Locust

Joseph Patrick Byrne, founder and proprietor of J. Patrick's Irish Pub, a popular Locust Point tavern with a reputation as a venue for Irish music that went well beyond Baltimore, died Saturday of cancer at Harbor Hospital. The former Cockeysville resident was 81. "It was a real gathering place for the Irish-American community of Baltimore, and it had the feel of a rural country bar, the type you find outside of Dublin. It was both warm and inviting," said Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Sad news for Baltimore's Irish community: Joe Patrick Byrne, who for decades ran J. Patrick's Irish Pub in Locust Point, passed away last Saturday of cancer. The future of the pub is uncertain. Byrne, who lived above the bar, made J. Patrick's one of Baltimore's most authentic Irish pubs. Every week, musicians came to practice, jam and perform traditional Irish music there. While the pub doesn't look like much from the outside (you might drive past it a few times if you don't know exactly where to look)

The locust trees are in bloom today. That's the black locust,  Robinia pseudoacacia , one of the last trees to bloom. In eastern Kentucky, where the tree is plentiful, those delicate white blossoms perfume the countryside, and it is by their appearance that I know that spring has well and truly arrived.  Duty has be editing copy for the forthcoming  Sun Magazine issue commemorating the paper's 175th anniversary (I got to edit...

With bridge construction and a large truck parking lot next to Barracudas in Locust Point, you probably wouldn't think "tropical paradise" when you first step through the door. But co-owner Paul Cuda's namesake, Cuda Punch, will bring your taste buds as close as they can get to Tahiti without booking a flight or cruise. The Cuda Punch is fully loaded with fruit. A base of their secret rum infusion, containing large amounts of pineapple, oranges and other citrusy goodness, lays the groundwork for this tropical libation, topped off with fresh-squeezed orange juice, club soda and a splash of fruit punch for color.

The Baltimore City Council's Land Use and Transportation Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would enable sports apparel maker Under Armour to double the size of its Locust Point headquarters, hire hundreds more workers and help retain the city's last major corporate headquarters. Under Armour, which has grown in more than a decade into a $1 billion global sports apparel brand, plans to build a large new office tower and the city's first Under Armour store. It also plans to expand other buildings on the Tide Point waterfront campus in Locust Point, a converted Procter & Gamble factory.

The Greene Turtle keeps reproducing. The McHenry Row location in Locust Point will be opening in a matter of weeks, and a Pasadena location opened quietly at the end of October on Magothy Beach Road. The Pasadena location is operated by James King, a former member of the Maryland General Assembly, who owns both Kaufmann's Tavern and King Catering in Gambrills. Including McHenry Row, that makes, by my count, 30 Greene Turtles. Pretty impressive for the Md.-based sports-bar franchise, which first opened in Ocean City 1976.

Good news for Chipotle fans, aka dudes everywhere. New Chipotle stores are coming to Mid-Town Belvedere and the Southside Market Place in the Locust Point Industrial Area. The first Chipotle will open on Dec. 6 in a ground-floor retail space at Twelve09, the condominium complex at 1209 N. Charles St. in Mid-town/Belvedere. This is near the corner of Charles and Preston, where that Starbucks is. The next Chipotle opens on Dec. 13 in the Southside Market Place.    

Locust Point has long been dominated by neighborhood bars, corner watering holes and colorful dives. The bars that dot Fort Avenue - and other venerable hangouts like Down the Hatch and J. Patrick's - embody the neighborhood's profile: modest, self-effacing, pure Baltimore. Like other working-class neighborhoods in the city, Locust Point has seen a surge of development recently, and high-rises such as Silo Point now occupy spaces that were grain elevators. Tucked away on the first floor of Silo Point is Silo.5, a wine bar that opened this fall.

Around 1,000 gallons of corn syrup escaped from a South Baltimore storage tank Friday night, and 300 gallons of the sticky substance wound up in the Inner Harbor before a leaking valve was plugged, fire officials say. The leak occurred at Westway Feed Products in Locust Point, said fire operation aide Kris Floyd. Fire officials originally reported the location as the nearby Domino Sugar factory. By 10:30 p.m. Friday, firefighters had set up blockades on Hull Street to keep the syrup from reaching storm drains, Cartwright said Friday night.

Natural gas service has been restored to almost all customers affected by the gas main break Monday in Locust Point, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday. South Baltimore customers who still lack service should contact BGE at 1-800-685-0123 to schedule an appointment for mechanics to reactivate their meters and light pilots on gas appliances, according to a statement by the utility. More than 200 people, including personnel from utilities outside Maryland, worked to restore gas service, which was disrupted Monday after a bridge contractor accidentally broke a 12-inch gas main in the 1200 block of E. Fort Ave. steve.kilar@baltsun.com twitter.com/stevekilar