( Kim Hairston, The Baltimore Sun / December 27, 2010 )

Deborah Gore Dean’s resolution for the coming year is to throw out all the new age whoopydo- the green teak and the mid-century leftovers and go back to the basic rules of design—every room should have two things: a red anything and a bottle tucked away behind the curtains.

Hello!

I did NOT drop off of a cliff while out of town on a wonderful adventure.  My wonderful adventure consisted of two back to back lacrosse tournaments and the pleasure of watching both my sons play fine lacrosse in blazing heat and humidity.  I stayed at only the finest Motel 6 style accommodations and shared a bathroom with each boy.  Oh the joys of sharing bathing and grooming space with an adolescent! We dined at only the best pizza and burger restaurants, with one notable exception being a wonderful evening with old friends in Maryland.  However, I did manage to have a great time at each tournament, as I was surrounded by some seriously fun parents at one of them, and was in the shopping capital of the world at the other – Baltimore.  I know that the Baltimore-shopping-capital-of-the-world thing has been kept under wraps for a long time, but I am blowing the lid off of that, baby!  Actually, well, no, it isn’t the shopping capital of the world, or probably not even the state, except that a visit to Gore Dean in Baltimore makes you feel like it’s so.

This wonderful shop is located in a former mill.  It sits along a stream and is part of a complex of reclaimed industrial buildings.  It is an incredibly charming setting, although one that Deborah Gore Dean would find fateful.  Deborah opened her original store in Georgetown and it was a shopping mecca for DC’s interior designers and their clients.  She branched out to Baltimore.  Life was good.  Then she made a decision that a lot of us can relate to, she moved her family to Baltimore so that her daughter could attend a school that would further her athletic talents.  Again, life was good.  The the bucolic and extremely innocent looking stream that burbles behind her Baltimore store became a torrent, then a flood and then disaster.  The entire store was eventually a loss, although Deborah and her husband didn’t realize it at the time.  Painstakingly, they rebuilt the inventory and have consolidated all of their treasures into this one amazing store.   While this shop does not have a tony Georgetown address, the character and charm of the building is irresistable. Take a walk with me.

I have a hard time describing Deborah’s store, because she has curated a wonderful selection of so many things.  Beautiful china, crystal and flatware?  Check.  Gorgeous linens for the table and bed? Check.  Garden accessories and pots? Check.  Candles and home fragrance? Check.  Antiques and art?  Double check.  It sounds like it should be a veritable hodgepodge, but it is not.  Deborah is a wonderful stylist and all her merchandise flows from one vignette to the next.  She was apologizing to me for the disorder of the shop as she had hosted a book signing with Barry Dixon the night before.  To my eye, all looked lovely, but nevertheless as we chatted Deborah strolled and fluffed.  To say that she is a charming person and incredibly knowledgeable is an understatement.

Deborah is a shopkeeper after my own heart.  She does not have an inventory that is trend obsessed.  She buys what she loves and she hopes that you will, too.  So she has a delightful mix of high and low, European and Asian, rustic and refined objects on display.  It is possible to buy ready made curtains here of the highest quality while at the same time considering the purchase of an antique crystal chandelier.  I love that.

Here some vintage garden statues perch atop Asian inspired tables with a wonderfully crusty cabinet in the foreground.  Yes, that is screen mesh on the doors.

Old Chinese doors frame a vignette of Staffordshire and pottery.

Wonderful vintage table is for potting, I seem to remember.  It is festooned with an array of old wooden tools and that incredible root.

This table housed molds for candlemaking.  Just so full of character and charm.

I am stealing this idea.  This pretty Swedish style chair is covered not in linen, as we are seeing everywhere these days, but in a scrumptiously colored and buttery leather.  It is utterly lovely.

This quirky chair caught my eye.  How could it not?  Wonderful for a study or library, obviously, but it could also look fantastic in an entry hall with an umbrella stand (filled with walking sticks, naturally!).

This Moroccan lantern has been turned into a light fixture and I love how she has paired its bulbous shape with the topiaries.  Look at the wonderful walls in the background.  The whole store is just so evocative and it is a wonderful backdrop for Deborah’s selections.

