Crafts

Craft brewer 16 Mile Brewing Company has launched six packs in Baltimore. The Georgetown, Del.-based brewer, now three years old, stopped producing its signature 22-ounce aluminum bottles and shifted to six packs last fall.  Southern Maryland was first to receive the six packs, said company spokesman Claus Hagelman. And earlier this month, liquor stores and bars in the Baltimore area started getting theirs. The six packs will available at 30 stores in the region, including Annapolis, and about 20 bars, with plans to reach more in the future, Hagelman said.

The fourth annual Spring Craft Fair and Community Festival at Liberty High School, Bartholow Road, Eldersburg, will be held Saturday, March 31, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $3, and ages 12 and under are free. Crafters, artisans and home-based businesses will be there to participate in this family-oriented, indoor event which features live music, exhibitions, concessions and face painting. Strollers are not permitted. Please contact Dana Coury with any questions at lhsband2017@gmail.com or call her at 585-203-4414.

A decade ago, artisan Mark Melonas was piecing together a living teaching sculpture at the Baltimore School for the Arts, doing some freelance graphic design and staging exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. And he was fooling around with concrete. A friend was looking for a small sink for a tricky spot in a Canton rehab, and Melonas asked if he could give the project a try. "I actually made it in my Bolton Hill apartment, carrying bags of cement up the steps," said Melonas.

This Spring, Frisco Tap and Brew House in Columbia will open a seven-barrel microbrewery under the name Push Craft Brewing.  Brewing his own beer has always been an ambition of owner Adam Carton; when he designed the restaurant, which is known for its 50 taps , he included space for a brewery. Indeed, its name suggested it was already able to make its own beer. But Carton was waiting for the business, which has been at its new location at 6695 Dobbin Road for a year, to mature.

Rye is the kind of bar every neighborhood wishes for — creative takes on classic drinks, friendly service, warm atmosphere and, as a bonus, talent in the kitchen. It might be a bar, first and foremost, but thanks to chef Benjamin Polson, Rye is also a surprisingly good restaurant. Owner Ryan Perlberg, whose family also owns the nearby upscale hot dog joint Stuggy's, didn't plan to open a restaurant, but he realized that when people go out for a drink, they also need to eat. Atmospherically, Rye feels like a bar, with friendly service and more cocktails than entrees.

The American Craft Council Show has been coming to Baltimore for 36 years, and the two have been good to each other: Workmanship that is as much art as craft has been embraced each year by huge crowds. But like any relationship, it can benefit from a little freshening. So organizers scoured the country — and other craft shows — for new talent, and there will be almost 200 new artists among the 700 exhibitors this weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center. They bring a wide range of offerings: exotic dolls, intricately carved gourds, whimsical furniture, jewelry that tells a love story, flowers preserved forever as glass.

Bars at malls don't have to try as hard. The venue doesn't expect them to, and neither does the clientele. Unlike at destination bars, people just want a place to linger after shopping, a variation on a T.G.I. Friday's. Some light lagers, bright lights, maybe an arcade machine. It is the measure of a great bar to have ambitions that go beyond, and Punk's Backyard Grill steps up to the challenge. This Westfield Annapolis mall bar and restaurant, celebrating its third anniversary this year, is casual to a fault - its premise is an indoors American cookout.

Ellicott City artist Theodora "Teddi" Fine has been going to the annual American Craft Council Show at the Baltimore Convention Center for the past 20 years. This faithful visitor finally will be one of the more than 650 artists from around the country exhibiting there. She's thrilled to have her own booth at the 36th annual craft show running Friday, Feb. 24, through Sunday, Feb. 26. "The idea of being among people whose work I have coveted for years is both gratifying and mind boggling," Fine, 62, says of the opportunity to exhibit.

As Salvatore Romano, the closeted art director at the turbulent Sterling Cooper ad agency in the TV series "Mad Men," Bryan Batt struck out — his character, cruelly compromised by a client, was fired partway through the third season of the much-admired cable show in 2009. But as an interior designer and author, Batt has enjoyed steady success, and that brings him this week to Baltimore, hometown of the fictional Sal. Batt will be the featured speaker at a reception Tuesday for the 36th annual American Craft Council Show that opens the next day. He'll talk about his recent book, "Big, Easy Style: Creating Rooms You Love to Live In. " "I haven't been to Baltimore in ages," Batt said, "and I have never been to the Craft Council Show, so I'm really looking forward to this.

An Poitin Stil offers the least expensive bison burger I've seen in these parts, at a penny under 10 bucks. I planned to check it out during this trip to the Timonium Irish pub. But then I saw the Backyard BBQ Burger ($8.99). The Backyard offers two types of cheeses, bacon, caramelized onions and homemade barbecue sauce for a dollar less than the bison burger. Those extras can cost you 75 cents apiece if you add them to the Stil's bison or angus burger. To keep this meal under $10 and still enjoy the civilizing effects of cheese and bacon, the Backyard was an easy choice.