As you turn a corner in a nondescript business park in Columbia, a blue glow, as mesmerizing as the Aegean Sea, emanating from one of the buildings will take you by surprise. The lighting, a reflection of the marine-colored furnishings inside, leads to Xenia Greek Kouzina.

If you’ve been to Ouzo Bay in Harbor East, Xenia will seem familiar, with its luxurious décor and attention to detail, from the hand-blown-glass light fixture rippling across the dining room to the murals of Greece. It’s no surprise that Xenia owner George Aligeorgas was a founding partner of the Baltimore restaurant, especially when you spy a display case showcasing whole fish chilling on crushed ice. Aligeorgas, who opened Xenia in 2019, was stunned by the pandemic in 2020, but he bounced back to business this year alongside his longtime chef, Akis Anagnostouakis, who also worked at Ouzo Bay. Their menu focuses on Greek fare and seafood.

A must-have starter is the flaming cheese saganaki. A server douses graviera cheese (like Gruyère, our waiter said) with rum, then sets the works afire. It’s served with warm pita triangles dusted with herbs. It’s not just for show. The cheese sparks an explosion of nutty and sweet flavors in your mouth. Another appetizer, the grape leaves “dolmadakia,” is a satisfying rendition of the classic dish, with ground lamb, ground beef, and rice wrapped, papoose-like, with the leaves. A thick avgolemono sauce gives it a creamy verve.

The fish selection varies, but we were pleased that Chesapeake rockfish was available in a piscatorial lineup that included dorade royale, branzino, and Kona Kampachi. Once you’ve made your selection, the kitchen works its magic, grilling the whole fish stuffed with lemon and herbs, deboning it but leaving the head and tail for presentation, drizzling the moist meat with a lemon-infused sauce, and dressing the masterpiece with capers and herbs. It was a wonderful taste of our local bounty.

Another stellar dish is the roasted chicken. A bronzed half bird was draped over a nest of roasted potatoes that soaked up the chicken’s juices. We also dug into a moussaka, the classic Greek casserole starring eggplant. Xenia’s rendition is terrific, with layers of the main ingredient stacked with zucchini, potatoes, and braised veal in a béchamel sauce.

The restaurant’s baklava proved a fitting ending to our meal. That’s not the end of the sweetness, though. Each table receives a complimentary dish of doughnut balls glazed with honey and splashed with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

As you leave the restaurant, that blue light guides you to your car, promising another great meal in the future.

XENIA GREEK KOUZINA, 8850 Columbia 100 Pkwy., 410-740-2500. HOURS: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. DINNER PRICES: Appetizers: $16-24; entrees: $29-48 (whole fish, market price); desserts: $8.

OPEN

Cazbar Columbia: Howard County diners can now experience the same authentic Turkish cuisine—and weekend belly-dancing shows—that Charm City locals have enjoyed in Mt. Vernon for years. The North Charles Street staple has expanded with a second location in Columbia, which officially opened its doors late last month. Decorated with textured wallpaper, comfy lounge chairs, and glowing lanterns, the spinoff highlights Cazbar’s signature mezzes and kebabs. Standout entrees include Turkish beef dumplings with garlic butter, eggplant stuffed with caramelized onions and pine nuts, and flaky baklava topped with toasted pistachios.

Love at First Bite Cafe: The Locust Point shop that was formerly Hoof Cafe on Fort Avenue is now home to this all-day kitchen from husband-and-wife duo Antonio and JosLynn Jones. The owners, who previously operated a soul food restaurant in Northeast Baltimore, specialize in comfort foods like crab pretzels, shrimp and broccoli pasta, and smothered pulled turkey over rice. The cafe is also a go-to for sweet tooth lovers, who can indulge in loaded ice cream sundaes topped with everything from Oreo crumbles to a whole Nutty Buddy ice cream cone.

COMING SOON

Bambao: Come October, diners will be able to sip bubble tea while learning origami in Harbor East. The long-vacant home of Manchurian Rice Co. on the corner of Aliceanna Street and Central Avenue will soon be transformed into this Asian-fusion concept that aims to offer diners a “sense and taste of zen.” Highlights at Bambao will include an array of bubble teas, rice and buddha bowls, and steamed bun sandwiches. In keeping with the wellness mantra, the spot will also feature family-friendly origami classes and collaborate with local yoga studios to host community events.

