Federal Hill

For many folks headed to Preakness, the focus of the afternoon isn't the race. It's the fashion — and we don't just mean hats. If you're in the grandstands, the Jockey Club area or Corporate Village, you'll want to dress the part. Betsy Dugan, owner of Bettina Collections in Cross Keys and former co-owner of Octavia in Pikesville, has been dressing women for Preakness for years. "This is the time ... to dress up," she said. If there's one rule of thumb, it's that ladies and gentlemen at Preakness should look like ...well, ladies and gentlemen.

The city's spending panel on Wednesday approved a $72,000 payout to three family members who accused Baltimore police of assaulting and falsely arresting them outside of a Federal Hill bar. The Board of Estimates voted to award the money to Rony, Ronnie and Eileen Reyes to settle a $99 million suit brought against the police department after a 2010 incident at Mad River Bar & Grille. On Oct. 16, the Reyes family went to the bar and stayed there until closing time, according to board documents.

A pair of Baltimore residents filed suit Monday accusing the city of breaking the law by allowing toxic chemicals to leach into the Patapsco River from the South Baltimore site where a casino is now under construction. The lawsuit is the second to raise environmental concerns about development of the Horseshoe casino on Russell Street. It contends that the city's deal with CBAC Gaming, a coalition led by Caeser's Entertainment, exposes city taxpayers to having to pay for cleaning up contamination from the site.

A pair of Baltimore residents filed suit Monday accusing the city of breaking the law by allowing toxic chemicals to leach into the Patapsco River from the South Baltimore site where a casino is now under construction. The lawsuit is the second to raise environmental concerns about development of the Horseshoe casino on Russell Street. It contends that the city's deal with CBAC Gaming, a coalition led by Caeser's Entertainment, exposes city taxpayers to having to pay for cleaning up contamination from the site.

Baltimore police are warning elderly residents about a Social Security scheme. The police say that seniors living in and around Federal Hill in late April received a call from someone claiming to be a Social Security representative. Victims are told that they received more money in their Social Security checks than they should have, and they must make a partial repayment if they want to continue receiving their checks, police say. A con artist then shows up at their door to collect the money.

"Trendy" neighborhoods with bars are not the lone sufferers of the public drinking problem ("Council chief calls for higher fines to curb public drunkenness," April 19). Anyone who lives within 10 miles of a college/university along Charles Street or York Road is all too painfully aware of the problems associated with mass drinking and neighborhood disturbances. Curbing rowdy drinkers should be standard public policy. Why is Baltimore always so behind the curve? Let's get smart like D.C. and Philly and adopt legislation that benefits tax-paying residents for a change.

Three years after opening its original Fells Point hot-dog shop, Stuggy's is adding a location in Federal Hill. The new location will be at 17 E. Cross St., in a space that was most recently an M&T Bank branch. A Stuggy's stand debuted at Oriole Park at Camden Yards last season and will return this year, according to Stuggy's co-owner Ryan Perlberg. Since taking over the old Burritos en Fuego space on South Broadway in 2010, Stuggy's has annexed the properties to either side, the Whistling Oyster and Sam's Kid, and converted them into the contemporary lounge spaces Rye and Willow , respectively.

Porter's , the Federal Hill corner restaurant and bar once known as Ransome's , is back in business. Now known as Porters , the place has apparently lost an apostrophe but regained a lot of customers from the old days, the neighborhood folks who missed having a reliable place closer to their homes than Light Street. The new Porters is off to a good start, according to co-owner Kevin Cooper, who says that the folks living on the east side of Federal Hill were "extremely excited about the reopening of Porters in any form at all."

When Christie Griffiths graduated from Towson University, she found herself going back home to New York City to shop. After working for New York designers, she came back to Baltimore to open a store she had always dreamed of: Brightside. At this "trendy boutique that any girl can afford" in Federal Hill, she brings styles from New York and Los Angeles to town. Brightside also does triple duty as an art studio and tattoo shop. "We have a lot of fashion-forward girls around here," she said.

Everything about Byblos seems cute and simple, almost effortlessly so. The food and decor at Federal Hill's new Lebanese eatery go hand-in-hand; both are charming and down to earth, with shades of the Middle East, and neither assumes too much. It's the kind of restaurant you didn't know you needed until it opened about three months ago, amid the neighborhood's plentiful pubs and sushi spots. Named after the Lebanese city, Byblos is run by the husband-and-wife team of Sami and Hala Tabet.

