GAY & LESBIAN TRAVEL STORIES

Eating Up Baltimore

You gotta go to Baltimore, Hon. You likely know it as the setting for Hairspray and the home of John Waters, or as the turf of gay gangster Omar on TheWire. But beyond the kitsch factor, it's the perfect small city for a weekend

Baltimore Food

getaway.

Baltimore is friendly and gay-welcoming, with charming, walkable neighborhoods lined with quirky shops and beautiful harbor views everywhere. Those are all good reasons to visit. But the best reason is a little-known secret: Baltimore has adventurous, big-city cuisine at reasonable prices.

My group started our culinary tour of Baltimore with a sampling of area ethnic restaurants on a Friday night in the resurgent Harbor East neighborhood, just a few blocks from the tourist-trendy Inner Harbor. We stopped by the airy Lebanese Taverna , a family-owned regional chain, for a glass of Lebanese wine and their scrumptious "Hommos Special," which includes spiced ground meat, pine nuts and almonds in addition to the standard olive oil and chick peas. The giant windows looked out over the water, making it a sparkling place to spend the early evening.

For dinner, we headed to Pazo, a restaurant serving rustic Mediterranean cuisine in a chic converted warehouse. My table could have lived quite happily on their goat cheese or their handmade saffron gnocchi. I still dream about that gnocchi, weeks later. If Asian is more to your taste, try one of the two sister restaurants in Harbor East - they are next door neighbors and share an internal corridor. Lemongrass is all bright colors and laid-back Thai; Tsunami is adventurous Asian fusion with a more lounge-like feel. Don't leave without trying the Sawat dee cocktail at Lemongrass - it is an exotically tasty combination of sweetness, hot ginger and lime

We worked our dinner off upstairs from the Asian sisters at Mustang Alley's, a restaurant, bar - and bowling alley. Foregoing the regular bowling, we took a try at duckpins, which has smaller balls and pins. No one expected to be good, so we had a grand time.

Saturday morning, we tucked in to a real Baltimore breakfast at Jimmy's, a coffee shop/diner in Fell's Point. Fell's Point, Baltimore's first deep water port, has a colorful history of shipbuilders and prostitutes - happily, it retains charming historic cobbled streets and brick buildings without any of the seediness. Jimmy's originally catered to the Greek longshoremen who worked the docks, but now it's a Baltimore institution. Everyone has breakfast there, from Scarlett Johanssen to the cast of The Wire, to a Cal Ripkin and other Baltimore Orioles. The scrapple was surprisingly tasty, and the omlets were fabulous - somehow, in that setting, the linoleum floor and fluorescent lights added character. And, by the way, Jimmy himself - grandson of the founder - is heart-stoppingly gorgeous and meeting him is a great way to start off your morning.

Right near Jimmy's is Broadway Market, a covered marketplace built in 1784, where you can find all sorts of local delicacies in stalls run by generations of Baltimore families. We breezed through, not wanting to be late for our cooking class.

Real gourmands should be sure to make a reservation in advance for Timothy Dean's monthly cooking demonstration at Timothy Dean's Bistro, in Upper Fell's Point. Dean, who trained with Jean Louis Palladin and Alain Ducasse, is known for his American dishes with French flair. He's also a gregarious charmer, and turned our awkward group into chefs (at least for the morning).

We made three of his signature dishes: lobster with black truffles over macaroni and cheese, 24-hour braised short ribs with wasabi mashed potatoes and pinot noir sauce, and pumpkin crème brulee. If all that cooking makes you hungry, don't worry - you get to sit in his bright, cozy dining room and enjoy, which we certainly did.

You might choose to spend Saturday afternoon shopping the Inner Harbor or Harbor East, visiting the famous Aquarium, or checking out funky Hampden, which is John Waters' hangout. We were lucky enough to attend a special wine tasting hosted by the Italian restaurant Cinghiale (the tastings are held regularly on Monday evenings - and it is well worth adding an extra day to your weekend if you can manage it.) Owner Tony Foreman is a specialist in Italian wines, and shared anecdotes about the vinters, plus tips on choosing the perfect wine to suit your taste, budget and meal. He was clear enough for wine novices and thorough enough for wine lovers. Just perfect.

All that wine made us sleepy, and my group decided to let someone pamper us for the rest of the afternoon. We indulged in massages, facials and mani-pedis at Zina's Day Spa and Salon and came out feeling delicious. If you take them up on the offer of a snack, you might find, as we did, scrumptious Krispy Kreme doughnuts - because why should a spa mean cucumbers and ginger?

Saturday night, we relaxed at Rocket to Venus, a hip, relaxed pub with Baltimore's best jukebox - and simply wonderful and surprising dishes, from brussels sprouts roasted in Balsamic vinegar ,to cornmeal-fried oysters, to tiny, delicious hamburgers, to tasty (and hot!) Thai mussels. Rocket to Venus is another place I'm still dreaming about.