The selection of pillows at this store is just fantastic.  They are perched everywhere and then still line shelves.

Just fantastic, aren’t they?  So, why am I showing you all this truly covetable (pun intended) merchandise when you don’t live in Baltimore, won’t have the pleasure of going soon, or frankly can’t imagine setting foot there?  Well, because Deborah has painstakingly added every single item in the store to her website, here.  So if you see it and love it, hop on over to the website and check it out.  Plus there are so many things on the website that are not on the floor of the store.  You could spend hours on this site, my friends, I promise you.  Deborah also writes a blog, which veers from incredibly informative pieces on antiques to quick descriptions of one of her evenings.  She is also working on a website strictly for the trade.  Deborah, I wish I had your energy.

I had the most wonderful time in the store, chatting with Deborah, getting some scoop on Barry Dixon, (Did you know that he is designing a new line for Fortuny?  Think all their traditional designs, but with some twists like trapunto stitching), looking at things for clients, taking all the above photos, and in general losing complete track of time.  I spent TWO HOURS there!  Which really takes me out of the running for mother of the year as my 10 year old son was with me the whole time, patiently waiting to go to the Inner Harbor.  However, he never once complained, as this was his pose for the entire time.

He wanted one of these basket chairs for his room.  I half wanted to buy it for him as a thank you to him and to Deborah!!  And here is the generous, warm and lovely Deborah Gore Dean.

She looks crisp and amazing, after being up until late the night before.  Somehow I think that this is the way she always looks.  However she is the friendliest person on the planet, so if you hop to the website, again here, and have any questions, don’t hesitate to call her or e-mail her.  She is a gem.

I will be back soon with another shopping opportunity.

Kristin

15 July 2010

Party for Barry Dixon

I was invited to a party earlier this evening where Barry Dixon was guest of honour. He’s a charming southern man, originally from South Africa, but now from the American South. His designs reflect each of these differing southern sensibilities.The party was held at Gore Dean and it was the perfect venue for an evening event.  The open courtyard in front of their old mill building was tented and there were lots of crisp and icy summer drinks, fabulous foods and a fun band combo playing.  The shop was open for everyone to browse the wares and to take a break in the air conditioning.Each guest received a personalized signed copy of Dixon’s book, “Barry Dixon Interiors”, which was a lovely gift. I am looking forward to spending a lazy summer afternoon examining each of the gorgeous pictures in great detail and learning from a master. Thanks for including me!

Brian Lawrence Live

Thurs., July 15
Several stops this evening: I first meet up with Celeste Corsaro of Charm City Food Tours at 13.5% Wine Bar in Hampden, where bartender Brendan takes good care of us, and I say hello to manager Peter Keck. Then it’s on to Mt. Washington Mill to Gore Dean, where they’re hosting a reception for Cameo Catering and a book-signing by DC designer Barry Dixon. A tent has been erected in the courtyard, and Freddie Stevens is providing music as a backdrop for the food and drinks. I chat with Leslie Goldsmith and her daughter Blakely, as well as illustrator Meg Page and designer David Ashton. We shared a table with friends Bruce Alderman and DJ Lamdin, and I also ran into Lisa Shenkle, who helped organize the party, Dot Fuchs, Randi Rom and Dara Bunjon. And we got a beautiful, personally signed book to take home!
Then it was on to the BMA, where Craberet was in full swing. This annual benefit garden party for the House of Ruth is a highlight of the summer season. John Shields was on hand overseeing the food and the crowd was flowing all around the magnificent sculpture gardens. I grabbed a quick bite of Asian lo mein, then plunged in to chat with Eleanor Landauer, Mary Helfrich, Kathleen Gibison, Heidi Slacum, Todd Yuhanick and lots of others. I rounded out the evening by meeting a few friends downtown at Bluegrass, then we adjourned to the Rowhouse, where Scooter Holt was bartending on the second floor.

Winging it

Annapolis craftsman creates regal birdhouses fit for inside or out

//

“And then I saw them, and I thought, ‘Now that’s a birdhouse.’ They are like the Ritz-Carlton of birdhouses. People are utterly charmed with them.”

