hospitality : Buzz

Luxury, thy name is Baltimore.

After years of anticipation, the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore will open its doors this month. The 256-room property will feature a spa, two restaurants, café and two swimming pools. The chain's debut in Charm City has not only attracted the attention of local media, but national travel publications. Read more about the five-star hotel in Elite Traveler.

Restaurant company Landry's says it is buying McCormick & Schmick's in a $130 million deal, according to an AP story in Business Week.

Based in Portland, Ore., McCormick & Schmick's operates two downtown Baltimore restaurants and another one in Annapolis. Landry's operates Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., which is opening a restaurant in the Light Street pavilion at Harborplace mall. You can read more about it here.

Apparently -- at least if you believe the gurus at Men's Health magazine -- Baltimore is America's second-luckiest city. Defined according to the source:

Wondering how Vegas didn't hit this jackpot? Here's our definition of good luck: the most winners of Powerball, Mega Millions, and Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes; most hole-in-ones (PGA); fewest lightning strikes (including the fatal kind) and deaths from falling objects (Vaisala Inc., National Climatic Data Center, CDC); and least money lost on lottery tickets and race betting (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Here's the full post at Men's Health.

Robert E. Lee park has long been a destination for dog owners, occasionally to the chagrin of non-canine inclined individuals. Recent developments should go a long way to resolving the disconnect.

From the source:

Dogs have run free — amok, some would say — in Robert E. Lee park for years. Residents complained the park had been "hijacked" by dog people. Even the county's parks director knew folks referred to the wooded, lakeside retreat as "Dog Poop Park."

The spot, hovering on the city/county line, had become the area's favorite dog park — never mind it wasn't one.

But that's all about to change.

After a $6.1 million renovation and a two-year closure, Robert E. Lee will re-opening Friday, boasting all sorts of refinements — the centerpiece being a legal, fenced dog run that people will have to pay to use. Additionally, the park will become the county's first to hire a small corps of rangers charged with ticketing people whosedogs are caught off leash anywhere else.

Here's the full story.

If you happen to be old enough, you might remember a time when the 443 area code was a brand new thing in Maryland. Now, 667 is coming as well.

From the source:

Maryland is getting a new 667 area code.

The Public Service Commission says the remaining numbers in the 410 and 443 area codes are expected to be exhausted by early next year and the new 667 area code will begin in March.

More here.

A host of events are on tap for the 2011 edition of Baltimore Beer Week, which begins October 6.

A sample:

So what’s in store this year? When queried, founder Joe Gold said many of the events are still evolving. However, plans are underway to have the first "Star Spangled Banger" parade of sorts starting at noon on October 6th at Baltimore’s historic Fort McHenry whereupon the fabled mallet will weave its way through some of Baltimore’s storied neighborhoods, visit various landmarks and taverns and ultimately end at Rams Head Live which will be the host venue for this year’s expanded Opening Tap Celebration. The hand-crafted mallet, used to tap the ceremonial first firkin, was crafted by wood expert John Gasparine and actually uses wood from Maryland’s famous fallen Wye Oak tree.

In addition to the Opening Tap Celebration, this year promises some great events like the 10th Anniversary of the Maryland Oktoberfest at Timonium Fairgrounds on October 8th, The Chesapeake Real Ale Festival featuring over 40 one of a kind firkins on October 15th and a Women-Centric event at Max’s Taphouse on October 13th. October 9th will feature a Historic Walking Pub Tour called a “Bar on Every Corner”.

A full schedule, along with more information about the event, can be found at the Baltimore Beer Week website.

Longtime Baltimore area institution Gino's Burgers & Chicken -- absent from the state since 1991 -- has returned with a new location in Towson.

Gino's Burgers & Chicken, a new millennium version of the fast-food chain founded in Baltimore in 1957 by Colts football greats Alan Ameche and Gino Marchetti, opened its doors Wednesday morning in Towson.

More than 100 people lined up waiting for as long as four hours for the restaurant to open, which occurred shortly after 11 a.m.

Investigative Voice has the whole story here.

July in Baltimore is hot. This much is not news. But the July we've just endured, it turns out, is the hottest ever. Surprised?

From Frank Roylance at the Sun:

Through Saturday, the average temperature for the month at BWI-Marshall Airport in July was 81.6 degrees. If that holds, it will place this month ahead of the current three-way tie for the hottest July - 81.5 degrees - set in 1872 and matched in 1995 and 2010. Third place would go to 1934 and 1949, at 81.4 degrees.

July 2011 is ending with a streak of 90-plus weather that has lasted 15 days, the third-longest such streak on record for Baltimore. The long-range forecast calls for a high of 89 next Saturday. If it proves accurate, that would end the streek at 20 consecutive days in the 90s, just short of the second-longest on record - 21 days. 

Read the whole, grim story here.