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Details
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H.L. Mencken House, 1524 Hollins Street
• Hollins Market, Hollins Street between Carrollton and
Arlington avenues, (410) 276-9498
• Johnnie's Sea Food, (410) 727-3239
• Lou's Poultry, (410) 727-0576
• M&T's Bakery, (410) 837-5658
• Eddie's Lunch, (410) 539-0734
• Mencken's Cultured Pearl Cafe, 1114 Hollins St., (410)
837-1947
• Gypsy's Cafe, 1103 Hollins St., (410) 625-9310
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By
Theodore Fischer, Washington Sidewalk
The
B&O Railroad Museum lies on the fringe of a scruffy neighborhood whose
affordable near-downtown quarters have attracted many artistic types; they
dubbed the area SoWeBo (Southwest Baltimore). Traditionally, the
area is known as the home of the "Sage of Baltimore," journalist
and critic H.L. Mencken (1880-1956). Writing in local newspapers and
national magazines, Mencken was a media heavy now remembered for his
coinage of the "booboisie," his definition of Puritanism as
"the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy" and
his often-quoted (and oftener misquoted) observation that no one "has
ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of
the plain people."
Mencken's tidy Victorian row house on Union Square is currently (perhaps
permanently) closed to visitors, but Hollins Market, the city
market where he shopped, remains the neighborhood hub. The oldest
Baltimore public market still in use (built in 1835, rebuilt after a fire
in 1839), its most memorable design feature is the west end mural of three
dudes from the 'hood – Mencken with a beer stein, Edgar Allan Poe with a
shot of hooch, Babe Ruth eating an apple – amid Baltimore/Maryland
icons: crabs, the flag, fish, chickens.
If you haven't visited one, be aware that Baltimore's public markets are
the spiritual opposites of yuppie-friendly Inner Harbor-style
"festival markets." Crowded, smelly, borderline clean, these are
zero-frills structures where thrifty shoppers troll for bargains on fresh
down-home foodstuffs. Although the produce (at least this time of year) is
nothing you can't get at Giant, Hollins Market is worth the trip now for
the vast variety of just-caught local seafood, a huge choice of meat
products and bakery goods. Johnnie's Sea Food has the best
selection and cheapest local catches. Lou's Poultry attracts long
lines for bulk quantities – 5- to 40-pound bags of parts. M&T's
Bakery is good for breads and desserts.
Hollins Market has a number of lunch counters – the fish sandwiches at Eddie's
Lunch are as good (if not that much better than) as any – but no
place to eat except at high stand-at tables.
For a sit-down meal cross Hollins Street to Mencken's Cultured Pearl
Cafe, featuring an un-Menckenesque Tex-Mex menu comprising, whenever
possible, fresh ingredients obtained at the market. The name refers to the
cafe's self-proclaimed mission: Just as a shard of mussel shell stimulates
an oyster to become a pearl, the cafe would inspire its neighbors to
produce beauty. How're they doing? Check out their art exhibit (no
Puritanism here), poetry readings and performance art and decide for
yourself. Slightly more posh, Gypsy's Cafe features Maryland
favorites from land and sea plus 100 or so microbrews.
Also:
Baltimore's B&O Railroad Museum
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