Hampden

Letter writer C.D. Wilmer of Baltimore refers to Hampden as a tourist trap ("Hampden isn't the same," Nov. 11). My definition of tourist trap is an attraction geared more to visitors than to locals, that promises more than it delivers. I moved to Hampden back when it was what Mr. Wilmer calls "quirky and eclectic" and have enjoyed its evolution into an even more quirky and eclectic community ever since. Hampden is better now than it ever has been. My wife, daughter and I eat and shop on the Avenue two to four times a week.

Open only since last month, Luigi's Italian Deli in Hampden avoids any of the missteps that invariably are part of a new restaurant. Luigi's, and several of the small restaurants on 36th Street in Hampden, aka The Avenue, belie the old adage that patrons are reluctant to walk up stairs to a restaurant. At the top of these steps is a pleasant porch furnished with four tiny tables. Sipping a Blood Orange Pellegrino and tackling one of the specialty sandwiches makes scaling a few steps a small price to pay. There is also a spacious patio out back.

The Verandah opened on the Avenue in Hampden on Aug. 15. That's odd. Back on July 18, Rudhika Sule told me that she was planning to have her Indian/Pakistani take-out open on Aug. 15 .  And she opened the Verandah on Aug. 15? Who does that? The Verandah is at 842 W. 36h St. in Hampden. The temporary phone number is 410-857-3553. The installation of a permanent landline is held up by the Verizon strike, Sule told me. A website is in the works, but there is up-to-date information on the cafe's Facebook page . For now, the Verandah will keep bankers' hours, more or less -- it will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Spike Gjerde and the Woodberry Kitchen team have released some more information about its forthcoming Artifact Coffee project, which they plan to have open in June. Allie Caran, the head barista at Woodberry Kitchen, and Gjerde's partner on the project, will be general manager general manager for the cafe, which will serve seasonal, direct trade coffee, manually brewed to order. The cafe will run with a single-page menu, divided up into morning kitchen (pastries), day kitchen (soups, salads and sandwiches)

Denise Whiting cried, was scolded by Chef Gordon Ramsay and then hugged out months of drama on tonight's "Kitchen Nightmares" episode featuring Whiting, who Baltimoreans -- and the staff of her Hampden theme restaurant Cafe Hon -- love to hate. The show did an exceptionally good job of explaining the controversy that mired Cafe Hon and  Whiting for the better part of a year. If you knew nothing about Whiting and "Hon" trademark, you'd come away with an accurate understanding of how the story played out in Baltimore.

No, this is not the Green Zone in Iraq, it's downtown Hampden where helicopters have been droning at 6 a.m. for two straight early mornings. And no, it's not because the Titanic is sinking - or an earthquake hit or even a tsunami coming down the Jones Falls. It's not the start of World War III, but an unbelievable amount of attention given to two lanes shut down on the Jones Falls Expressway at 28th Street. Come on, TV news people. Give it a rest and move on to something else that might actually be worth waking up an entire neighborhood.

The problem A Hampden sidewalk was repaired, but a walkway was not replaced. The back story When Baltimore contractors are hired to do work for the city, they should complete the job. But when a contractor fails to replace a walk, forcing a man with two knee replacements to go out of his way to get to and from his house, that seems especially wrong. Linda Bradford Barron's 78-year-old father lives in the 3500 block of Roland Ave., just south of 36th Street — otherwise known as the Avenue — in Hampden.

Like letter writer John Starling ("Hampden owes a lot to Denise Whiting," June 13), I too became familiarized with Hampden because of Café Hon and moved here. I have watched its owner, Denise Whiting, only become better at what she does. There have been many businesses and restaurants that have opened in Hampden because they knew it would be profitable "settling" in a neighborhood that would embrace them, and we should thank Ms. Whiting for doing that groundwork! Arlene Layton, Hampden

Spike Gjerde and the Woodberry Kitchen team have released some more information about its forthcoming Artifact Coffee project, which they plan to have open in June. Allie Caran, the head barista at Woodberry Kitchen, and Gjerde's partner on the project, will be general manager general manager for the cafe, which will serve seasonal, direct trade coffee, manually brewed to order. The cafe will run with a single-page menu, divided up into morning kitchen (pastries), day kitchen (soups, salads and sandwiches)

The real problem with Cafe Hon specifically and Hampden in general ("Beleaguered café owner drops her 'Hon' trademark," Nov. 8) is that the folks there have turned a quirky, eclectic neighborhood into a tourist trap. It should be avoided at all costs. C.D. Wilmer, Baltimore

The Baltimore Messenger won 10 awards in the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Asociation's 2012 editorial contest. Winners were announced April 20. Kathleen Reynolds won first place for Sports Page Design, for a preview of the boys lacrosse season. Editor Larry Perl won four first-place awards, for Feature Story (Non-Profile), about a family-run lemonade stand; Religion Reporting, for a story about a priest's ordination; Business Reporting, for a story about Mill No. 1, a planned multi-use development in Hampden; and Local Government Reporting, for a story about Oakenshawe's zoning battle against a nearby bar. Perl also won two second-place awards, for Weather/Natural Disasters Reporting, about the aftermath of Hurricane Irene; and Headline Writing, for a story about a lack of air-conditioning at the Belvedere Towers apartment building.

