth so far and they anticipate opening Phase I in about a year.
Waterfront Partnership is currently fundraising for Phase II which is expected to cost $12 million. Phase II will redevelop the eastern section of the park. This section will include a reorganized seven-court volleyball area adjacent to the pavilion and café, a large lawn that will be used for youth sports and events, a game lawn, a shade lawn, a repositioned Pride of Baltimore memorial, and a myriad of sloped paths that will replace the bleachers and transition the change in grade from Key Hwy. to the ground level of the park. Plans for Phase II are continually developing.
Phase I renderings from Waterfront Partnership, Mahan Rykiel, and Gensler
Screenshot courtesy of Google Maps
Renderings from RashField.org
The post BGE Makes -Million Donation to Rash Field Redevelopment, Will Have Signage at New Site first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Sponsored Post from Scarlett Loewe of Long & Foster Real Estate:
133 West Ostend Street
Federal Hill
Price: $339,900
Tax: $7,039
1,314 sq. ft.
2 BD/3 BA
Off-Street Parking: No
SELLERS HAVE FOUND THEIR NEW HOME AND 133 IS READY FOR IT’S NEW OWNERS! SELLERS WILL CONSIDER ALL OFFERS AS WELL AS POSSIBLE ASSISTANCE W/ CLOSING COSTS. Must see the remodeled home in desirable Federal Hill. Master bedroom features built-ins, including a decorative fireplace & bathroom with a separate tub & shower. Second bedroom redone in 2018 w/ double mirrored closet doors, built-in desk & wall shelving & a complete new en-suite bath. Exposed brick on 1st & 2nd floors. Nicely finished lower level w/ full bath (could be 3rd bedroom) & separate laundry room w/ plenty of storage. Brick patio, completely fenced for privacy & great for entertaining. Home features beautiful hardwood floors, decorative fireplaces in LR, DR & MBR, built-ins, crown molding & plantation shutters in the windows. Gorgeous updated kitchen with granite & stainless appliances.
For more information or to schedule a showing, contact:
Scarlett Loewe
Long & Foster Real Estate
(443) 253-1333
Scarlett@LNF.com
The post Featured Listing: Classic Charm in This Federal Hill Home Featuring a Finished Basement and Three Full Bathrooms first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Baltimore transportation officials are in the early stages of discussing new safety restrictions for restaurants that have expanded their outdoor dining operations after a driver crashed into a Federal Hill cafe’s outdoor patio.
SoBo Café’s parklet, which is an outdoor dining area in street parking spaces, was destroyed Sunday morning at 1250am when a car ran through it. Owner Anna Leventis told WBAL TV that about 60 percent of the parklet, which feature shade sails, lattices, and flower pots, was destroyed.
SoBo Café posted the following to its Facebook page:
Our beautiful parklet was destroyed last night. Thankfully no one was hurt. This is a devastating blow to our business…
Posted by SoBo Cafe on Sunday, October 18, 2020
With help from Federal Hill Main Street, SoBo Cafe’s staff was quickly able to get the damage cleared and get a parklet rebuilt for dining on Sunday.
While Leventis was filming a segment with WBAL TV yesterday, some neighbors who witnessed the accident stopped by with the license plate number of the white Nissan Altima that caused the damage. Part of the car’s bumper was left at the scene.
The parklet on Monday afternoon
The post SoBo Café's Parklet Destroyed by a Car Sunday Morning but Quickly Rebuilt and Reopened first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Sponsored Post from Bumper Globe Collision Centre and Autowerx:
Bumper Globe, which has offered collision repair and automobile painting at 1845 S. Hanover St. in Federal Hill since 2007, now has an autowerx general mechanical repair shop.
Bumper Globe has slowly expanded its mechanical department to keep up with demand by adding a top-of-the-line Hunter HawkEye Elite® Alignment Machine, a tire changer and balancer for suspension work, dealer-level diagnostic tools for error codes and recalibration, multiple two-post lifts, and equipment for A/C and cooling system repairs. Bumper Globe can also perform Maryland State Inspections.
Bumper Globe is currently offering two specials:
The mechanical department is led by Service Manager Jonathan Seaman and ASE-certified mechanic and Maryland State Inspector Tim Rigel. Both have many years of experience in the industry.
“I believe we have the best equipment of any of the competitors in the area and we are a true one-stop shop with all services under one roof,” said Bumper Globe Owner Kary Kuo.
Kuo said he was unfamiliar with Federal Hill until a realtor showed him a “hidden gem” in the vacant Pabst Blue Ribbon building. He said the customer base has been “super” and “enjoyable to work with,” and his 10 employees “love it” at Bumper Globe.
Kuo continued to build his business through the economic downturn of 2008 and has kept busy during the COVID-19 pandemic with safety protocols in place for his team and customers. He looks forward to continuing to expand his business in South Baltimore.
The team at Bumper Globe encourages people to visit them for any of their car’s mechanical or collision needs or to come in for a 27-point inspection. The staff is happy to assist all of its customers and help get their cars back on the road.
The post Bumper Globe in Federal Hill Now Has a Mechanical Repair Shop first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
SoBo Cafè, located in Federal Hill, was damaged after a white Nissan Altima crashed into its building around 1 a.m. Sunday morning at W. Cross Street.
On Episode 7 of This Week in South Baltimore, Nate and Kevin discuss a barrage of new business news that include The Local Oyster coming to Locust Point, two Latin American businesses opening in Federal Hill, a coffee shop opening in Pigtown, a renovated Hollins Market reopening, and two gyms opening in Locust Point. Plus, we discuss real estate news including two park master plans, more apartments for Downtown, and more storage for Carroll-Camden. We cap it off with some cool stories around the neighborhood, and talk about some great plates around South Baltimore.
Subscribe here on iTunes (and make sure to give us a 5-star review!): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-south-baltimore/id1522759483
Podcast archive on SouthBMore.com: https://www.southbmore.com/baltimore/podcasts/
The post Podcast: This Week in South Baltimore Episode 7 first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Welcome to a special episode of SoBo Spotlight. In this episode, Nate sits down (from 6 ft. away) with Lauren Bussard, director of development for Unified Community Connections, and Russ Causey, founder of the annual Hoodstock Charity Music Festival, to discuss the upcoming 17th annual Hoodstock “Virtual” event which will air live on the Hoodstock YouTube channel on Saturday, October 17th at 8PM.
Click here to Watch Live Sat OCt 17th @ 8PM (donations appreciated): https://www.youtube.com/c/HoodstockBmore/featured
Click here to learn more about Unified Community Connections: www.unified.org
The post SoBo Spotlight Podcast: Learn about the Hoodstock XVII Charity Music Fest first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
Two retail buildings in Federal Hill – one at 803 Light St. and one next door at 805 Light St. – are currently available in an Alex Cooper online auction that ends on Wednesday at 12pm. The three-story buildings, which also have apartments on the top two floors, were the former homes of Tradestone Gallery and The Book Escape, respectively. These two businesses, which have the same owner, are relocating to 925 S. Charles St.
Both buildings are on an 18 ft. by 60 ft. lot and have two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments on the upper floors that each rent for $1,500 per month. The properties are a block from the Inner Harbor.
The current bid on 803 Light St. is $171,000 and the current bid on 805 Light St. is $166,000.
Photos of 803 Light St. from Alex Cooper
Photos of 805 Light St. from Alex Cooper
The post Two Retail Buildings in Federal Hill Available Now at Auction first appeared on SouthBMore.com.
