Federal Hill Carryout Opens
Long-time known as J&P’s, and most recently Uncle Pete’s Grill, the carryout spot at 1538 Light St. will now be called Federal Hill Carryout. An extensive renovation was done to the restaurant that included new hardwood floors, exposed brick and metal accents on the wall, counters and seating. They also added in a few tables for customers who want to dine in.
The location has always been a popular spot to get pizza, subs, fried foods and Greek items and it looks like Federal Hill Carryout will keep the menu consistent with J&P’s and Uncle Pete’s Grill. They have many types of 8″ and 12″ subs, sandwiches, Greek delights, seafood and chicken platters, pasta, fresh dough pizza, wings, side orders and desserts.
Federal Hill Carryout will open at 11 am 7-days a week and will stay open until 3 am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They will also offer catering and delivery. I look forward to trying it out!
Happy Times No More!
Happy Times Defense, Tobacco & Pipes at 920 Light St. got off to a bad start with the area and, if they ever actually opened, it lasted all of a minute. The Federal Hill Neighborhood Associations raised major concerns about the products they offered and vowed to fight their existence. Even more offensive was the curb appeal they displayed at their Federal Hill Main Street location. Their sign was spray painted on an old blue canopy and eventually “Defense” and “Pipes” were covered with blue duct tape.
Walking by yesterday, I noticed a For Sale sign on the building, an empty property and a hole in the window. So I guess the Happy Times were short lived, but I’m not sure anyone is upset.
Grand Prix in Turmoil…..Again
While last year’s Baltimore Grand Prix was a great event last year the weekend it was here, the business end of it has left the City of Baltimore, the State of Maryland and many businesses and investors unpaid, plus has generated countless embarrassing headlines. A new contract was awarded to Downforce Racing, headlined by Indy Car veteran Dale Dillon and ex-Constellation executives Felix Dawson and Dan Reck.
It appears the turmoil has returned. The group is yet to sell tickets with the race just four months away and Dawson and Reck’s relationship with Dillon appears very strained. Here is a segment from an article by Christian Schaffer on ABC2news.com, quoting Councilman William Cole.
“As long as the two race organizations maintain that they want to be here I think it’s at least worth considering,” he said. “I think there’s a 50 percent chance they can pull it off. But that window closes every day.”
Cole says talk of canceling this year’s race is premature, but getting closer.
“It’s safe to say that we’re getting to a point in time where it’s going to be very difficult for the event to be successful, but we’re not there yet,” he said.
We’ll keep an eye on what happens. Personally I really enjoyed the racing weekend last year and many South Baltimore neighborhoods received a nice donation, but the structure of the event once again seems headed in the wrong direction.
Baltimore Hollywood Returning?
Baltimore had a great run of film production in the latter part of the 1900s and the early part of this century, highlighted by several television series and countless films. However, a raise in taxes applied by State of Maryland towards film production crews created a drought for an area that traditionally had at least one feature film production a year. Most of the productions previously done in Baltimore moved to areas like Toronto and Wilmington, NC. A new tax credit for film productions was applied by the State of Maryland in July of 2011 and it appears the production crews have returned.
Downtown Baltimore is experiencing its third production crew this year and crews for House of Cards were seen on Charles St. in Federal Hill yesterday. House of Cards is the first ever original series produced by Netflix and stars Kevin Spacey. The crew will produce 26 episodes that will be available on the Netflix streaming service.
The two other productions in 2012 were Game Change, a movie about John McCain’s presidential run, and new HBO series Veep. Watching a few minutes of Veep on Sunday night, I’m not so sure they’ll be back… I turned it off after 10 minutes.
