Kettle

Where: 8949 Baltimore St., Savage. Phone: 301-725-8838. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Prices: $3.95 to $6.95. Credit cards: Cash only.

Kettle Hill has closed. Inspired by the life and spirit of Theodore Roosevelt, Kettle Hill opened April 20 on Market Place as the anchor restaurant in the Power Plant Live complex. The team behind Kettle Hill were Keystone Hospitality partners Desmond Reilly and Kristopher Carr. In a nightlife review of Kettle Hill, The Baltimore Sun's Wesley Case wrote that "Kettle Hill is a strong anchor for Power Plant Live's needed face-lift, which includes the additions of Joe Squared and Leinenkugel Beer Garden.

Havre de Grace. -- These are difficult times, there's no getting around it, and so it was with unusual trepidation that I ventured out this year for what has become an annual appearance as a seasonal bell-ringer for the Salvation Army.In the past, as a rule, this has tended to be a happy experience. Christmas shopping may be a stressful undertaking for many people, as it certainly is for me, but that never seemed to dampen their charitable impulses. Without fail, when I would conclude my two-hour stint in Bel Air's Harford Mall and turn over my post to a successor, the Army's little kettle would be stuffed with contributions and my own faith in humanity's basic decency shored up for another year.

Kettle Hill starts lunch service on Tuesday. Lunch hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. And on Friday, the downtown restaurant is christening its new patio with a grand opening party from 4-7 p.m. Speaking of decks, the crab deck at Philips Seafood should be fully operational soon. The big red umbrellas are already in place, and you can already hang out with a frozen drink and nibble on some light bites at a picnic table. But the deck menu isn't up and running yet. No firm date on the opening.

In response to Doug Mainwaring's op-ed piece ("Why the name calling?" Aug. 10), I agree that the name calling is not appropriate and that there should be more civil ways to communicate disagreement and different views. But I do have two questions which may point out why I think the tea party is just another political group with their own selfish motives and not the good of our country. 1. Why is the deficit only President Barack Obama's fault? 2. Where is Mr. Mainwaring when the Republicans are calling President Obama and the Democrats names?

On December 16, 2005, ROBERT J. KETTLE, beloved husband of Mary T. Kettle, stepfather of Mary Mulligan, Larry Mulligan, and John Mulligan, Sr., grandfather of Debbie Brooks, Shawn Mulligan and John Mulligan, Jr., and three great-grandchildren. Brother of Edward Kettle and Mary Jane Hoffman. Also survived several by nieces and nephews. Services private. Donation in his memory to Seasons Hospice, 7008 Security Blvd., Suite 300, Baltimore 21244. (nee Stehling), beloved wife of the late John J. Keys; devoted mother of John R. Keys; loving grandmother of Hunter, Logan, and Jessica Keys; dear sister of Robert Stehling and Audrey English.

DURING THE Baltimore mayoral primary, I kept waiting to hear a candidate promise that, if elected, he would put a chicken in every barbecue kettle. Maybe I missed it, but nobody I heard ever mentioned chicken.Among the Demo- crats, Carl Stokes wanted to put brooms in residents' hands to clean up the city. Martin O'Malley wanted to put in a new policing policy, and Lawrence Bell wanted to put in a City-Hall hot line.Among the Republicans, David Tufaro wanted to cut property taxes, and Carl Adair wanted to keep the city from getting too crowded.

It's been voted "Baltimore's Best" for its shredded pork barbecue sauce. But to locals, Ma's Kettle in Savage is the place to go for talk."Hell is six inches of ice covering the land," waitress Metta Lash says to no one in particular.It's the kind of free-flowing talk that characterizes the old restaurant off Baltimore Street across from Savage Guilford Road."It's a slice of home in an otherwise inhuman world," says Pete Dykstra, a Crownsville resident who stops in at least twice a week."People talk to each other here," he said.

The national shortage of Salvation Army bell-ringers and red kettle-minders has washed right over LaVerne Schmidt.She stands in front of Cross Street Market, a 53-year-old grandmother of eight, 112 pounds of cheerful "Merry Christmases" from Armistead Gardens. Her children and her husband told her she wouldn't be able to stand on her feet eight hours a day, six days a week.But she does it. "Thank you, hon," she says to a woman who made the red kettle clang. "God bless you."She told her children she was going to try it, at $6.50 an hour.

Maybe it was the clanging of the golden bell rising above the usual background din of recorded Christmas carols and impatient traffic outside the Cross Street Market. Or perhaps it was that inner voice, that thing people used to call, in times of greater moral clarity, "your conscience."Something made them stop, backtrack a bit, juggle packages or children and remove their gloves in freezing temperatures to dig through a pocket or purse and send coins rattling or bills rustling into my red kettle.

