Honfest

After celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay and his show "Kitchen Nightmares"visited Cafe Hon last year, Denise Whiting agreed to kill her trademark of the word "Hon. " She did as she said. And yet, mention of the trademark appears in literature for this year's Honfest, which is coming up in June. Here is the passage, verbatim, included on Honfest 2012 material that was distributed to potential festival vendors: NOTE: All items sold at HONfest 2012 must be legal and within the family-oriented nature of the event.

It's only been a year? A hit from the start, the Food Market opened on the eve of last year's Honfest. Co-owners Chad Gauss and Elan Kotz, the Food Market's executive chef and general manager, respectively, are celebrating their great first year with a birthday party at the Hampden restaurant on June 5. The party, a benefit for the Hampden Family Center , will include hors d'oeuvres and sweets provided by chefs and restaurateurs. The well-wishers providing food include Cyrus Keefer ( Fork & Wrench )

Regarding the restriction of political activity at Honfest: Is Denise Whiting's ego so inflated that she thinks her seeming endorsement of a candidate would sway an election? I wonder what William Donald Schaefer's response would have been to such a ban. Stephanie Charles

Whew! Another HonFest is now in our rearview mirrors, and the only thing left to remember it by are the persistent feather boa sheddings that seem to get everywhere and are impossible to completely clean up. (That and the embarrassing photos, darn cell phone cameras!) Seriously, at one point during the festival, it looked like someone had taken a lawn mower to a flock of pink flamingos — which this columnist does NOT recommend doing. But during all the hubbub, it was easy to overlook an exciting new dining opportunity that opened the Friday before HonFest — The Food Market, 1017 W. 36th St. It is in the old location of the Hampden Food Market, and the new owners have done a fantastic job renovating the space.

Every year we hear complaints from merchants or residents who don't like Honfest for a variety of reasons. This is fine. The good news is that we all have the ability to choose the festivals (and businesses) we wish to support (or not). The even better news is that if we all have the opportunity to create our own festival, honoring whatever we want to honor and placing restrictions on whatever we want to restrict (or not). We just have to be willing to take the initiative and risks involved, develop and grow the creative idea, do all the hard work, garner volunteer support and sponsorships, deal with the city's permitting process, put up our own capital and then start all over again for the next year.

Anyone with the chutzpah to run for mayor shouldn't be intimidated by a gal in a beehive hairdo and cat's-eye glasses, even if the gal in question is armed with a trademark, a litigious nature and a curious interpretation of the First Amendment. A least a couple candidates for Baltimore mayor showed up at Honfest, despite Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting's attempted politics ban. City Councilman Carl Stokes was brave enough not only to work the crowd, but to post a photo of himself on Facebook with a group of drag hons.

I ask you, Hampden, are you ready to get your HON™ on? Regardless of how you answer that in the wake of controversy over the trademarking of "HON," this weekend is HONfest, the annual festival founded by Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting . It takes place Saturday, June 11, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, June 12, from noon to 6 p.m., on The Avenue, West 36th Street. This year's festival promises to be a more restrained affair. Last year's fest spanned three days and spilled into Roosevelt Park, bringing 65,000 people to Hampden, according to organizers.

Shifting through kitschy clothing in Dreamland, the legendary John Waters Baltimore-inspired boutique in Hampden last week, New Mexico transplant and former Charm City resident Connie Murphy had a lot to say about the lingering controversy over the trademarking of the word “Hon.” “I think the controversy has a negative effect in general, it’s sort of absurd to say you own the word that has so much meaning here,” she said....

Usually, Honfest is a celebration of kitsch, from beehives to cat's-eye glasses. This weekend, the annual Hampden festival will be honoring a different Baltimore icon. "It was all about the beehive," said Honfest founder Denise Whiting. "This year, it's all about the bird." Whiting is referring to the giant pink flamingo affixed to the front of her restaurant, Cafe Hon. It was there for years, until the city demanded Whiting take it down or pay an $800 "minor privilege fee" last fall.

It's been seven months since Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting publicly dropped her controversial trademark of the word "hon. " Chef Gordon Ramsay and the rest of the "Kitchen Nightmares" crew were even in town last week for a follow-up to the original Cafe Hon "Kitchen Nightmares" episode. So, with Honfest set for this weekend, is Hampden and the rest of hon-loving Baltimore ready to put the hon-troversy to rest? Whiting thinks so. "We have heard from an overwhelming number of our neighbors since the 'Kitchen Nightmares' experience ... generally, most everyone who objected to the initial trade-marking have embraced our efforts to put the issue behind us," Whiting said in an e-mail.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for increasing clouds and a high temperature near 90 degrees. Tonight is expected to be cloudy, with a 60 percent chance of rain and a low temperature around 73 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM THE WEEKEND... Rawlings-Blake names panel to look for Bealefeld replacement : The mayor's office said the panel will conduct interviews of internal and external applicants and recommend finalists to Rawlings-Blake.