Char’d City: A grand opening date for this long-awaited addition to the Hamilton dining scene is set for this Friday, September 6. Husband-and-wife owners Yassine Rmadhnia and Sindee Gibson have turned the former home of Clementine on Harford Road into a cozy BYOB spot featuring warm woods, rustic decor, and a custom wood-fired oven that churns out the duo’s take on a classic Neapolitan pizzas. Char’d City will also serve colorful salads, vegan entrees, and seafood dishes that make use of Maryland crab. The menu is meant to fuse Southern Italian recipes with North African flavors inspired by Rhamdhnia’s roots in Tunisia.

EPICUREAN EVENTS

Sept. 18, 20, 23, 26: Ekiben’s End of Summer BBQ Pop-Up Series
The summer temperatures might be starting to drop, but things are definitely heating up in the Ekiben kitchen. On the heels of launching a recurring Taiwanese noodle bar pop-up, owners Steve Chu and Ephrem Abebe are collaborating with a group of stellar chefs to host four can’t-miss lunch pop-ups at their Fells Point restaurant throughout September. The end of summer barbecue-themed series will kick off with visiting chef Johnny Spero of Reverie in Washington, D.C. on September 18, and continue with the team from farmers’ market favorite Blacksauce Kitchen on September 20, James Beard Award nominee Jerome Grant of Sweet Home Cafe inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 23, and our own Carlos Raba of Clavel on September 26. Menu details haven’t been released as of yet, but judging by Ekiben’s track record of creative collaborations, we can only anticipate that the dishes will be epic.

SHUT

The Dizz: Remington locals were heartbroken to hear that this decades-old neighborhood fixture had suddenly closed its doors earlier this week. “We would like to thank all our wonderful customers for your support over the years,” co-owner Thomas L. Basta Jr. wrote in a Facebook message announcing the closure Wednesday. Last fall, the Basta family put their restaurant on the market, but ultimately decided against selling. “This place has been here forever,” longtime general manager Elaine Stevens told us in May. “I think [the owners] were ready to just get out of the business, but then they saw how much it means to everybody and that made them say, ‘You know what, we’re not giving up. We’re going to hang in there.’” Unfortunately, the owners have once again decided it’s time to move on. Throughout the years, the 85-year-old staple gained a reputation for its famous burgers, crab soup, and one of the best BLTs in the city.

By projecting movies on buildings or piers, Baltimore has developed a summer tradition of hosting movies in the fresh air. While the city continues to add to the history of free summer movies, there is a new celebration going on this season.

Eddie’s of Roland Park will show Wallace and Gromit and Jaws outside of its Charles Street and Roland Ave. locations to celebrate the store’s 75th anniversary. Founded in 1944 by the late Victor Cohen, the store has become beloved for its specialty food and locally inspired sandwiches. Still family owned, it is now led by second- and third-generation family members.

“Chances are, if you’re a fan of Eddie’s of Roland Park, you’re also a fan of food,” says marketing director Jared Earley. “So it’s not a far leap to assume we can all identify with the cheese-obsessed Wallace and Gromit, or the insatiable appetite of a monstrously ‘hangry’ fish.”

But that’s just one of many movie series gracing the walls and screens of Baltimore institutions this summer. Mark your calendar for these film fanatic events.

Eddie’s of Roland Park Celebrates 75 Years: Bring a chair or blanket and head to Eddie’s of Roland Park for a free neighborhood screening of films. At dusk, the independent grocer will encourage the community to join them in celebration of its 75th anniversary. Store hours will be extended and refreshments will be available for purchase inside. Free. July 17-18, July 24-25.

Mt. Vernon Movies: The picturesque Mount Vernon Place is the ideal backdrop to escape into cinema. First up is the wildly popular Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, followed next month by the Hitchcock classic Rear Window, and concluding with favorite fantasy film Labyrinth. As an added bonus, MVP will offer free popcorn. Free. June 27, July 26, August 22, 7:30-11 p.m.

Federal Hill Flicks: Visit The American Visionary Art Museum for Flicks from the Hill, which projects outdoor movies every Thursday night during July and August. The Hughes Family Outdoor Theater puts on a show with a 30-foot screen that you have to see from the massive hill to believe. Come early for free admission to the museum before the main feature at 9 p.m., which this year includes family favorites Coraline and Mrs. Doubtfire. Free. July-August, 9 p.m.

The Wine Bin Screenings: Wine Wednesdays have been moved to Saturdays. Join the Wine Bin for a sip and a flick June through September. Every Saturday, the outdoor movie series opens up parking 90 minutes before the show for drive-in style viewing. After that fills up, there is still plenty of room for to set up camping chairs and blankets. This summer is filled with a wide range of films including A Star Is Born and Beauty And The Beast. Free. June-September, 9 p.m.

