Honfest

It was the time of year to walk down the Avenue to celebrate the garish glory of being a Baltimore Hon - a riot of leopard skin and hairspray. In an annual street festival that has blossomed over a dozen years, thousands swarmed Hampden's main shopping district along West 36th Street yesterday for HonFest. The North Baltimore neighborhood, once a tight, blue-collar enclave heavy with Formstone, has lately become the city's center of retro chic. "Hon," of course, is a kitschy echo of the diners, shops and other haunts where generations of cheerful women in beehive hairdos have greeted customers with "What'll you have, Hon?"

Jacqueline Grab had no idea what she was in for. She'd heard about HonFest and thought it sounded fun, though a little puzzling. "I didn't know what a `hon' was," said Grab, who moved to Towson two years ago. "I'm from the U.K. The Baltimore hon is a new thing for me." As many Baltimoreans know, the HonFest, held yesterday for the 10th year on the Avenue in Hampden, is the perfect place for the uninitiated to learn about - and see firsthand - all things hon. "They're colorful, crazy and a lot of fun," Grab decided shortly after arriving.

After almost a year of simmering controversy, Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting said Monday that she will relinquish her "Hon" trademark. "I'll take it off the register," she said. "It was never mine to have in the first place. " Her trademark announcement, which she made on a morning radio program with reality TV chef Gordon Ramsay, was wrapped in an apology. "I am sorry for the animosity and the hatred and everything that trademarking a word has done," Whiting said. "Trademarking the word has not only almost killed me but has just about killed the business.

There should not even be any controversy surrounding Denise Whiting and her boring huckstering of Hon novelties, Café Hon, Honfest, etc. Hon is the registered trademark of a large, venerable manufacturer of office furniture and equipment that well pre-dates Ms. Whiting's exploitation of the word Hon and probably Ms. Whiting herself. Perhaps if this information is published by the Sun, this whole matter will be laid to rest. Thanks, hon, Edward Leslie Ansel, Owings Mills

NOW OR NEVER After 63 years, Theatre Hopkins will bid farewell to its home in the Merrick Barn on the Johns Hopkins University campus with a play about a theatrical longevity. Co-authors George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber used the legendary Barrymores as the source for their comedy The Royal Family, which opens a four-weekend run tomorrow. Under Suzanne Pratt's direction, Molly Moores, Cherie Weinert and Nona Porter portray three generations of women in the Cavendish clan, with Harry B. Turner and Michael Styer depicting the Cavendish men. Next season, the theater expects to perform in other venues on the Homewood campus.

Honfest honors city's heritage Give me a break, hon. I cannot believe that with all that we have to worry about (war, energy costs, etc.) there are those who want to do away with Hampden's Honfest ("Hon-estly, hon, it's just fun," June 13). Why? It is only one weekend a year, and many of us enjoy the fun and laughter it offers. People cannot seem to laugh at themselves or with others these days. Perhaps that is what is wrong with the world today. But life is too short to be taken too seriously.

Baltimore could set a delicious world record this weekend. At the annual Honfest in Hampden, an Old Bay-seasoned veteran will attempt to top his title Saturday for the world's largest crab cake. That would be 240 pounds of seafood goodness. If it makes the Guinness World Records list - or even if it doesn't - hundreds of people will be able to have a bite of the huge creation to benefit Special Olympics of Maryland. "I am very excited that we are producing the world's largest crab cake ever," says Denise Whiting, the festival organizer and owner of Cafe Hon. "We call the festival Baltimore's best time, and wouldn't Baltimore's best time include crab cakes?"

Fox television's "Kitchen Nightmares," featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and his decidedly tough-love approach to restaurant rehab, will be filming at Hampden's Cafe Hon next week, the network confirmed Tuesday. The show's producers were unavailable for further comment. In a statement, Café Hon owner Denise Whiting said she'd be willing to speak after the program aired. "Kitchen Nightmares," in its fourth season on Fox, generally focuses on restaurants that are failing or in deep trouble, and affords the ceaselessly blunt Ramsay the chance to come in, do what needs to be done and - hopefully - save the business from plunging into the abyss.

Jolie Carter bought her mother a crab pretzel from the Phillips food cart and declared she may consider moving to Hampden from downtown Baltimore. Carter, a New Orleans native who recently started a medical residency at the University of Maryland, spent Saturday afternoon at Hampdenfest 2011 with out-of-town family members. "It's such an eclectic neighborhood," said Carter, who recently stumbled upon the area when she brought her car to a repair shop there. "The people are really nice.

FESTIVAL CELEBRATE HONS! PUT ON YOUR LEOPARD-PRINT spandex and best beehive hairdo and head to Hampden this weekend, hon! The annual Honfest, a "Bawlmer" tradition, is back with food, music and, of course, the best hons in the city. The festival showcases cat-eye glasses, bright makeup and hair -- the higher, the better -- in a celebration of the women of the '60s. Proceeds from the festival will go to Project 12, a nonprofit organization aimed at decreasing the high school dropout rate in Baltimore.