Harbor East

Night after night, touring the country for his one-man show, Chazz Palminteri searched for the perfect Italian meal, but 31 plates of linguine marinara gave way to 31 disappointments. Then, he walked into Aldo's , a mainstay of Baltimore's Little Italy, and found not only the pasta he'd been craving but the collaborators for his dream project. Two years later, and the Academy Award nominee is about to add a restaurant to a resume that includes "The Usual Suspects," "Bullets Over Broadway" and "A Bronx Tale," the 1989 one-man show that brought him fame, not to mention a lifelong friend and mentor in Robert De Niro.

The contemporary Greek restaurant coming to the Promenade in Harbor East will not be named Limani. That name was taken, by a Greek restaurant in Roslyn, N.Y. Instead, the restaurant will be named Ouzo Bay, its owners say. The menu will include fresh fish flown in from the Mediterranean, grass-fed lamb and beef and homemade Greek favorites. Construction is underway for a summer opening.

The Charm City Circulator, Baltimore's long-awaited and long-delayed free downtown shuttle bus system, will make its debut today. The Baltimore Transportation Department will launch the Circulator by beginning service on its east-west Orange Route between Hollins Market and Harbor East via the Inner Harbor. It plans to start two other routes - a north-south route between Penn Station and Federal Hill and a route connecting Johns Hopkins Hospital with Harbor East and City Hall - in the spring.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration agreed to pay $400,000 Wednesday toward building a brick walkway in Canton, a project intended to close a gap in the promenade along Baltimore's harbor. The walkway in front of The Moorings, a neighborhood of million-dollar townhouses off Boston Street, has been a source of contention between the city and the site's developer. The developer built a floating walkway instead of the brick sidewalk the city is constructing along the rest of the waterfront.

Restaurateur Tony Foreman has been able to stay in business during this recession even though his high-end Charleston in Harbor East charges $110 for three courses, which may include soup or salad but also wine. The Baltimore native operates four restaurants in the city with his wife, award-winning chef Cindy Wolf, even as the economic downturn has made the most devoted foodies frugal and even as Charm City haunts including the Brass Elephant have been forced to close. The restaurants have added depth and character to the city's culinary scene and, apparently, remain profitable.

The addition of four national retailers - Anthropologie, J. Crew, MAC Cosmetics and Lululemon Athletica - at Harbor East could solidify the Baltimore waterfront neighborhood as one of the region's top shopping destinations, local retail consultants and business owners said Wednesday. "It makes downtown even more vibrant and attractive to high-quality, upscale retailers," said Mark Millman, chief executive officer of the retail executive hiring firm Millman Search Group in Owings Mills.

180s LLC, maker of behind-the-head ear warmers, gloves and sunglasses, said Friday it has traded one downtown Baltimore headquarters for another with a move earlier this week to the E.J. Codd building in Harbor East. The company, formerly located at 701 East Pratt St. on Pier Six , signed a 10-year-lease for the mid-19th century building at 700 South Caroline St. The building originally housed the E.J. Codd Co., which manufactured boilers and parts for barges and boats. Developer Struever Bros.

Harbor East restaurants like Talara, Taco Fiesta, Lebanese Taverna James Joyce and Fleming's will be offering selections of their menus at Harbor East's Fall Harvest Fest on Saturday. Taco Fiesta will be bringing chips, guacamole, salsa and burritos; Lebanese Taverna will have chicken shazam and hummus; Fleming's will be serving lamb chop lollipops and Talara will show up with smoked pulled pork brisket sandwiches and red cabbage slaw. They're all bringing booze, too. The Harbor East Fall Harvest Fest will also feature live music and strolling entertainment.

For at least two years, there has been hanging on the northeast corner The Promenade, a block-sized apartment building in the Harbor East development. "Authentic Greek Cuisine & Lounge Coming Soon," it says. It's really coming. It will be called Limani, and it will occupy a waterfront space on the Promenade's southeast corner, at Central and Lancaster. (Charleston is on the southwest corner.) The restaurant will put a modern take on traditional Greek cuisine. The menu will include fresh fish flown in from the Mediterranean, grass-fed lamb and beef and homemade Greek favorites.

In a word, Vino Rosina is adorable. OK, two words: Adorable and overdue. Harbor East can't get enough bars and lounges of any kind, and the clean cut wine bar Vino Rosina, which opened in the Bagby building in mid-May, is a perfect fit for the ritzy waterside neighborhood. Opened by Jim Lancaster, the man behind the Rosina Gourmet sandwich shops, Vino Rosina ticks nearly all the boxes. As soon as you set foot inside Vino Rosina, you'll notice the tasteful rehab of the rustic warehouse space, with its high ceilings, exposed brick and light wood trimmings.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar is rolling out a "Small Plates, Big Pours" promotion. Available through the end of May, the dealio lets diners mix seven small plates with seven over-sized wine pours "in the bar area. Yes to over-sized pours -- sounds like a plan for the "Real Housewives of Harbor East. " The small plates include sliced filet Mignon, shrimp scampi skewers, petite lamb chops, seared ahi tuna, lobster tempura, and New Bedford scallops. The Fleming's wine experts have chosen specific wines -- culled from the Fleming's 100 -- to pair with each of the seven dishes, but diners are free to mix and match.  "Guests could pick a pairing with a blindfold on and still would not go wrong with the seven wine selections on our Small Plates, Big Pours menu,” said Russell Skall, Fleming's Executive Chef, in the promotion's press release.

