Cafe Hon

Emily Flake is growing up. True, it's in a kicking-and-cartooning, still-gonna-smoke (but not as much) kind of way. But 30 is 30, Ms. Flake. These mile markers do something to the soul. The onset of adulthood. Talk of, well, a family. If she's not careful, Flake could end up happy and just might have to tone down or retire her comic alter ego, Lulu Eightball. Our dear, plump heroine, Lulu, could face extinction or happiness herself! Wait, who is Flake? Or, for that matter, Lulu? Emily Flake is the self-described illustratrix of the Lulu Eightball comic strip that runs in City Paper and other alternative weeklies.

No one, as far as Paul Bartlett can tell, knew much about the guy. Even his name was unknown; but his routine, as observed by the regulars, was systematic. About three years ago, when the Hon Bar began giving away free oysters on the first Friday of the month, a short fellow would saunter in and proceed to devour the mollusks by the dozen. "I have no idea where he came from, but he was a short man," said Bartlett, as he shucked oysters on a recent Friday for customers at the Hampden bar. "He would start coming in around 7, take about a dozen, sit down, eat them.

A statewide civil rights group has filed lawsuits against two Baltimore restaurants accusing them of failing to accommodate people with disabilities as required by federal law.More than 40 people -- many of them in wheelchairs or on crutches -- gathered Wednesday in Fells Point to close a five-week statewide campaign by ACCESS Maryland to bring attention to the failure of businesses to provide access to the disabled.As part of the campaign, the nonprofit agency has filed 14 federal lawsuits against hotels, clothing stores, banks, and the restaurants.

With the end of every year comes the usual look-back, predictions and resolutions. Well, we're not sure what it says about us, but we spent the last year of the 20th century dining in the greater Hampden area.We both work near there, and the food offerings, while largely of the sandwich school of culinary delights, nonetheless encapsulate some of the big food trends of 1999.Let's begin with comfort food. Economic boom aside, we are all pressed for time, starved for human contact and too lazy to cook.

Come down and join the festivities, hon. Probably Baltimore's most unusual celebration, the HonFest, is today in Hampden."Big hair, bowling shirts, Lycra and leopard prints are always encouraged," says Denise Whiting, owner of Cafe Hon restaurant and an organizer of the sixth-annual tribute to hair spray-toting, frosted blue eye shadow-wearing divas who have mastered that unmistakable Baltimorean (or Bawlmerean) style, right down to the accent.The HonFest -- sponsored by Cafe Hon, Hometown Girl and Oh, Said Rose -- will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will feature a workshop on big hair, book signings by local authors such as Bert Smith ("Down the Ocean: Postcards From Maryland and Delaware Beaches")

Get your spoons ...Ice cream lovers, rejoice. I've found a few more ice cream parlors out there as a result of my story "The Real Scoop" a couple of Sundays ago.Sean Smeeten has recently opened the Sylvan Beach Cafe at 7 W. Preston St. It has homemade ice cream (13 flavors plus two sorbets), specialty coffee drinks and baked goods. It's open from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.A reader wrote asking, "What happened to Hoffman's? This family-owned and run ice cream parlor has been around for over 50 years."

A little nervous before her beauty pageant debut, Patty Gill slicked on a fresh coat of hot pink lipstick and confided the secret she hoped to share with the women of Bawlmer.What men really want, she said, is a woman not afraid to show her true femininity, a woman who will tease her hair into a beehive, wear frosted blue eye shadow and put on her stretch pants, rhinestone jewelry and animal prints.In short, a hon.Fortunately, Gill now has an entire year to spread the word. In her tiger-striped top and high heels, clutching a plastic purse from her mom, the 44-year-old Gill was crowned Baltimore's best hon yesterday afternoon at Hampden's Cafe Hon."

HAMPDEN IS ONLY 10 minutes from downtown Baltimore, but the old Jones Falls Valley mill village has retained a distinctive small-town character. Now things are picking up on 36th Street, the community's Main Street, which has gone through some rough times.The old Sandler's department store, at 36th Street and Roland Avenue, is undergoing major reconstruction that has eradicated all the memories of a Goodwill outlet that occupied the space in recent years. Within months, the refurbished landmark building will become an operations center for the Royal Farms chain.

Dels. Samuel I. Rosenberg and Maggie L. McIntosh are used to sharing: the same district, the same hobby and now the same gallery space.The politicians, best friends and avid amateur photographers, have found a place with a captive audience to exhibit their work: Cafe Hon in Hampden."

A newcomer to Hampden, Stella's is the kind of neighborhood restaurant that would make any area's denizens crow with civic pride. Even after a wait of 15 or so minutes for lunch and up to 25 minutes for dinner, Hampdenites brim with good cheer and anticipation.Stella's is just across the street from Cafe Hon (in Hon's old space, in fact), and it does for Italian food what Cafe Hon does for traditional American diner fare. Very affordable Italian classics are offered in generous portions and clean presentations by a good-natured staff.

