Hospitality : Buzz

Baltimore may have shed its image as the gritty, crime-infested city depicted in the The Wire. That's according to USA Today, which credits the Four Seasons Baltimore as the watershed development that has helped Baltimore's image. It features a 44-image slideshow of the property. 

"The Four Seasons Baltimore hotel tower is the newest tower on Baltimore's skyline in the upscale Harbor East neighborhood, which contains retail shops, restaurants, galleries, apartments and office space," USA Today writes. "The hip retail shop Anthropologie will open a location in the hotel complex in late summer."

Check out the slideshow here. 

Top Haunts, which bills itself as a "magazine for haunt industry professionals," has recognized Jessup's Bennett's Curse as one of the top attractions for people who like to be spooked. 

The Howard County attraction is one of 23 scary spots featured in its haunted attractions' poll. Bennett's Curse shares the honor with The Bates Motel & Haunted Hayride in Glen Mills, Pa., and Disturbia Haunted House in Huntsville, Ala. 

You can check out the magazine and poll here. 

Did you ever watch an episode of Ace of Cakes and think "hey, I could do that?"

Well it's now time to put your hubris to the test. 

The so-called bad boy of baking Duff Goldman is opening Cakemix in Los Angeles. It's DIY for the bakers, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

"Cakemix is for anyone off the street who wants to go wild with a tube of buttercream. By decorating a cake, that is," the Times writes. 

You get to choose between a 6-inch or 9-inch cake and then get fondant, buttercream, edible spray paint and the help of an on-staff decorator. 

Cakemix is opening this month next to Charm City Cakes West, his L.A. outpost of the Remington bakery featured in the Food Network show.  

You can read the entire story here. 

Andrew Zimmern spent three days eating through Baltimore’s finest fare for his Travel Channel show Bizarre Foods America this week.  Baltimore will be a part of the show’s seventh season, which begins airing sometime this fall.
 
Zimmern’s Baltimore stops included Chap’s Pit Beef, Hollins Market, Lexington Market, the Arabbers' Carlton Street Stables, and Woodberry Kitchen. He also spent time on the Eastern Shore and in Baltimore County, where he tweeted that Ellicott City restaurant Shin Chon “is one of top ten Korean BBQ experiences in America. A must for anyone who loves food. Major discovery.”
 
Read more about Zimmern’s in the Baltimore Sun story.

The June 6 opening of Maryland Live at Arundel Mills mall got plenty of attention in local newspapers and TV outlets. 

It also caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal, which found the 4,750-slot machine venue unusual for its being on the site of a suburban shopping mall.

"Malls have become popular additions to casino complexes in Atlantic City and Las Vegas ever since Simon Property Group, which owns Arundel Mills, opened The Forum Shops as an extension to Caesars Palace on the Last Vegas Strip in 1992," the Journal writes in the article. 

The opening of Maryland's third slots parlor was marked by traffic backups on Interstate 295, celebrity-chef Bobby Flay -- on hand for Bobby's Burger Palace -- and feuding between executives in Anne Arundel and Prince George's Counties amid talks of a casino at National Harbor.

 A number of cities, including Baltimore, are planning events commemorating the 200-year anniversary of the War of 1812.

The celebrations are featured in an AP story that the Wall Street Journal ran this month.

"The War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner after soldiers at Fort McHenry in Baltimore raised an American flag to mark a victory over the British on Sept. 14, 1814," the Journal writes.

It goes on to note that the original manuscript for the song will be part of a War of 1812 exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society. You can read the rest of the story here.

Meanwhile, the New York Times wrote its own piece on the festivities.

"In Baltimore, as part of a festival from June 13 through June 19 known as the Star-Spangled Sailabration, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will debut a new composition inspired by the conflict," the Times writes. "And 20 tall ships and schooners, many modeled on period vessels, will drop anchor in the harbor for tours."

You can read the rest of the story here.

Open Table has selected 100 best brunch spots in the country. And on that list is Gertrude's, John Shields restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art. 

It's one of two Maryland restaurants on the list. The other is Mrs. K's Toll House in Silver Spring. 