Hoyland has been a collector for years of MacKenzie-Childs, and she asked Hurst to build her two three-story birdhouses and paint them in the whimsical colors and geometric patterns for which the design company is known. Hurst took her suggestion, and it has been those colors and patterns that have carried his houses to a distinctive and memorable level.

The two houses he built for her sit outside her shop and she credits them with increasing the foot traffic. She sells his birdhouses, too, when he has time to make them for her.

“No one paints the houses like Kevin. He makes beautiful things,” she said.

Each of the houses is signed and dated, and each is slightly different. He works seven days a week, 10 to 16 hours a day to keep up with orders.

“It’s a labor of love,” says Hurst, who laughingly estimates that he makes $2-$3 per hour.

He has one customer who has purchased two and wants five more by Christmas so he can trim a grand tree in his yard with nothing but Hurst’s birdhouses.

“Most of the people who purchase these houses understand the quality of upscale merchandise for their homes,” he said. Hurst has four birdhouses in his yard and four more decorate the living space above the workshop where he and his family now live.

“I make them and then I don’t want to give them up,” he said.

Hurst would like to hire help, but he doesn’t want the birdhouses to leave his artistic control – something that happened when he was building houses for people.

“I never want them to look like someone mass-produced them in China,” he said. “I love the Victorian style of houses. Now I can build all of them I want.”

susan.reimer@baltsun.com

Inside or out?

Regal Roost birdhouses fit sweetly in that niche of home furnishings and design elements that look good in the garden or in the house and blend the boundaries between those two living spaces.

It’s a trend that includes large planters, cement fruit baskets, stone pillars and more, says Richard Pawlik, co-owner of GoreDean, a home specialty shop in Mt. Washington. “These are things clients like because they can move them indoors in the winter and completely change the look,” Pawlik says.

Here are some items and tips on how to use them to bring the outside in:

Pedestals or pillars. These can stand alone in the garden or in the home. Think about using a pillar to hold a large potted fern.

Wicker, wire, and wrought iron. Furniture made of these elements is designed for outdoor spaces. But a table, chair or art work can add a distinctive touch indoors.

Ornate or oversized planters. These hold everything vessels can carry off more than summer flowers. Consider planting several with a single small boxwood or other evergreen. They can add life to the deck or patio during fall and winter. Or bring them indoors for an unexpected green touch.

Garden stools. Chinese garden stools, made of ceramic or metal, can serve as side tables or seats.



Pots by the Pair ( Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 6, 2010 ) A pair of painted metal garden planters, perhaps planted with small boxwoods or other evergreens, could come indoors during the winter.

Pillar of Design (Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 7, 2010) This fluted pedestal would be an ideal perch for a potted fern, indoors or out.

Faux Real (Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 6, 2010) This Bois garden table/stool can bring the outdoors - in.

Have a Seat (Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 6, 2010) Chinese garden stools can serve as seats, side tables or plant stands, indoors or out.

Design on the Half Shell (Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 6, 2010) Planting this large clam shell would make an impressive garden statement. Indoors, a potted fern or colorful glass balls would make it an interesting fireplace element.

Swinging Design (Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 6, 2010) A rattan swing chair is a cozy perch, indoors or out.

Half and Half (Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / July 6, 2010) These vintage wire Demi-Lune tables are ideal – together or separately, indoors or out.

Thank you, Baltimore Sun for such beautiful photographs – Deb

Huh, that is what I said, “who made a cameo appearance at Cameo Appearance.” Read who showed at this party.

Larry Schwartz, Vice President of Off-Premise Catering of Cameo Catering (formerly Cameo Caters) threw a lovely party at Gore Dean in Mt. Washington Mill to launch their new division, Cameo Appearance, focusing on stylish in-home parties.

To emphasize the “style” component into the evening’s festivities, renowned home decorator Barry Dixon, was signing complementary copies of his book Barry Dixon Interiors book. Check out the photo slid show

Guests seemed to enjoy many dishes from Cameo Appearance’s food repertoire under tent in the concourse of the renovated manufacturing area in Mt. Washington.

