Cafe Hon

Vapor trails of Aqua Net wafted through the air at Cafe Hon on 36th Street yesterday, and the place was a riot of canary-yellow Lycra and lizard-green Spandex, shimmering two-foot beehive hairdos and leopard-print shirts with fox-fur collars. The occasion was the filming of two live shots for the new UPN talk show, On-Air with Ryan Seacrest, and it gave all of America an up-close-and-personal look at the "Hampden Hon" lifestyle. You wonder if all of America will ever recover. Actually, since Baltimore often makes the national airwaves for such pleasant topics as its murder and drug addiction rates, a fun glimpse at the retro "hon" look of big hair and loud clothes was definitely a step in the right direction, image-wise.

The city's annual summer dining promotion was scheduled to conclude on Sunday, Aug. 14, but some restaurants will extending their deals. Among the first to announce extensions were the Wine Market , Waterstone , B&O American Brasserie , Caesar's Den , Talara , the Owl Bar , Dogwood , the Rusty Scupper , Sabatino's , Marie Louise Bistro , Centro Tapas , Elkridge Furnace...

Father's Day 5K Dust off those running shoes Sunday morning at the 15th Annual Father's Day 5K in Towson. Proceeds from the race, which begins at the Sheraton Baltimore North, will benefit the Greater Baltimore Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The race has raised more than $470,000 to support the care and treatment of seriously ill and premature infants. The race begins at 8 a.m. and can be run individually or as a father-daughter or father-son team. Not ready to run that far?

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")

He's calling it the first shot fired in the Battle of the Hons. An area writer has thrown down the gauntlet — or is it a housecoat? — challenging the legitimacy of the three-letter trademark that has had Baltimore up in arms through the holiday season. Bruce Goldfarb, a Catonsville writer who runs the website "Welcome to Baltimore, Hon," plans to start selling coffee mugs emblazoned with the word "Hon. " He's doing it with hopes of proving that Denise Whiting, the founder of Honfest, the city's annual homage to an apocryphal Baltimore gal known for her beehive hairdo and cat's-eye glasses, has no legal claim on the word.

Cafe Hon1009 W. 36th St. Hours: Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call: (410) 243-1230Cafe Hon on Hampden's main thoroughfare has the air and pace of a small-town eatery. For take-out, it's as far a cry from assembly-line fast food as you can get. But that's the point. While you wait, you can scope out the art and decor, which runs to thrift shop dinettes and painted plaster saints. The gift shelf up front features Hon T-shirts and greeting cards of an early Betty Crocker era. So comfy and familiar.

Tio Pepe RestauranteTio Pepe Restaurante, 10 E. Franklin St. (410) 539-4675. A recent visit to Tio Pepe's, after an absence of several years, let me know again just why the accolades keep rolling in for this Baltimore favorite. Indeed, it was so bustling, so full of life, so enjoyable I nearly forgot that another work week was just hours away. The tournedos Tio Pepe were superb and almost enough for two meals; the shrimp in garlic, as always, delicious. The service was outstanding -- friendly, professional, considerate -- and easily the best I've ever had at Tio's.

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."

Given the trouble she's gotten into in recent years (think: trying to trademark the word "Hon"), one might presume Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting would take special care to avoid unforced errors that cast her establishment in a less than flattering light. One might presume so. But one would be wrong. The Sun's Jill Rosen reported this week that Cafe Hon posted on its Facebook page a photo of one of its staff members in blackface for Halloween. That's right: a white person, in blackface, "dressing up" as a black person (in this case, the singer Whitney Houston)

Cafe Hon owner and "hon" trademarker Denise Whiting wants Baltimore to know she's sorry. Not sorry that she trademarked the town's classic term of endearment. Just sorry that she spoke about it so clumsily that her adopted hometown came to think of her as greedy. And sorry that nobody seemed to be listening a month ago, when she said basically the same thing in a letter to The Baltimore Sun. The newest apology came Wednesday in the form of a news release. "I apologize to everyone in Baltimore for misspeaking," Whiting says in the release.