Power Plant Live newcomer Kettle Hill, a "Theodore Roosevelt-themed" establishment replete with lively, wood-and-iron-and-brass layouts, is a solid rustic-yet-fun place to hang out after work. It's a spot for working professionals with a bit of grown-up taste. Like the atmosphere, the cocktail menu, as bartender Daniel Clemmer puts it aptly, "is sophisticated, but approachable without being pretentious. " One of the freshest examples is the Church and State, a Herradura Tequila-based cocktail with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, fresh pineapple juice, cinnamon simple syrup and honkin' 2-by-2 inch ice cubes.

Kettle Hill has announced an opening date. Inspired, its operators say, by the life and spirit of Theodore Roosevelt, Kettle Hill will open April 20 on Market Place as the anchor restaurant in the Power Plant Live complex. The restaurant's name is inspired by the military exploits of Roosevelt and his Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. San Juan Hill is better remembered today than Kettle Hill, but Kettle Hill is a great name for a restaurant. The team behind Kettle Hill is made up of Keystone Hospitality partners Desmond Reilly and Kristopher Carr, whose infatuation with Roosevelt's take-charge ethos has also inspired the name for the bar within Kettle Hill.

Kettle Hill has announced an opening date. Inspired, its operators say, by the life and spirit of Theodore Roosevelt, Kettle Hill will open on April 20 on Market Place as the anchor restaurant in the Power Plant Live complex. The restaurant's name is inspired by the military exploits of Roosevelt and his Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. San Juan Hill is better remembered today than Kettle Hill, but Kettle Hill is a great name for a restaurant. The team behind Kettle Hill are Keystone Hospitality partners Desmond Reilly and Kristopher Carr, whose growing infatuation with Roosevelt's take-charge ethos has also inspired the name for the bar within Kettle Hill.

A 250-seat American bistro named Kettle Hill will open in the old Babalu space on the corner of Water Street and Market Place. Kettle Hill is partnership between area newcomer Keystone Hospitality and former Baltimore Oriole Rick Dempsey. The principal partners of Keystone Hospitality, formerly based New York City , are Desmond Reilly and Kristopher Karr. According to the press release from the property's landlord, Reilly and Karr were "inspired by local legend Rick Dempsey, who had been looking for some time to launch a restaurant project.

A tea kettle left on a stove in a fourth-floor apartment caused a three-alarm fire on Friday night that displaced 100 seniors from a complex in Northwest Baltimore and caused an estimated $280,000 in damage, according to fire investigators. No one was injured in the blaze that broke out shortly before 11 p.m. in the garden-style apartment complex in the Cheswolde neighborhood, in the 6300 block of Red Cedar Place. Residents were taken to a nearby condominium complex, and the fire was confined to two apartments.

In response to Doug Mainwaring's op-ed piece ("Why the name calling?" Aug. 10), I agree that the name calling is not appropriate and that there should be more civil ways to communicate disagreement and different views. But I do have two questions which may point out why I think the tea party is just another political group with their own selfish motives and not the good of our country. 1. Why is the deficit only President Barack Obama's fault? 2. Where is Mr. Mainwaring when the Republicans are calling President Obama and the Democrats names?

In February, the modest sign proclaiming Country Kettle's opening brought immediate results, owner and co-chef Amy Crooks says. "We filled up immediately. And people around here said, `Thank God it's not another pizza and subs place,'" she says. "That sign's been our only advertising. We're really depending on word of mouth." Crooks acknowledges, however, that she is going to have to overcome the local concern that Country Kettle might resemble the bar that was previously in the building.

For more than two decades, bell-ringing Salvation Army volunteers collected donations outside Giant Food stores, a holiday season ritual that gave shoppers a convenient way to help the less fortunate. Last fall, Giant enforced a sharp reduction in the number of hours that charitable groups could operate in front of its stores. Now, the Salvation Army says the policy change helped cause a steep drop in its end-of-year fundraising drive across the Washington region. Overall, the organization raised $1.1 million, or 25 percent less than its goal, the Salvation Army announced this week.

For more than two decades, bell-ringing Salvation Army volunteers collected donations outside Giant Food stores, a holiday season ritual that gave shoppers a convenient way to help the less fortunate. Last fall, Giant enforced a sharp reduction in the number of hours that charitable groups could operate in front of its stores. Now, the Salvation Army says the policy change helped cause a steep drop in its end-of-year fundraising drive across the Washington region. Overall, the organization raised $1.1 million, or 25 percent less than its goal, the Salvation Army announced this week.