Fells Point Films: Another year of films on the pier starts up on July 10 with a showing of a childhood classic—The Princess Bride. Bring your own chairs, wine, and food to turn this event into a romantic date or a night out with friends. Take part in this weekly, Wednesday event through August and enjoy other movies like Oceans 8 or Captain Marvel. Free. July 10-August 28, 8:30 p.m.

Lakefront Summer Shows: What better setting for an outdoor event than Columbia’s idyllic Lake Kittamaqundi. Check out a different movie every Monday and Friday this summer, including Disney’s Tangled and the Avengers blockbusters. Free. Through September 7, 8:30 p.m.

Bel Air Airings: Join The Bel Air Downtown Alliance for fun, film, and—now—food. For the first time, summer movie nights include Bel Air’s only food truck rally. Try some local fare from the trucks parked along Lee Street from 5-8 p.m. Six times a year, the community comes together to watch family-friendly movies like Incredibles 2 and Trolls under the stars. These movies are not only free, but also come with popcorn and face painting. Free. June-August, Sunset.

Moonlight Movie Series: Spend time with the whole family this summer in the parking lot of the Shops at Kenilworth. Every other Monday from June 24-August 19, enjoy a movie playing at sunset in the open air, including animated features like Minions, Zootopia, and Inside Out. Free. Sunset.

Merriweather Movie Nights: Normally, you would catch your favorite band at Merriweather Post Pavilion, but now you can enjoy the lawn throughout the summer with its movie nights in Columbia. After kicking off the series in May with a Sound of Music sing-a-long, the next showing is Smallfoot on July 7. The film will be screened on the lawn, so grab a blanket and friends to join the fun. In the event of rain, the movie will be screened inside the pavilion. $10. May 25, July 7, August 16, 5:30-8 p.m.

Pics in the Park: Join the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore for feature film night, on select Saturdays in June through August on the lawn in downtown’s Center Plaza. Movies begin at sunset, but exact start times will be posted on the event’s Facebook page on movie nights. The plaza is bike-, stroller-, and pet-friendly and movie-goers are encouraged to bring a picnic, lawn chairs, and blankets. Free. Times vary.

Edward Norton is talking about Bob Dylan. This is significant for a few reasons. For starters, when you spend the day with Edward Norton, he will talk about a lot of things. He will casually quote C.S. Lewis and Cyril Connolly; he will hold forth on solar energy and the environment; he will go into elaborate detail about a prehistoric tribe of miniature people that may or may not have been a separate species from homo sapiens. (Asked if he is researching this tribe for any particular reason, he will look at you curiously and say, “No, I’m just interested.”)

He will speak to the Japanese clothing stylist—in Japanese, mind you—trying to find out where he can find the best scallion pancakes in Manhattan, where he now lives. He will talk about the evil Yankees. (“I’d sooner vote for Bush than root for the Yankees,” he’ll say, playing off his well-documented lefty politics.)

And yes, he will talk about film-directors Martin Scorsese and Terrence Malick and Spike Lee, who are among his heroes. And Steven Spielberg, whom he considers to be a “paint-by-­numbers” director.

So if you spend the day with Edward Norton it is advisable that you bring your A-game, intellectually speaking. It’s also advisable that you bring a pen to jot down some of his passion­ately recommended books and lecture series and films.

Which brings us to Dylan.

“You haven’t seen Scorsese’s Dylan documentary?” Norton exclaims at one point during the discussion. “Oh, you can not miss that. That is one of the most riveting things I’ve seen in a long time.”

It has just been a few days since he’s seen the documentary, No Direction Home, so he admits that it is still rattling around in his head quite a bit. But his fascination with the iconic folk singer is not insignificant.

What Norton admires about Dylan is his unshakable integri­ty; the singer’s fidelity to his own vision and his refusal to, in the idiom of his time, “sell out to The Man.”

“At 21 years of age, he clearly became this point onto which an entire generation was projecting its hopes and needs for an expression of who it was,” says Norton. “And he just went, ‘No [freaking] way! You got the wrong guy. I’m an artist, I’m not a politician.’ And when he did things that he didn’t think his audi­ence wanted him to do, like plug in an electric guitar, he did it with the supreme confidence of, ‘Yeah, you’re booing, but you’ll catch up. And I don’t really care anyway.'”

A smile plays at Norton’s lips. He clearly loves the defiance of that thought.

“Anybody pursuing a creative life should watch that film,” he says. “It’s one of the best portraits I’ve ever seen of a person who is totally committed to his own muse.”

The notion of following one’s own muse is a very basic con­cept for Norton. He comes across as someone who is not at all susceptible to outside influence, almost preternaturally self­ possessed. When asked if he has ever gotten swept away by the Hollywood machine, he matter-of-factly replies, “I’ve never really been swept away by anything.”