The decision by Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting to take down a sculpture of a pink flamingo that had been on the side of her building rather than pay a fee to the city for a minor use permit sparked varied, and passionate, reactions from readers of The Sun editorial board's blog, baltimoresun.com/secondopinion. I am really, really sad to see the Cafe Hon flamingo go, but I kind of agree with the fact that she really should have had to pay the minor privilege tax. $800 is a lot, but she saved $5,600 over the last seven years that she didn't have to pay the fee, and it's part of the price of doing business.

Mayor Sheila Dixon made what appeared to be conciliatory remarks on Wednesday about Hampden's pink flamingo flap. "I know probably my agencies are not going to like my comments, but I was really disappointed that we didn't reach out to the flamingo and work with the" owner, Dixon said. Cafe Hon's owner, Denise Whiting, removed the large pink flamingo that hung above her restaurant on 36th Street early Tuesday rather than pay $800 for a permit that would have allowed the sculpture to continue to hang over the public sidewalk.

A Hampden restaurant owner's decision to disassemble an oversized flamingo rather than pay a newly imposed annual tax is being lamented by many in the business district where the big bird hung overhead for seven years. But others call the controversy a silly distraction. Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting, working with the artist who constructed the bird from bedsheets and wire, removed the flamingo from her fire escape before dawn Tuesday, several weeks after the city Department of General Services assessed her $800 in annual charges.

The Avenue in Hampden is the capital of Baltimore kitsch, so for years the city got along just fine having that huge pink flamingo mounted above the landmark Cafe Hon. But now some city inspector has suddenly discovered that - gasp! - the big bird may actually be in violation of some silly ordinance or another. Sorry, too late. You should have thought of that years ago. The Big Bird stays. There's no need to pretend this long-necked fowl is great art. It's pure kitsch, as it was intended to be. Kitsch is the opposite of the complex, difficult, provocative and occasionally infuriating art in museums.

City inspectors in recent months have cited an Elvis statue in Canton, a restaurant's awnings in Hampden and Cafe Hon's pink flamingo as unlawfully intruding into public space, but a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon said the cash-strapped city is not looking to balance its books by burdening small-business owners. "This type of enforcement has everything to do with citizen complaints, public safety and liability issues - and nothing to do with revenue enhancement," said spokesman Scott Peterson.

A pink flamingo that adorns Cafe Hon in Hampden has become an icon in the neighborhood. But a city inspector has determined the sculpture, erected about seven years ago as part of a holiday display, needs a license or will have to come down. Denise Whiting, who owns the popular restaurant at the corner of 36th Street and Roland Avenue, calls the sculpture, made from chicken wire and a bed sheet, "public art." "It never crossed my mind I'd need a permit," she said. "Are there permits for all the sculptures around the harbor?

Anyone who believes the Baltimore "hon" is merely a throwback to an era of beehive hairdos, cat glasses and leopard print spandex hasn't met Noelle Mack and Jennifer Blom. The 20-somethings, both finalists in Saturday's first round of Baltimore's Best Hon Contest in Hampden, are determined to do their part to carry on the hon tradition. "The young 'hons' are bringing it back," said Mack. "Once everything fades away with the older hons, we want to keep the tradition going." The two friends strutted on stage with other women decked out in feather boas and pink eye shadow for the contest, a highlight of the annual Honfest that runs through Sunday and celebrates Baltimore for its melting pot heritage and unique term of endearment, "hon," short for honey.

Not so long ago, I was telling people I thought the tapas trend had run its course. Small-plate restaurants like Pazo in Fells Point were adding regular entrees to their menus, and new places seemed to be going back to the traditional appetizer and dinner entree model. One unexpected consequence of the economic downturn may be the resurgence of tapas. With full-sized entrees costing upward of $30 in what were once moderately priced restaurants, customers are taking another look at those small plates.

Adorned in an Amy Winehouse-inspired black wig and dressed in a neon pink mermaid skirt, a matching feather boa, a pink-sequinedT-shirt and dusty pink house slippers, Robert Glick stood out yesterday among the thousands of people crowding The Avenue for the 15th annual Honfest in Hampden. Glick, a 43-year-old nurse from Pikesville, ditched his usual hospital garb for the over-the-top outfit in an attempt to be crowned Baltimore's Best Hon, a main staple of the festival where contestants dress in authentic "Hon" attire.

Suddenly, it's hard out there to be a Hon. Honfest, this weekend's kitschy celebration of beehive hairdos, cat's-eye glasses and pearls, may be the city's biggest neighborhood festival. But as Honfest grows, so does the backlash against it. Some Hampden dwellers, local fashionistas and even John Waters - who helped perpetuate the image of the Hon as a Baltimore icon - are fed up with the 50,000-strong festival that began as a simple beauty pageant. Waters frowns on all the Hon hype. He said he won't use the word or the image in any of his scripts these days, and he doesn't think the city should get behind it either.