Buzz

Blog says Baltimore is an EdTech hub

GettingSmart.com Tuesday, May 21, 2013

GettingSmart.com, a blog that highlights innovations in learning, recently featured Baltimore's Digital Harbor Foundation.

The foundation is located in Federal Hill site, at the site of a former recreation center that has become a technology hub where Balitmore City school students can learn about web design, mobile app development and digital media production.

"Less than a year old, the Foundation already had one spinout company, An Estuary, a professional development company," GettingSmart.com writes.

Read the entire story here.

Entrepreneur magazine says Maryland is the best state for starting a business

Entrepreneur Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Maryland, Colorado and Virginia support innovation and their high-tech workforce, according to the fourth annual Enterprising States report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Entrepreneur magazine features the list of states, which also included Utah and Massachusetts in the top five. The U.S. Chamber took a look at the number of high-tech businesses, STEM job concentration and programs that support entrepreneurs. The report credited the Free State for its Activate program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Maryland Entrepreneurs Resource List.

Read the entire story here.

Forbes chats with company about designing Baltimore company's mobile app

Forbes Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Forbes recently interviewed the owner of a company that redesigned WellDoc's mobile app. Based in Baltimore, WellDoc has created the first FDA-approved app to manage diabetes.

In an article titled "6 Things You Should Do When Designing for Mobile," Forbes chats with Moment Design Inc. Principal John Payne about redesigning the WellDoc app so it can be commercialized.

Holding a design charette, or a collaborative approach to design, and gathering insights about the user experience, were among Payne's recommendations. Read the entire story here.

Details magazine says Artifact Coffee's mushroom burger is a must-try sandwich

Details Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Details magazine says that Woodberry's Artifact Coffee is one of the best spots to get a vegetarian sandwich.

In a section highlighting vegetarian trends, Details describes Artifact's mushroom burger as a "must-try" meat-free meal.

"James Beard winner Spike Gjerde's mushroom patty at Artifact Coffee in Baltimore is bound with tofu and oats on a benne seed bun with sauteed onions and greens," Details writes.

The magazine highlights a number of other vegetarian dishes, in cities from New York to San Francisco to Chicago.

It's the latest accolade for Artifact. Food blog the Daily Meal recently named it one of the best coffee shops in America. Chef and Owner Gjerde also owns Woodberry Kitchen and is one of the partners behind a massive food incubator, commerical kitchen and community classroom under development, called the Food Hub.

Fast Company says Maryland is the third most innovative state

Fast Company Thursday, April 18, 2013

Maryland is home to a thriving startup community, says Fast Company. The magazine ranks the Free State No. 3 on its list of the most innovative states.

Florida, Texas, Arizona and Alaska rounded out the top five. Mississippi, Oklahoma and Virginia were at the bottom three of the list, which ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Maryland also ranked No. 4 on Fast Company's breakdown of the number of startups per million residents.

The magazine culled data from a variety of sources to come up with the ranking: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity and others.

Online grocer Relay Foods gets $8M to expand in Baltimore and D.C.

Forbes Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Online grocer Relay Foods has gotten a fresh round of capital, which Forbes says it is planning to use to expand further in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

The Charlottesville, Va., company has raised another $8.25 million, from Battery Ventures, TomorrowVentures and many smaller shops, Forbes says.

“'It’s huge for the company in that this more than doubles our funding and allows us to expand aggressively into the D.C. and Baltimore markets,'" Relay CEO Zach Buckner tells Forbes.

In addition to offering traditional grocery items, Relay delivers dairy, produce and other products made locally. It also sells eco-friendly products like Seventh Generation cleaning supplies. It is one of a handful of companies that are taking the buy-local food movement online.

Food blog says Woodberry's Artifact is one of the best coffee shops in America

The Daily Meal Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Woodberry's Artifact Coffee is one of the best places to get your java jolt, according to food and drink blog the Daily Meal.

The Spike Gjerde-owned venture comes in at No. 15 on its list of Best Coffee Shops in America. The Daily Meal raves about Artifact's " 'barn chic,' farm-to-table vibe" and its BYOB dinner service. (Read about Artifact's plans to serve beer and wine).

The blog editors asked shop owners and baristas to pick their favorite coffee joints based on quality of food and coffee, atmosphere and customer service to come up with its list of 33 shops and chains.

Coffee shops in Portland, Ore., and New York took the No. 3 and No. 2 spots. Ultimo Coffee in Philadelphia came in at No. 1.

OpenTable diners name Food Market and Ouzo Bay top 'hot spots'

OpenTable Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Two Baltimore restaurants earned a spot on OpenTable's Top 100 Hot Spots: Harbor East's Ouzo Bay and The Food Market in Hampden.

If you have been to either, you probably know that they're both pretty busy, even if you pop in at 9 p.m. on a weekday. Specializing in fresh seafood, Greek restaurant Ouzo Bay opened last year. The Food Market opened on The Avenue almost a year ago.