Stationary set ups with teriyaki salmon and sliced beef to passed hors d’oeuvres from mushroom pate, crab cakes and my personal favorite of the evening, bacon wrapped watermelon, no one went hungry. Passed champagne cocktails with hibiscus gracing the glasses to my favorite drink of the evening, my concoction, sparkling water and lime-aide. There were platters of large cocktail shrimp, roasted veggies and desserts tucked away in the Gore Dean design center. One could not miss the oh-so trendy macaroons on the cookie tray.

Along the way

Meg Fairfax Fielding, local Pigtown Design blogger who I know from her food blog, Pigtown-Pigout was busy chatting up Barry Dixon. Susant Dumont of Media Two and I caught up. The mother and daughter duo Heidi Klotzman, HeidNSeek Entertainment and Helene Miller, Lean On Me Concierge, arrived looking all summery and freshly scrubbed. My high school friend, foodie and all around town bon vivant and musician, Freddie Stevens,Freddie Stevens Entertainment was at the keyboards. Brian Michael Lawrence of Style Magazine and Celeste Corsario of Charm City Food Tours stopped by before they were off to another event. Had fun dishing the dish with another one of my media peeps, Randi Rom, known for her superior events and articles in Food Service Monthly. Public relations friend Lisa Shenkle, VERB! Communications was there promoting Cameo Caterers and Cameo Appearance.

For more info: Keep up-to-date and current by having the Dining Examiner’s posts delivered directly to your e-mail in box by clicking the SUBSCRIBE button above the post. Follow the Dining Examiner on Facebook or on Twitter @diningdish or e-mail me at examiner@diningdish.otherinbox.com. Check out Dara Bunjon’s National Food Examiner column . Thank you for your continued readership

Cameo Caterers launches their in home party division, Cameo Appearance at Gore Dean at Mt. Washington Mill. Photographs are ©.

Baltimore, affectionately called “Charm City” by natives, is living up to its nickname. This Mid-Atlantic port is no longer merely a convenient, if undistinguished, stopover for devouring crab cakes and catching a game at Camden Yards en route to Washington, D.C., or New York.

Seafood and sports are still a draw, but today Baltimore hums with energy, boasting downtown towers, a burgeoning harbor, a vibrant cultural scene, and hip restaurants. Empty mills and factories, the run-down remnants of the city’s industrial heritage, have been recast as commercial and residential spaces, often with stunning period details restored. A new generation of talented designers and artists, lured by the city’s affordability and neighborliness, is beginning to convert ragged areas into artsy pockets with catchy names like Station North and Highlandtown. Even the iconic crab cake has been spiced up by chefs eager to experiment with Chesapeake traditions.

A mix of old-world elegance and quirky charm, this historic harbor town beckons with diverse neighborhoods, stellar museums, and sensational seafood

“People are realizing that the things they enjoy when they travel to New York or Europe, they can have here,” says Patrick Sutton, a designer and architect who owns a chic eponymous home-furnishings store. “Baltimore was a meat-and-potatoes, blue-collar, conservative town, but now there is a buzz.”

“It’s an exciting time,” says Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, an architecture and design writer who grew up in Baltimore and relocated from the West Coast six years ago. “I am constantly amazed by the talent and depth of work happening here. There is a strong core of creative energy that wasn’t around 15 years ago that is galvanizing the city.”

Baltimore’s renaissance began in the 1970s with the transformation of the Inner Harbor from a dilapidated port surrounded by vacant warehouses and factories into a throbbing tourist mecca complete with glass pavilions for shopping, a superb aquarium, street musicians, and a flotilla of colorful paddle boats bobbing on the water. Half a mile away, Oriole Park at Camden Yards rises from the site of a former Baltimore & Ohio rail yard.

The best way to get a sense of the area’s historic past and its recent rehabilitation is via a blue-canopied water taxi. Harbor East, until recently a no-man’s-land of empty lots and vacant buildings, is now a hub percolating with restaurants, boutiques, high rises, condos, and hotels (a much-anticipated Four Seasons is slated to open next year). Browse the trendy boutiques on Aliceanna Street before heading to Pazo, a machine shop that has been transformed into a rendezvous for martinis and Mediterranean cuisine.

