Seafood

Bill Sexton has been appointed the Executive Chef of Phillips Seafood Baltimore. Sexton, according to a news release, has served in several leadership positions with Phillips Foods and Seafood Restaurant. He started his career at Phillips Crab House in Ocean City and has been Phillips Director of research and development. "My Grandfather was a fisherman off Cobb Island, Maryland and I grew up loving the fresh seafood right from our Southern and Eastern Shores," Sexton said in the statement.

An Annapolis correspondent wrote in concerned about Hell Point Seafood. She got the news that Bob Kinkead's restaurant may be closed from the Eye On Annapolis website. John Frenaye says that Hell Point Seafood appears to have closed after Sunday night 's dinner service but he has been unable so far to have the news confirmed from the restaurant's management. The closing may be temporary, the article says. The restaurant's website wasn't functioning on Wednesday morning, although it was down last time I checked on Feb. 8. An outgoing message on Hell Point's phone has information about winter hours, which were said to be Thursday through Saturday dinner and Friday through Sunday lunch service.

The building at the corner of Belair and Mountain Roads in Fallston has a reputation as one of those spots where no restaurant seems able to survive. Tony Ashe, owner and general manager of the Mallet, the newest restaurant at the location, hopes to change all that with his combination fine dining/crab house/martini lounge/tiki bar establishment. In the dining room, tasty if traditional steak and seafood dishes and friendly service suggest the Mallet might be the restaurant that breaks through on this corner.

Meet your anglers. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will host its second Bounty of the Bay event, a five-course dinner celebrating the state's seafood and watermen, on Feb. 28 at the Boatyard Bar & Grill in Annapolis. The event is designed in part to give the public a chance to bring watermen, the public and DNR staff to the same table. Here's a video from the first Bounty of the Bay dinner, which was held last March. "We want to remind people that even during the winter months the bay continues to provide us with ample fishing opportunities and plenty of amazing seafood options," said Steve Vilnit, the DNR's fisheries marketing director.

What is it we want from Phillips? Like it or not, the restaurant is the city's unofficial headquarters for Chesapeake seafood. For the last three decades, more visitors to Baltimore likely received their first crab cake from Phillips in Harborplace than anywhere else in Baltimore. I think we want to know that Phillips is representing us well. If, like many, you've found yourself uneasy about how Phillips was performing in this ambassadorial role, I've got some encouraging news for you. Phillips' move across the harbor last fall from the Light Street Pavilion to a new home at the Power Plant has done it a world of good.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is scheduled to join Steve Phillips, president and CEO of Phillips Foods and Seafood Restaurants, and developer David Cordish at a Tuesday afternoon ribbon-cutting for the new Phillips Seafood Restaurant at the Power Plant. A media alert for the ribbon-cutting promised a "major announcement," and its timing, 18 days after Phillips opened its 15,000 square-foot restaurant in the Power Plant, suggests that the principals will have more to say then, "Look, it's open" The announcement is scheduled for 4 p.m. , which is when you would schedule something that has local evening news written all over it. The timing is perfect for local television stations (but lousy for daily newspapers.)

Et cetera De La Rosa to leave UMBC men's basketball team Chris De La Rosa has left UMBC for personal and family-related matters, coach Randy Monroe said. De La Rosa, who played two full seasons for the Retrievers after one season at Siena, plans to withdraw from UMBC at the end of the fall semester. Named to the America East Conference second team after last season, La Rosa underwent surgery on his right foot in May and dressed for only one game this season, scoring 17 points and adding 10 assists at VMI on Nov. 19. … McDaniel senior guard Cullen Murray-Kemp earned PrestoSports/Pride of Maryland Player of the Week honors.

Phillips Seafood will open a location at Maryland Live, the Cordish Cos.' $500 million casino and entertainment complex under construction at Arundel Mills. Cordish chairman David Cordish made the announcement at a Tuesday afternoon ribbon-cutting at Phillips new restaurant at the the Power Plant, a Cordish-operated retail, restaurant and office complex in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The addition of Phillips to Maryland Live marks a quick blossoming in the relationship between Cordish and Phillips.

Cornelius Keith Johnson, 24, of Baltimore is facing a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of his half-brother on Nov. 13 at a Glen Burnie seafood restaurant. Johnson, of the 4200 block of Shamrock Ave., had reported Friday to the Baltimore County Detention Center to serve a four-day sentence on an unrelated charge. When officers at the Towson prison checked his warrant status, they discovered he was wanted in connection with the death of 25-year-old Andrew Michael Johnson of the 100 block of Sloane Drive in Glen Burnie.

After more than 30 years in its original Inner Harbor location, Phillips has moved two piers east and will open the doors of its new location in the Power Plant 4 p.m. today. Lunch service begins on Monday, Nov. 14 at 11:30 a.m. The Phillips folks shared some photographs of the new Phillips with us. You can see them all on the restaurant's Facebook page. Here's how the press release describes the interior. I saw it with my own eyes, and can vouch for it. It's a radical departure from the Harborplace but nothing feels forced or gimmicky.