Among the teased and towering hair, the fluttering boas and the crowd sticky with snowballs Saturday at Hampden's Honfest wound a joyful party who were celebrating more than the neighborhood's quirky character. "Make way, make way, here come the bride and groom," called Dot Tucker-Houk, leading a procession of several dozens revelers cheering and rattling noisemakers. Behind her, niece Angie Gentile twirled a parasol, beaming at her newly-wed husband, Andy Snair, and paused for a photo with a crowd of women wearing towering pink wigs.

The Food Market opens Friday on the Avenue in Hampden. The new restaurant is the project of Chad Gauss, former executive chef at City Cafe, and Elan Kotz, a veteran of Aldo's in Little Italy. The 3,000 square-foot restaurant has seating for 90 in the dining room, a 12-seat bar and an open kitchen whose focus, Gauss has said, will be "basically blue-collar food in a white-collar execution. " The Food Market will be open for dinner seven days a week, serving a full menu until 1 a.m. An a la carte Brunch will be served on Saturday and Sunday -- and Friday.

It's been seven months since Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting publicly dropped her controversial trademark of the word "hon. " Chef Gordon Ramsay and the rest of the "Kitchen Nightmares" crew were even in town last week for a follow-up to the original Cafe Hon "Kitchen Nightmares" episode. So, with Honfest set for this weekend, is Hampden and the rest of hon-loving Baltimore ready to put the hon-troversy to rest? Whiting thinks so. "We have heard from an overwhelming number of our neighbors since the 'Kitchen Nightmares' experience ... generally, most everyone who objected to the initial trade-marking have embraced our efforts to put the issue behind us," Whiting said in an e-mail.

After celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay and his show "Kitchen Nightmares"visited Cafe Hon last year, Denise Whiting agreed to kill her trademark of the word "Hon. " She did as she said. And yet, mention of the trademark appears in literature for this year's Honfest, which is coming up in June. Here is the passage, verbatim, included on Honfest 2012 material that was distributed to potential festival vendors: NOTE: All items sold at HONfest 2012 must be legal and within the family-oriented nature of the event.

The brouhaha surrounding the trademarking of the word "hon" seemed to become more serious Monday as Denise Whiting was granted a restraining order against a man who organized recent protests against her. Judge Joan Bossman Gordan issued the so-called peace order on Monday on Whiting's behalf, barring Steven Akers, a 25-year-old student from Severn, from any of Whiting's Hampden businesses and from contacting her or harassing her. Gordan extended...

Not counting her seven custom-made beehive wigs, her cat's-eye glasses and her flamingo purse, Charlene Osborne holds little closer to her heart than the bedazzled rhinestone tiara that was fixed onto her lacquered bouffant as she was crowned Baltimore's Best Hon two years ago at Honfest. But this year, Honfest will be at least one beehive short. Osborne is among those who have pledged to boycott the annual event to protest what they consider to be the co-opting of a Baltimore institution: the fabled hon. "I consider myself a hon, raised by a real hon in Dundalk, which is hon territory," says Osborne, who's 49. "But I do not support the trademarking of the word and the strict handling of all things hon — it's very un-hon.

Baltimore transportation officials warned residents of road closures along West 36th Street in Hampden on Saturday and Sunday, as the neighborhood hosts the annual Honfest celebration. The Baltimore neighborhood's main drag, also known as The Avenue, will be closed to traffic between Falls Road and Chestnut Avenue all day Saturday through 10 p.m. Sunday, according to the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. Intersections along that stretch of 36th Street will be closed as well, and traffic will not be allowed to cross.

Every year we hear complaints from merchants or residents who don't like Honfest for a variety of reasons. This is fine. The good news is that we all have the ability to choose the festivals (and businesses) we wish to support (or not). The even better news is that if we all have the opportunity to create our own festival, honoring whatever we want to honor and placing restrictions on whatever we want to restrict (or not). We just have to be willing to take the initiative and risks involved, develop and grow the creative idea, do all the hard work, garner volunteer support and sponsorships, deal with the city's permitting process, put up our own capital and then start all over again for the next year.

I've been watching the ruckus surrounding Denise Whiting, the owner of the Café Hon, with a certain degree of perplexity. I am new to Baltimore, having moved here with my family this past August, so I feel like a person who has stepped into a movie theater halfway into the movie. I know I've missed important parts of the story and am trying to make sense of it all. What I can't understand is why Ms. Whiting is trying to control the use of the word "hon" through her trademarks and restrictions, including the one prohibiting merchants from selling cat's-eye sunglasses during Honfest 2011.