Further east are Fells Point, with its cobblestone streets, eclectic shops, and boisterous nightlife, and Canton, a working-class neighborhood that is becoming a lively enclave, with engaging spots like Blue Hill Tavern. On the opposite side of the harbor, Fort McHenry is a must-see for history buffs, the site of the pivotal battle in the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that would become “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

As exciting as the revamped areas are, they don’t fully represent the diverse, unpretentious, and, yes, quirky, soul of this postindustrial city of more than 600,000 inhabitants that was named after Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Baltimore became a center for shipbuilding and rail and sea shipping; by the 1890s, it was a major port of entry for immigrants, who labored in its factories and mills and are responsible for making the place the rich ethnic tapestry it is today.

Baltimore is also a town that revels in its loopy idiosyncrasies. The Ouija board was invented here, its Ravens football team is named for the famed poem by local bard Edgar Allan Poe, and hometown hero John Waters draws inspiration for his subversive films from what he once called “this gloriously decrepit, inexplicably charming city.” Only in Baltimore is Bromo Seltzer combined with the Palazzo Vecchio: In the heart of downtown is a 1911 Italianate landmark, commissioned by Captain Isaac Emerson, who invented the headache remedy. Each of the tower’s four clock faces spells B-r-o-m-o S-e-l-t-z-e-r, but the rotating blue-lit bottle, which once could be seen 20 miles away, was removed in 1936. Today the tower houses artists’ studios.

“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Baltimore has a wonderful eccentric streak,” says Deborah Buck, a native who now owns Buck House, a Manhattan art and antiques gallery. “It’s not a northern or southern city but a mix of people who don’t care about joining the throng and like to think outside the box.”

Many residents are irked that their hometown’s image has been largely shaped by tourist attractions and the gritty inner-city life depicted on the TV drama The Wire. While there is no denying Baltimore’s struggles—its crime rate is among the highest in the country—it is also true it possesses abundant appeal.

“I love walking around—you just turn a corner and come upon an incredible building or unexpected patch of green,” says Meg Fairfax Fielding, a 12th-generation Baltimorean who writes a blog about design and art, Pig*Town Design. “Friends who visit can’t believe the mix of historic and modern.”

About a mile north of the Inner Harbor lie the cobblestone streets of Mount Vernon, a Parisian­-style square studded with statuary and lined with 19th-century townhouses that could have been the setting for a Henry James novel. On balmy days, when the windows of the Peabody Institute conservatory are open, violin music drifts through the tree-lined streets. This was the address of the town’s social swells, like Betsy Patterson Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister-in-law, and the Duchess of Windsor, née Wallis Warfield Simpson. If you have the energy, climb the 228 steps to the top of the Washington Monument, the first memorial to our first president. But you might want to save your strength for the Walters Art Museum, where the works, including medieval manuscripts and Greek antiquities, were amassed by William Walters and his son, Henry, and donated to the city.

Bolton Hill, another neighborhood of fashionable townhouses, about a mile northwest of Mt. Vernon, has been compared to Philadelphia’s Society Hill and Beacon Hill in Boston. Design hounds will be delighted that the houses’ large, high windows allow them to peek into living rooms, one of which belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1930s. A popular local watering hole, B Bistro is the spot for eggs Benedict and mimosas on a Sunday

If you prefer kitschy bohemianism to quiet elegance, head to Hampden, a former mill town northwest of downtown where John Waters filmed Pecker. In June, its ebullient annual Honfest, celebrating the sassy local “Bawlmer” women (who address one and all as “hon”), brings out a galaxy of brassy babes in beehives, leopard prints, and cat’s-eye glasses. The heart of Hampden is the Avenue, a four-block stretch crammed with shops such as Red Tree, full of funky home accessories, and Hometown Girl (across from campy Café Hon), overflowing with wacky souvenirs.

No visit to the city would be complete without a pilgrimage to the Baltimore Museum of Art, adjacent to Johns Hopkins University. It houses, among other treasures, the largest Matisse collection in the world, an extensive array of African art, and a contemporary wing. The BMA is the town’s cultural grande dame, but the American Visionary Art Museum is its iconoclastic wild child, displaying provocative works by self-taught artists.