You can see the entire list here. 

Maryland's largest slots casino, developed by the Cordish Co., has set a June 6 opening date. Restaurants at the 4,750-slot-machine venue will include Bobby Flay's Burger Palace, the Prime Rib and Philips Seafood.

"State analysts project that Maryland Live!, once it is fully operational, will generate more than $400 million a year in slots revenue — nearly half of which would flow to state education programs under current law," writes the Washington Post. You can read the rest of the story here. 

An old-time Baltimore beer's revival was featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Tim Miller of Easton bought the trademark rights for National Premium beer in 2010 and plans to produce as many as 100,000 cases in the next couple of years. 

His story, along with those of other entrepreneurs looking to bring back old brands, was highlighted in the April 18 issue of the Wall Street Journal. 

Miller tells the paper that he has lined up two distributors and hopes to start selling the beer later this year. You can read the story here. 

Since opening late last year, the Four Seasons Baltimore has generated plenty of buzz for its chic design and celebrity-chef-owned restaurant. 

We already told you that the hotel's fancy macarons were featured in the Wall Street Journal. 

Now, Conde Nast Traveler has put it on its Hotel List 2012, which lists 121 new standout hotel properties. 

"You’ll see Baltimore’s gritty side as you drive into town, signs of moneyed Old Maryland as you near the water," the magazine says. 

You can read the rest of the description here. 

Baltimore's reputation as a beer town has spread across the pond. The BBC has a big feature on the renaissance in Baltimore's beer industry. 

"Beer is flowing back into the city, thanks to a combination of young beer enthusiasts, cheap real estate and the persistence of local brewers," the BBC writes.

Max's Taphouse, Pratt Street Ale House, Clipper City Brewing Co. and the Brewer's Art all get a mention in the story. 

Still, we can't help but be flattered that the BBC followed Bmore Media's lead. We wrote this story on the growing number of Baltimore brewers. 

Fancy cookies are featured from four different venues in the April 6 issue of the Wall Street Journal. 

And among them is an Oreo Macaron from Charm City's own Four Seasons Baltimore. 

" 'It's an ode to Americana and the French,' " pastry chef Chris Ford tells the paper. A pic of the tasty treat, along with cookies baked in Nashville, Washington, D.C., and Lexington, Ky., can be found here. 

It was a good month for Baltimore baseball. The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day. Camden Yards celebrated 20 years of operation. 

Things couldn't get any better. 

But wait -- they can!

USAToday.com featured Camden Yards as an example of an urban baseball stadium that has boosted business for area shops, bars and restaurants. The article was originally featured on CNBC.com.

"The Orioles' success with Camden Yards spawned downtown stadiums in Cleveland, San Francisco, Denver and elsewhere," the article says. You can read the rest of the story here. 

Baltimore's coffee shops has gotten some press from the Huffington Post. The website features a slideshow of local spots to get a java jolt, including Hampden's Spro, Mount Vernon's Koffee Therapy and the Four Seasons Baltimore's Lamill Coffee.

"What is different about Baltimore's coffee renaissance is that it has percolated less through the corporate culture of selling high-end brews to rich people than through home town pride," the Huffington Post writes. "The thinking seems to be that this is the sort of economic development that can keep talented people in a city suffering from brain drain."

You can read the rest of the story here. 

Maryland crab is known throughout the world. And the state's fisheries want to keep their competitive edge by touting its sustainable practices.

They are applying for Marine Stewardship Council certification, writes the Associated Press in an article that ran in Bloomberg Businessweek. 

It is following on the footsteps of Louisiana, which sought certification for its crab harvest. 

"Crabs are the Chesapeake Bay's biggest moneymaker, bringing in $52 million in Maryland in 2009, and many chefs believe they are among the world's best," the AP writes. "The lower salinity of the upper Chesapeake Bay makes the meat sweeter and more tender, and the crabs hibernate over the winter, storing fat that makes them taste richer than nonhibernating crabs from farther south, said Chad Wells, executive chef at Alewife in Baltimore."

You can read the rest of the story here.