Blog Baltimore

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a press announcement about how Baltimore City is going to try to bring Google Fiber to Baltimore. There’s already a site started where people are posting all sorts of suggestions and comments about what they think would be great about this. I personally have watched the city transition from a very strong blue collar city with a strong industrial background to a bustling hub of educational expansion and business growth. I’ve not been around for the whole ride but I’ve heard stories from many of my coworkers who’ve been here since the beginning of the change. Baltimore being part of Google’s Fiber expansion could play a crucial role in making Baltimore just as strong in the technology sector as it is in the educational sector. Not only do you have two top tier medical schools within the Baltimore City limits, you also have an exploding research community that is developing cutting edge research in biotechnology. We’re on the cusp of a Golden Age for Baltimore City and this could be the catalyst to start it.

I always skirted Bartenders on Boston St. because I thought it was one of those yuppie bars where they try to impress you every week with a new flare and style. We met up with some friends there for a wine tasting which completely changed my opinion. Not only does Bartenders have a great wine selection, above most bars, they’ve got KILLER pizza. This isn’t just something they pull from the oven. These are gourmet, decently priced, well made pizzas. Our personal favorite so far is the Spence pizza which is roasted red peppers, andouille sausage, onions, cheddar and Parmesan cheese.

The wine tasting was presented by Tim Schestag from Republic National Distributing Company. It involved 6 wines:

Finca El Origen Torrontes, Argentina
The Infamous Goose Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand
Red Guitar Old Vine Tempranillo Garnacha, Spain
14 Hands Merlot, Washington
Joel Gott 815 Cabernet Sauvignon, California
Vermonte Primus, Chile

Tim did a great job of explaining and helping us discover the intricacies of the wine while Dave, the bartender, did a phenomenal job of keeping our drinks going and the food plentiful.

If you haven’t been to Bartenders yet, it’s definitely the place to go on Boston Street!
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I was driving up Boston St. today and noticed that there’s bicycle lane designations on the right lane of the two lane street. Hopefully the signs will follow suite and provide safe travel up and down Boston Street. I know early in the mornings and at night, during the high traffic times, the street is definitelly not the safest to bike along. I’ll going to follow up with the Baltimore City Department of Planning about the progress. From what I can tell by the coloring on the plan listed here there’s a whole mess of new bike lanes that should be coming in to play.