Is there any visitor who hasn’t been tempted by Baltimore’s famed crab cakes, whether served on a bun or accompanied by asparagus with garlic aioli? Every native has a favorite haunt, but you can’t do better than the jumbo-lump crab cakes at Faidley’s Seafood, a counter in noisy Lexington Market, where the scrumptious food more than compensates for the lack of ambience.

Baltimore’s dining scene has much more to offer these days, thanks to several innovative new restaurants as well as established favorites like Charleston, whose award-winning Low Country–inspired cooking by chef Cindy Wolf has tempted the palates of Renée Zellweger and Condoleezza Rice. “There is a lot more creativity now,” says Tony Foreman, Wolf’s husband. “Fifteen years ago, the most popular entrée was $15 fried chicken with a bottle of Kendall-Jackson. Today there are more interesting options.” The lobster risotto at Aldo’s, in Little Italy, and the rice-crusted scallops at B&O American Brasserie, a snazzy downtown newcomer, are two good examples.

Shopping isn’t Baltimore’s raison d’être, but its retail landscape has some diverting design stores that are off the beaten path. Housewerks has a bonanza of architectural salvage and unusual decorative objects stowed inside a 19th-century gas-valve house. And on the city’s northern edge is Mt. Washington Mill, a historic industrial mill that contains Gore Dean, noted for its antiques, tableware, and linens, and Home on the Harbor, an outpost of carefully culled modern furniture and accessories.

Nearby is Roland Park, a hilly three-square-mile residential area developed in the 1890s as one of the nation’s earliest “streetcar suburbs.” Here, Baltimore’s elite built ample Queen Anne–style cottages, English Tudors, and columned stucco mansions. Goodwood Gardens, one of its prettiest blocks, is where Billy Baldwin, the dean of American interior designers, grew up. Known for combining elegance with comfort and disdaining anything boring, Baldwin probably wouldn’t recognize his hometown today. But the city’s energy, quirky attitude, working-class roots, and entrepreneurial spirit create the sort of marvelous mix he no doubt would have appreciated.

ESSENTIAL BALTIMORE

The area code is 410, unless noted.

Sea the sights. Explore the Inner Harbor by canopied water taxi (563-3901; thewatertaxi.com), stopping at different landings—historic Fells Point, trendy Harbor East, the aquarium—to stroll, shop, and snack.

Immerse yourself in masterpieces. The stately Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) boasts the world’s largest Matisse collection and a sculpture garden (10 Art Museum Dr., 443-573-1700; artbma.org).

Get a kitsch fix. Saunter along the Avenue, four blocks of funky shops, galleries, and cafés on West 36th Street in Hampden, a former mill town that’s a favorite of filmmaker John Waters.

WHAT TO SEE

American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Hwy., 244-1900; avam.org: A colossal whirligig and scrap-metal robots are among the many unusual pieces on display here by self-taught artists.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, 901 W. Pratt St., 752-2490; borail.org: Marvel at magnificent 19th-century steam locomotives, original tracks, and elegant parlor cars.

Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy., 727-4808; www.thebmi.org: This former oyster cannery contains fun interactive exhibits showcasing Baltimore’s commercial history.

Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles St., 516-0341; museums.jhu.edu: An exquisitely restored 48-room Gilded Age mansion full of a railroad tycoon’s treasures.

Fort McHenry, 2400 E. Fort Ave., 962-4290; nps.gov/fomc: These are the ramparts watched o’er by Francis Scott Key in 1814, inspiring the poem that became our national anthem.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 333 W. Camden St., 685-9800; theorio­les.com: Go for a game, a tour of the stadium, and Boog’s barbecue beef.

The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St., 547-9000; thewalters.org: Old Masters, Roman sarcophagi, and Art Deco jewelry are only part of this vast collection bequeathed to the city by Henry Walters in 1931.

Washington Monument, 609 Washington Pl., 396-1049; baltimoremuseums.org: The first monument to the first president towers over Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore’s nod to Paris’s Place Vendôme.