Mother Nature brought relief to a parched Baltimore on Sunday, but the persistent rain didn't dampen the spirits at the Earth Day festivities in Hampden. "We had a few hundred people come through today," said Don Barton, 29, an organizer of Sunday's Localize It! 2012, one of a series of events during the week to celebrate Earth Day in the Baltimore area. "People are braving the rain and seem to be having a good time. " Localize It!, sponsored by the Baltimore Free Farm, promotes local food, music and vendors.

The setting for Silo.5% Wine Bar is Silo Point, a glamorous luxury condominium carved out of a former working grain terminal in Locust Point. The complex is surrounded by the remnants of industry, and even from the ground floor, the views of the freight lines and the working harbor are stirring. On its best day, peninsula-bound Locust Point is one of your more remote Baltimore neighborhoods. With the Fort Avenue bridge under construction, it has taken on a lost-colony feel. Right now, that's part of the attraction for Silo.5%, which still has the allure of a secret despite being open for about six months.

Luigi's Italian Deli opened Thursday in Hampden. It's on that block of front-porch businesses, just a few doors down from the Verandah. The owners are Jeanine and Ryan Little of Reisterstown. This is a counter operation, with some seating inside and outside on the porch. On the menu are specialty sandwiches like the Isabella with prosciutto di Parma, soppressata, dry-cured coppa, Asiago, green olive spread and tomato, and Luigi's Italian Cold Cut with mortadella, salame, capicollo, prosciuttini and provolone.

No, this is not the Green Zone in Iraq, it's downtown Hampden where helicopters have been droning at 6 a.m. for two straight early mornings. And no, it's not because the Titanic is sinking - or an earthquake hit or even a tsunami coming down the Jones Falls. It's not the start of World War III, but an unbelievable amount of attention given to two lanes shut down on the Jones Falls Expressway at 28th Street. Come on, TV news people. Give it a rest and move on to something else that might actually be worth waking up an entire neighborhood.

Maybe it was desperation or nervous energy that led me to Craigslist. My husband, still in South Carolina, was 15 days away from starting his job in Beltsville and I had to find a place in a safe neighborhood for $1,000 a month that accepted our pets - and we had to move all of our belongings and be settled enough to both go to work after a marathon weekend of packing, moving and unpacking. My real estate agent was searching for places that met our criteria, but I also put out a few feelers on Craigslist.

The idea — the very idea! — that one woman could legally own a word so deeply entrenched in Baltimore's lexicon, a term that seems to touch on the city's very blue-collar, audacious essence, did not sit well with many Baltimoreans. On Sunday, capping a week of outrage about Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting's trademarking the word "Hon," about 50 people gathered in Hampden to protest. The demonstration was organized through social media, particularly a Facebook page called "Boycott Cafe Hon . " It was one of several sites that sprang up last week after Baltimoreans found out that Whiting had established legal rights to the word "Hon.

Tim Potee, 52, the owner of a popular Hampden vintage clothing business, was found dead Monday evening at his home above his West 36th Street shop. His brother, John Potee, called police after he failed to hear from his sibling. Potee said he was told by the medical examiner that, based upon a preliminary examination, the cause of death was pneumonia. A fellow business owner, Elissa Strati, said she grew concerned when she had not seen Potee for several days. She said firefighters raised a ladder to a window to gain entry to Potee's residence.

The Tony Hawk Foundation has given $25,000 toward the construction of a skateboard park in Roosevelt Park in Hampden. The Skatepark of Baltimore, a nonprofit group dedicated to raising enough money to build a place for area youth to skateboard safely, received one of 12 grants given by the foundation this spring, according to a news release. The group has until the end of May to raise $75,000 in order to get a matching grant from the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks.

Hey, everybody -- give a warm welcome to Yvonne Wenger , a new Baltimore Sun reporter who will be joining me here to blog about (appropriately enough) newcomer issues. She'll take us along as she looks for a place to settle, gets to know the city and navigates the system (MVA registration, anyone?). We hope her experiences will help other newbies and give natives a new way to look at things we've seen a thousand times before. (If you're a new buyer, check out this collection of information and resources while you're at it.)