The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point hosts its annual home and garden tour on Mother's Day, May 12. The tour will include, as usual, some of the well-known sites in the neighborhood such as the Robert Long House (circa 1765) and Colonial garden and the eclectic garden known as "the Palace on Dallas. " New to the tour is the recently renovated home of Jon and Lauren Cole, which was built in 1790 on Aliceanna Street. The brick home includes many period design details, including a marble step at the front entrance and a detailed door frame.

I had my bachelorette weekend recently and it made me think about all of the different options available in and around Baltimore. There really is something suitable for every bride. For example, mine was an entire weekend in one of my favorite places on earth - Ocean City, MD. While the weather was a bit chilly it was perfect for me to be at the beach, enjoy all of my favorite restaurants and bars and relax with the women in my life who mean the most to me. Other weekend getaways in and around the area include Annapolis, D.C., Deep Creek, Philadelphia or even Atlantic City.

In 2006, local painter Lauren Boilini left the Midwest for graduate school in Baltimore, and she never left. She stayed to teach and become a part of the art community, and now is a painting and drawing instructor at MICA. Boilini, 29, was born in Bloomington, Ind., moved to Missouri to attend Kansas City Art Institute, and now lives in Butcher's Hill. Her studio is at School 33 Art Center in Federal Hill, where she has been the artist-in-residence since September 2011. As artist-in-residence, Boilini happily donated a piece of her artwork to School 33's annual fundraiser, the Lotta Art Benefit, held at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Silo Point.

Selling a house is rarely easy and quick, but the transaction for the three-story end-of-group brick rowhouse at 200 Warren Ave.e in Federal Hill was just that. The property listed and sold simultaneously, closing for $950,000 after being offered at $995,000. Little wonder. The home was built just five years ago in the same architectural style and detail as the older homes around it. Additionally, it is within walking distance to the Inner Harbor and shops and restaurants on Light and Charles streets.

The four-person team behind Langermann's, the Canton restaurant and bar that opened in December 2009, always intended to expand to a second location. Someday. Then, last year, an opportunity came that seemed too good to pass up. The tenants at 1542 Light St. in Federal Hill had tried their hands at two different projects - 1542 Gastropub and the Reserve - but decided to try a third project, Banditos, at a new location. They worked out a deal for the Langermann's team to take over their lease, and in September, Langermann's on Light was born.

I live in Otterbein. I believe in shopping locally. Rather than shopping at the big box stores in the suburbs where I would save money, I shop almost exclusively in the city. The mayor's office emphasizes the importance of Baltimore's "Main Streets. " The Baltimore City Council encourages shopping downtown. Why, then, are the parking meter fees in Federal Hill so high? I pay $2 an hour to shop on Charles and Light Streets in Federal Hill. I often stay 90 minutes and therefore pay $3 or more just to park.

Grilled Cheese & Co. opened in Federal Hill last Friday. The new restaurant takes over the Dangerously Delicious Pies space on the block of Light Street just north of Cross Street Market -- you know, right where those two banking machines are. This makes three, including the original in Catonsville and a second store in Sykesville. Grilled Cheese & Co. is also Ravens Walk at M&T Bank Stadium on Ravens home games. The new Grilled Cheese & Co. is open Sunday through Wednesday, from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. until 2:30 a.m.  You're reading that right -- 2:30 a.m. Grilled Cheese and Co. is located at 1036 Light Street.

Before there was Harry Potter midnight release parties, there was Georges Duboeuf, the mastermind behind the annual "third-Thursday-in-November" release of Beaujolais Nouveau. This year's release is accompanied by an energetic and fresh national campaign called Nouveau Expression -- the 2011 graffiti label is the work of the Brooklyn-based artist known as Mr. Kaves. Metropolitan will host its fifth annual "From the Barrel" Beaujolais Nouveau release party on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. The Federal Hill cafe and wine bar has again arranged to procure five small barrels of 2011 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau.

The ink on their contract was barely dry and the moving van just out of sight, when Richard and Key-Key von Lange prepared to flip the first-floor interior layout of the six-year-old home they bought in Federal Hill three years ago. "We looked at the house and were sold," Richard von Lange recalled of the rowhouse he and his wife purchased for $395,000. "We wanted parking, we wanted a yard and we liked the location. " The only problem with the three-story, end-of-group home with a rooftop deck was the kitchen just inside the front door.

When Christie Griffiths graduated from Towson University, she found herself going back home to New York City to shop. After working for New York designers, she came back to Baltimore to open a store she had always dreamed of: Brightside. At this "trendy boutique that any girl can afford" in Federal Hill, she brings styles from New York and Los Angeles to town. Brightside also does triple duty as an art studio and tattoo shop. "We have a lot of fashion-forward girls around here," she said.