OpenTable compiled the list based on more than 5 million restaurant reviews for more than 15,000 restaurants throughout the U.S.

You can see the list here.

Video Americain gets a plug in the New York Times

New York Times Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Baltimore's Video Americain, one of the few remaining video rental shops in a dying industry, has gotten a shout-out in the New York Times' small business blog.

Miguel Gomez recently opened — you guessed it, a video store! — in suburban Philadelphia and told the New York Times that streaming and online video rentals can't beat the personal experience of browsing through titles and getting recommendations at a store.

"There aren’t too many video stores left in the country, but the ones that are left are all pretty great," Gomez tells the New York Times. "Baltimore has Video Americain, Seattle has Scarecrow Video, Austin has both I Luv Video and Vulcan Video, San Francisco has both Lost Weekend Video and Le Video … so there are communities still supporting video stores, as long as the video stores have stellar inventories."

Video Americain has two Maryland locations: one on Cold Spring Lane in Roland Park and another in Takoma Park. Last year, it closed its Charles Village shop.

Baltimore mentoring program featured in Forbes

Forbes Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sarah Hemminger tells Forbes magazine that when she moved back to Baltimore for grad school in 2004, she and her husband Ryan felt like "something was missing."

That something was being part of a loving, nurturing community. That prompted her to launch the Incentive Mentoring Program, which matches a family of committed volunteers with underperforming high school students.

"We must build a reliable social support network by facilitating dependable, long-term relationships among students and caring adults," Hemminger tells Forbes.

Forbes Says Baltimore is a Tech Hot Spot

Forbes Tuesday, January 15, 2013

America's new hotbeds of technology innovation are not in the major cities like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, but smaller ones, according to Forbes. And ranking No. 4 on Forbes' list is the Greater Baltimore region, where jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) grew nearly 18 percent between 2001 and 2012.

The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area got the top spot, followed by Riverside-San Bernadino, Calif., and San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas.

New York, L.A. and Chicago, in contrast, all lost tech jobs in the past decade, according to the data crunched by Praxis Strategy Group.

"As the social media industry matures and consolidates, employment is likely to continue shifting to less expensive, business-friendly areas," Forbes writes.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Pizza Today Features Chazz Baltimore's Potato Pie

Pizza Today Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Potato pizza savored in Tuscany, Italy inspired restaurateur Sergio Vitale to serve a potato pie at Chazz: A Bronx Original restaurant, Pizza Today writes.

"Vitale’s coal-oven-fired white pizza is topped with sea salt seasoned potatoes, pecorino and fontina cheeses, rosemary and garlic," the magazine writes. "After baking he drizzles calabrese chili oil over it."

To prevent the pizza from getting too soggy, Vitale says he places a layer of shredded fontina cheese underneath the spuds, which he spaces out carefully.

“ 'Too many spuds cropped up in the center will make a soggy pizza,'” Vitale says. You can read the rest of the story here.

Gordon Ramsey Visits a Reinvented Cafe Hon

Baltimore Sun Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Denise Whiting and her restaurant Cafe Hon are once again the darlings of the Hampden neighborhood, according to a recent episode of Gordon Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares."

Ramsey revisits Cafe Hon a year after his first visit to find a bustling restaurant, humble owner and good food.

"The food was better, they said, the staff seemed happier -- the first piece portrayed them as primed for a full-scale revolt -- and the community seemed ready to let bygones be bygones, especially once Whiting made good on her promise to let go of the trademark," writes Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun.

Whiting, of course, faced a public relations nightmare after trademarking the word "Hon." She then later abandoned the trademark and her decision was broadcast on MIX 106.5 and on "Kitchen Nightmares."

Baltimore Restaurant Owners to Star in Reality TV Show

Citypeek.com Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The owners of Hampden's Alchemy restaurant are starring in a new reality television show, according to tourism and hospitality website Citypeek.com.

Baltimore-based RLTV is featuring the couple on a show called "What's Next," scheduled to air in the spring.

"The foodie show uses the small 75 seat venue ALCHEMY's partners Sommelier/Pastry-Bread-Sweets Debi Bell-Matassa and Executive Chef Michael Matassa to cover and tackle issues like: how do you run a business, how do you manage to work side by side your spouse," Citypeek.com writes.

Founded by John Erickson, cable channel RLTV caters to the 50 + crowd in its programming.

Travel Channel Films in Federal Hill

SouthBMore.com Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Cross Street Market or Eastern Market? It's a showdown between Federal Hill and Capitol Hill on the Travel Channel.

The cable network was in Baltimore Dec. 7 and filmed at the Cross Street Market, writes Kevin Lynch in SouthBMore.com.

"Get down to the market and let people know how great the area is," SouthBMore.com writes. "And, while you are there, grab something at one of the many merchants and support local business."

We can't wait to see the show when it airs.

Entrepreneurship : Buzz