Hospitality : Buzz

Maryland Live Casino took home the jackpot in Casino Player magazine's Best of Dining & Nightlife Awards.

Local restaurants the Prime Rib and Phillips Seafood won best steakhouse and best seafood restaurants, respectively. Casino Player surveyed readers to come up with the results. Readers selected Rams Head Center Stage as one of the best casinos to see a concert and the R Bar as one of best places to grab a cocktail. The Live Buffet, Bobby’s Burger Palace and the Cheesecake Factory were also recognized by readers.

See the entire list of awards here.

We're sure there are a lot of good places to quaff beer in this country. 

Baltimore is home two of the best in the nation, according to Draft Magazine.

The brew pub (haha — get it?) recognized the Brewer's Art in Mount Vernon and Max's Taphouse in Fells Point in its list of the 100 best beer bars in 2013. 

"The venue’s sun-splashed foyer and cozy fireplace set the stage for the brewpub’s delicious Belgian-inspired creations and esoteric guest beers that make this piece of real estate a beer lover’s dream destination," Draft says of the Brewer's Art. 

"With a cool twentysomething crowd and vibrant weekend scene, this is the best place around to knock back craft and score digits on a Saturday night," it writes of Max's Taphouse. 

Read the entire story here. 

If you're planning to leave the Free State, consider all the things you might miss. 

A New York City blogger has catalogued 23 things she misses about her home state of Maryland. Naturally, crabs and foods with crab in them are at the top of the list. 

Natty Boh, Old Bay, Ocean City and the Baltimore Ravens all make the list. Then there are things that you may not have ever thought of doing, like driving to Potomac and wondering which houses are owned by senators and which ones are owned by ambassadors. The story appears in the online magazine Thought Catalog. 

Read the entire list here. 

Baltimore gotten some serious foodie cred, according to Fodor's Travel. 

From swanky joints like Ouzo Bay in Harbor East and farm-to-table restaurants like Fleet Street Kitchen, Baltimore is undergoing a culinary renaissance, Fodor's writes.

"Chefs are embracing the farm-to-table movement, working with growers from across Maryland and Virginia to incorporate locally grown ingredients on their menus," Fodor's writes.

Fodor's also mentions the Food Market in Hampden; Waterfront Kitchen in Fells Point; Pabu and Wit & Wisdom, both located in the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore; and, Woodberry Kitchen. It also mentions Canton's the Fork & Wrench, whose owners are opening another restaurant in Fells Point. Read the entire story here. 

If you're flying out of BWI, you have some healthy alternatives to pizza or a burger and fries.

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport came in at No. 4 in a report that ranked airports according to how many of their restaurants serve a plant-based, cholesterol free entrée. BWI tied with Washington Dulles International Airport in the report from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The report found that 33 of BWI's 41 eateries offer some sort of healthful fare. 

Denver International Airport came in at No.1. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and Chicago O'Hare International tied for No. 2. Los Angeles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport tied for the No. 3 spot.

Though it may have closed its longstanding restaurant in Fells Point two years ago, Obrycki's airport spots are still garnering good reviews.

CNN named it one of the 10 best airport restaurants that give travelers a taste of the hometown. Obrycki's Restaurant and Bar is located in Concourse B and Obrycki's A-Bar is located in Concourse A at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

"The BWI locale sticks pretty close to the formula that made the restaurant a Charm City classic," CNN writes. You can also go Obrycki's at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. 

The article also has recommendations for barbeque in Memphis and shrimp etoufée in New Orleans. Read the entire story here. 

Food Republic has given its readers seven restaurants in Baltimore they ought to visit. In a piece titled "Beyond Crab Cakes and Crime" (clever), the food site sings the praises of Charm City's culinary scene, calling it one of the more underrated food cities.

"Decades of well-reported urban decline, not to mention a little television juggernaut called The Wire, have given the city something of an image problem," Food Republic writes. "But the mid-Atlantic port is on the rise, as the convergence of inexpensive rents, creative culinary talent and incredible regional ingredients create one of the most dynamic restaurant scenes on the East coast."

The story mentions Birroteca, Woodberry Kitchen, the Food Market, Joe Squared, the Crown and Spike Gjerde's recently opened Shoo-Fly Diner in Belvedere Square. It even mentions Paulie Gee's, a Brooklyn pizza place that is opening an outlet in Hampden. 

