YOU KNOW THAT THING where you find a perfect place—be it a bar, a store, a restaurant—and you want to gatekeep it forever? We get that impulse (really!), but we choose to go in a different direction here at Baltimore. When we love something, we like to shout about it from the rooftops. Because a bustling, thriving Baltimore is good for everyone. Consider our annual Best of Baltimore issue our version of those rooftops. Here, you’ll find all the things we delighted in this year—some new discoveries and some old friends. And this year we added a new category called “The Helpers,” inspired by Mr. Rogers’ famous advice to “look for the helpers.” These are the people who are lifting up their Baltimore neighbors—just because they can. We can’t think of anything more “Best of Baltimore” than that.