Canton

Open only since the end of May, Of Love & Regret is operating with admirable maturity, confidence and grace. It's a wonderful gathering space for Baltimore, and it's putting out some of the best burgers and good cheer in town. Plain but not spartan, the interior space suggests the lunchroom of a benevolently run factory, where everyone respects the work they do and each other. There are a half-dozen tables on either side of the long, bar. A community table with high stools sits in the room's center.

A 40-foot cabin cruiser caught fire in the Anchorage Marina in Canton Wednesday afternoon, bringing multiple fire units to the pier where it was docked, city fire officials said. Units responded to the marina in the 2500 block of Boston Street, which has slips for purchase and rent, about 3:40 p.m. and isolated the boat in the water to prevent the fire from jumping to other boats nearby, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire spokesman. The fire was brought under control about 4:05 p.m., Cartwright said.

Since the first Looney's Pub opened in Canton in 1993, co-owners Bill Larney and Steve Litrenta have been aggressively expanding the brand. The newest Looney's opened in College Park in October, following locations in Bel Air and Maple Lawn. But for Sunday's AFC title game, only the original will do. Fans will mob the Canton bar just as they did in 2010, the last (and only) time the Ravens have beaten the New England Patriots. You can count on the crowd being young, wildly enthusiastic and head-to-toe in purple.

The woman who died Thursday after being pulled from the water off a pier in Canton has been identified as a Johns Hopkins neurology professor. Dr. Elizabeth O'Hearn, 53, was found near the 2300 block of Boston St. in Canton. Police were called to the area about 4:45 a.m. by a witness who reported a woman floating facedown in the water, police said. The police marine unit pulled her out and she was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:18 a.m., according to Detective Vernon Davis, a Baltimore police spokesman.

For Mike Beczkowski, parking on his street near the American Can Company complex in Canton has gotten a bit better since he and others in the neighborhood persuaded the city to require residential permit parking last November. Most nights, he can now find a place to park near his rowhouse. "This permit parking has given us a hunting license to get parking in our area," Beczkowski said. But for Paul Palmieri, the CEO of Millennial Media, the parking woes in Canton have never been worse.

It was unusual enough when Baltimore housing officials had to get a search warrant to gain entry to a Canton rowhouse where they believed illegal renovations were occurring. But the owner's son had barred inspectors, and neighbors were complaining of work that was noisy, substantial and ongoing. Then inspectors went inside and were shocked to find that the three-story home in the 2100 block of Cambridge Street had been gutted. Not only had the owner's son failed to pull required building permits, the city alleged in a lawsuit, but the work was so shoddy that the house had to be condemned.

UPDATE: Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, after revewing the video and the photos from Canton, said promised better police deployment next year: “There is no question the neighborhood was destroyed, and it shouldn't have been. It looked like a garbage dump. Homeowners deserve better.” St. Patrick's Day celebrations got a bit out of hand in several Baltimore neighborhoods, with police arresting 10 juveniles Saturday night in the Inner Harbor after a stabbing and at least one fight broke out downtown.

Tavern on the Square has opened in the Canton. It's in the old Fins space. Mel Carter, the general manager and part owner of Blue Hill Tavern , also in Canton, purchased Fins last September and, for a few months, kept things as they were. Right after the new year, Carter says, he closed the property for one week. Fins reopened on Monday with a cosmetic makeover, a new menu and new name. The new interior, Carter says, is decorated with black wood furniture and trim and vintage black-and-white photography of old Baltimore.  Carter describes the menu at Tavern on the Square as "contemporary American bar fare with a focus on game oriented dishes.

It's an ongoing debate among Baltimoreans: Are the best bars in Canton off O'Donnell Square? If you've been to the Irish pubs or sports bars around there even once, you know what you're in for - a night that's not always pretty but comforting in its predictability. There's the familiar aroma of too many people, the flowing Red Bulls and the awkward grinding. Want to have a conversation without straining your voice? Good luck. But hang around Canton long enough and the truth quickly emerges: The corner bars away from the Square lack the crowds but make up for it with personality and character.

A major Canton condominium development site will go to auction Dec. 17 when A. J. Billig & Co. tries to sell land once slated to become Lighthouse Point, a luxury development that fell victim to the recession.The land for the stalled development is being sold on behalf of Maryland National Bank, said Jack F. Billig, head of the auction firm.The developers, Baltimore International Yachting Centre L.P., owed Maryland National $8.65 million on June 1, representing money borrowed against the 7.9-acre tract on Boston Street.