New York Magazine has devoted a Weekend Travel section to Baltimore, hitting an impressive array of eclectic shops, restaurants, museums and neighborhoods. 

This isn't your grandmother's guide to Charm City. New York Mag tells its readers to "Hang with hipsters in Hampden, a popular neighborhood of galleries, bars, and boutiques that feels a little like Williamsburg ten years ago."

Whoa, a New Yorker comparing Baltimore to Brooklyn?

"Go on an art crawl in Station North, Baltimore’s newest arts district. Stroll along North Avenue, Charles, and Barclay Streets to see 23 murals and installations by 30 local and international taggers like Gaia, Momo, Vhils, and Freddy Sam," New York Magazine writes. 

It also highlights veggie cuisine at Golden West, Spike Gjerde's newly opened Shoo-Fly Diner and the comfort food cuisine of the Food Market. Read the whole story here. 

Good news for thrillseekers. Baltimore company Premier Rides has been recognized for its Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster at Universal Studios in Orlando. 

It received the 2013 Golden Ticket Award for Best Indoor Roller Coaster from Amusement Today, an industry publication. It beat out Disneyland's Space Mountain and a coaster called Winjas in Germany's Phantasialand.

Located in downtown Baltimore, Premier Rides has designed roller coasters for Six Flags America, Paramount's Kings Island and the now-shuttered Sahara Hotel and Casino. It also designed the Blacklot Stunt Coaster, based on the movie "The Italian Job." 

USA Today recently featured the latest trend in hotel bars: fizzy bottled cocktails. They look like old-fashioned sodas, but there's booze in 'em.

The article highlights a drink at downtown Baltimore's B&O American Brasserie, located in the Hotel Monaco. The Grape Drink is a bottled, carbonated cocktail with homemade Concord grape syrup with cardamon and cinnamon, USA Today writes. 

"They are popped table-side and served with a striped paper straw."

Read the entire story here. 

USA Today has compiled a list of the 51 best burger joints in America, choosing one from each U.S. state and the District of Columbia.

The recommendations came from local foodies. The winner in Maryland? The Abbey Burger Bistro in Federal Hill. 

"The Abbey Burger Bistro has a patty for every taste: Black Angus beef, bison, lamb, elk and turkey," USA Today writes. "The build-a-burger menu offers cheese (including brie, Swiss, blue, American), avocado, peanut butter, truffle oil, and a fried egg along with the usual suspects."

The pick came from Baltimore writer Martha Thomas, whose most recent BmoreMedia story was a Q&A with Mink Stole.  

USA Today has published a list of the 51 Great Pizza Parlors in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, based on recommendations from local foodies and writers.

Highlandtown's Matthew's Pizza — known for its deep-dish pie — makes the cut in Maryland. 

"In Baltimore, everybody loves Matthew's Pizza," USA Today writes. "It's just a hole in the wall, but it dishes out pies with volume: thick, with soft-but-chewy crust, rich tomato-y sauce and the right amount of gooey, salty cheese."

USA Today notes that the pizza joint has been around since 1943. Local writer Mary K. Tilghman chose the spot on behalf of the publication. You can see the entire list of favorite pizza joints here. 

Farmers' markets have become popular across Baltimore, but according to Inhabitat.com, Real Food Farm is taking the farmers' market idea one step further.

The design and sustaintability weblog reports that Real Food Farm has established a "mobile market" food truck that brings fresh produce to the area surrounding Clifton Park in northeast Baltimore. This area is a food desert, a place where residents may not have access to a supermarket.

Designed by students at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the truck delivers fresh produce from the Real Food Farm's location in Clifton Park and makes scheduled stops at farmers' markets, private houses and schools.

Two Baltimore establishments, Charleston and Woodberry Kitchen, made Wine Spectator's list of the 100 Best Wine Restaurants in the U.S.

The restaurants selected for this list all "serve up a true passion for presenting mind-blowing wine-and-food pairings," Wine Spectator writes.
 
"The global wine list—boasting more than 800 selections—was designed to complement the modern American menu, showcasing fine wines as well as excellent wine values," Wine Spectator says of Harbor East's Charleston.

The magazine praised Woodberry Kitchen for highlighting regional and organic wines. 

"The wine list aims to provide exposure for wines from the Mid-Atlantic, specifically Maryland and Virginia, followed by organic and biodynamic wines from Europe and South America." 

You can see the entire list here.