You may tune into The Big Chee Show for the insightful sports analysis and interviews with athletes, but you should really stick around for the bro chat. Sprinkled in every weekly broadcast (5-6 p.m. Fridays, ESPN 1300), host and Federal Hill resident Chris Cichon (The Big Chee, a nickname derived from the pronunciation of his last name, "Chee-on") and his bro crew talk everything from Baltimore bro bars to bro hairstyles. "[The show's for] bros like myself who like watching sports while having a cold one with their fellow bros.

When the sale of Constellation Energy Group to Chicago-based Exelon Corp. was announced last April, Calvin G. Butler Jr. was in Baltimore, ready to build support and win over critics. Butler, 42, Exelon's senior vice president of corporate affairs, took up residence at Spinnaker Bay apartments in Harbor East for almost a year while he served as the company's eyes and ears in Maryland. He met with state and city officials, business leaders and nonprofits, including those skeptical about the deal's benefits for consumers and Baltimore.

Now I really feel old. A friend of mine used to call the grocery store at the Rotunda the "Flirt Giant. " And it was true, back when I moved here about 25 years ago: You got the sense people were trolling the aisles there for more than Lean Cuisines. It was bad enough that over the years the Flirt Giant aged out — if there were still shoppers on the prowl there, they also were probably on walkers. The Rotunda itself was sagging a bit, slowly some of its smaller shops, but as long as the Giant anchored one end and the movie theater the other, the mall seemed to still have a heartbeat.

Yes! Fashionistas don't have to drive to the 'burbs to get style. Baltimore's Harbor East announced that four popular retailers will open late summer along the Aliceanna Street corridor.  Anthropologie will open at 280 International Drive in the Four Seasons Hotel. J. Crew, which abandoned downtown Baltimore in 2009, will be housed at 701 Aliceanna St., in the Legg Mason Tower. Lululemon Athletica, a sport apparel shop that gets its inspiration from yoga, will move into 820 Aliceanna St., which neighbors the White House Black Market.

The addition of four national retailers - Anthropologie, J. Crew, MAC Cosmetics and Lululemon Athletica - at Harbor East could solidify the Baltimore waterfront neighborhood as one of the region's top shopping destinations, local retail consultants and business owners said Wednesday. "It makes downtown even more vibrant and attractive to high-quality, upscale retailers," said Mark Millman, chief executive officer of the retail executive hiring firm Millman Search Group in Owings Mills.

Architects for apparel and home décor retailer Anthropologie have been asked to return to the Baltimore Planning Department with revised preliminary designs for a store slated to open next year at the base of the Four Seasons Hotel in Harbor East. Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel reviewed storefront plans on Thursday showing an entrance with a redwood and steel façade above glass doors, a design the store's architects said was inspired by a ship's hull. "We're excited to have a store in the harbor," said John Gwin, a member of the chain's store design team.

Yes! Fashionistas don't have to drive to the 'burbs to get style. Baltimore's Harbor East announced that four popular retailers will open late summer along the Aliceanna Street corridor.  Anthropologie will open at 280 International Drive in the Four Seasons Hotel. J. Crew, which abandoned downtown Baltimore in 2009, will be housed at 701 Aliceanna St., in the Legg Mason Tower. Lululemon Athletica, a sport apparel shop that gets its inspiration from yoga, will move into 820 Aliceanna St., which neighbors the White House Black Market.

For at least two years, there has been hanging on the northeast corner The Promenade, a block-sized apartment building in the Harbor East development. "Authentic Greek Cuisine & Lounge Coming Soon," it says. It's really coming. It will be called Limani, and it will occupy a waterfront space on the Promenade's southeast corner, at Central and Lancaster. (Charleston is on the southwest corner.) The restaurant will put a modern take on traditional Greek cuisine. The menu will include fresh fish flown in from the Mediterranean, grass-fed lamb and beef and homemade Greek favorites.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, who has headed Baltimore's economic development agency under four mayors and helped shepherd projects such as the Harbor East redevelopment, said Thursday he plans to retire. The Baltimore native and former city housing commissioner is credited with overseeing initiatives to create thousands of jobs and to attract and keep hundreds of businesses in the city during his 16 years as president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's quasi-public economic development arm. Brodie, viewed as highly influential in city development, also has drawn criticism from residents and business owners who have complained about being pushed out by urban renewal and about the secrecy under which they say his agency has operated.