WHERE TO STAY

Admiral Fell Inn, 888 S. Broadway, 522-7377; harbormagic.com: This historic inn, in what was once a shipyard center, dates to the 1770s and offers afternoon tea and ghost tours.

Hotel Monaco, 2 N. Charles St., 443-692-6170; monaco-baltimore.com: This trendy, pet-friendly hotel, new from the Kimpton group, features 202 guest rooms in a downtown landmark former B&O railroad headquarters.

Inn at 2920, 2920 Elliot St., 342-4450; theinnat2920.com: Mixing quaint with hip, this intimate bed-and-breakfast in a converted row house serves a delicious complimentary breakfast.

Intercontinental Harbor Court Hotel, 550 Light St., 234-0550; harborcourt.com: Every luxury—195 plush rooms, pool, tennis court, and rooftop health club—plus a killer view of the harbor.

WHERE TO EAT

Aldo’s, 306 S. High St., 727-0700; aldositaly.com: Superb Southern Italian food in an elegant setting with private wine cellars for dining.

B bistro, 1501 Bolton St., 383-8600; b-bistro.com: This cozy spot in a 19th-century row house features an eclectic menu and a lively Sunday brunch.

B&O American Brasserie, 2 N. Charles St., 443-692-6172; bandorestaurant.com: Chef E. Michael Reidt serves up charcuterie and pot roast to chic downtown denizens.

Charleston, 1000 Lancaster St., 332-7373; charlestonrestaurant.com: A favorite of foodies, with inspired New American cooking by chef Cindy Wolf.

Faidley’s Seafood, 203 N. Paca St., 727-4898; faidleyscrabcakes.com: Fans of the scrumptious crab cakes have flocked to this Lexington Market lunch counter since 1886.

Gertrude’s, 10 Art Museum Dr., 889-3399; gertrudesbaltimore.com: Gourmet Chesapeake cuisine from chef John Shields in an airy restaurant overlooking BMA’s sculpture garden.

Pazo, 1425 Aliceanna St., 534-7296; pazorestaurant.com: An 1880s tool factory reborn as a hot spot for Mediterranean food (grilled fish, roasted game) and people-watching.

Teavolve Café & Lounge, 1401 Aliceanna St., 522-1907; teavolve.com: Sunni Gilliam’s spacious modern tea salon showcases a dizzying assortment of brews and light fare.

The Wine Market, 921 E. Fort Ave., 244-6166; the-wine-market.com: This big former foundry has a lively vibe and an adventurous menu, ranging from dumplings to braised pork shank.

WHERE TO SHOP

Antique Exchange, 3545 Chestnut Ave., 532-7000; antique-exchange.com: Husband and wife Tom and Wesley Finnerty mix old and new; vintage items, porcelain, and prints join contemporary pieces.

Betty Cooke Jewelry, 24 Village Sq., 323-2350: This renowned local designer transforms gold and silver into wearable minimalist art.

Gore Dean, 1340-D Smith Ave., 323-7470; goredean.com: The go-to destination for tastemakers in search of high-quality antiques, home goods, and tableware.

Home on the Harbor, 1340 Smith Ave., 433-1616; homeontheharboronline.com: Steps from Gore Dean, this is a sunny oasis of modern design from Knoll, Alessi, Kartell, and Blu Dot.

Housewerks, 1415 Bayard St., 685-8047; housewerksalvage.com: A mecca for industrial artifacts, furnishings, and decorative objects displayed in an 1885 gas-valve house.

McLain Wiesand, 1013 Cathedral St., 539-4440; mclainwiesand.com: David Wiesand’s showroom brims with handcrafted metal and wood furniture, mirrors, and lamps.

Patrick Sutton Home, 1000 Light St., 783-1500; patricksuttonhome.com: ­Architect-designer Sutton’s sleek domain of custom-designed furniture, antiques, sculpture, and accessories.

Red Tree, 921 W. 36th St., 366-3456; redtreebaltimore.com: Chockablock with quirky gifts, painted furniture, pillows, and works by local artisans.

Sassanova, 805 Aliceanna St., 244-1114; sassanova.com: An adorable pink-and-brown shoe boutique stocked with heavenly soles by Tory Burch, Missoni, and Kate Spade