As a result, he has no professional advice-givers—none of the typical coterie of agents, managers, reporters, hangers-on­ whispering in his ear, telling him what to do. He goes his own way.

However, if he did listen to outside influences, they would probably tell him that it wouldn’t be the best idea to take a three-year hiatus in the middle of a red-hot career.

Which, of course, is exactly what Edward Norton did.

The notion of following one’s own muse is a very basic con­cept for Norton.

Can it be just 10 years ago that we first laid eyes on him? It seems like our native son, our point of collective pride, has been around forever. But it was just 1996 when the Columbia-raised actor with the squinty eyes and the insinuat­ing voice imprinted himself indelibly onto the cinematic land­scape.

His role in Primal Fear called for a virtuoso perfor­mance-one where Norton’s sweet stuttering Aaron Stampler turned out to be a skeevily malevolent criminal—and Norton delivered. His first film out of the gate and he was nominated for an Academy Award. Pretty heady stuff.

“It was an extraordinary performance,” says Washington Post (and former Sun) film critic Stephen Hunter. “I had been told, ‘There’s this kid from Columbia and he will blow you away.’ Sometimes, when you have those kinds of expectations, quite the opposite happens. But I immediately realized that this young man has a fierce and powerful talent.”

The funny thing was, Norton’s friends from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia didn’t even know he was that into acting. He performed at Toby’s Dinner Theater and plied his craft there, but at school, he was an under-the-radar kind of guy.

“He hung out with the popular kids,” says Maureen Grace Antill, a Realtor and mother of two, who was friends with Norton in high school. “But he wasn’t technically popular. He was very laid back, kind of quiet. He didn’t strike you as somebody showy or flashy.”

Antill says that he was primarily known for being part of Columbia’s First Family—Norton’s grandfather was famed visionary developer James Rouse—and because of that, he kept his nose to the grindstone.

“He was very focused,” she says. “He took a lot of AP classes. He was more involved in community affairs than the average high schooler.”

Norton says that he felt no special pressure being the grand­son of James Rouse: “It certainly wasn’t negative. [My grandfa­ther] was beloved. He wasn’t like Peter Angelos, a divisive figure. He was seen as this person who had success on a national level but who had stayed at home and committed to his hometown.”

Plus, Norton says that James Rouse was a fantastic grandfa­ther—a “ballpark and fishing trips kind of granddad.” He adored him. (Norton is also quick to point out that he didn’t live the life of privilege that many assume he did. His father was a federal prosecutor and his mother, who passed away in 1997, was a school teacher. They were solidly upper middle class.)

After Wilde Lake, Norton went to Yale, where he majored in history. He did some development work with the family’s Enterprise Foundation in Osaka, Japan. Then he moved to New York, got seriously into acting and auditioned for the role in Primal Fear that would change his life.

He invited his high school friends to the film’s benefit pre­miere at The Senator. “He was funny about it,” says Antill. “He was like, ‘Can you believe I’m here?”‘

One thing that Antill—and others—were shocked by was the ferocity of Norton’s performance. In his career, he has gravitat­ed to dark roles; he has played a neo-Nazi, a killer, and at least two career criminals.

“Given his very pleasant upbringing in Columbia and his [time] at Toby’s, his four years in New Haven, his work for the Rouse company in Japan, he can play down and dirty,” chuck­les Hunter. “He can play tough and mean.”

In person, Norton is slighter than you might think. On the day of the interview, he is dressed in jeans, a gray thermal shirt with a corduroy shirt-jacket over it, and motorcycle boots. His hair is cut short-nearly buzzed-and he has a closely trimmed goatee that gives him a vaguely Teutonic appearance. He has been pumped up for roles in Fight Club and American History X, but this more wiry, slender build is his true physique.

He smiles infre­quently, but when he does, he projects an irresistibly boyish sweetness. He is a keen listener-there is an alertness about him. One thing he doesn’t look like, though, is a bad ass. Guess that’s why they call it acting.

“I haven’t seen a lot of his movies,” admits Antill. “They’re too violent.”

Norton’s friends from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia didn’t even know he was that into acting. He performed at Toby’s Dinner Theater, but at school, he was an under-the-radar kind of guy.

After Primal Fear, Norton could’ve done a lot of things. He could’ve pursued a profitable franchise, like Spiderman or The Bourne Identity. He could have sought out the kinds of safe, middlebrow, status-quo confirming parts that win Academy Awards. He could’ve done a genre pick—maybe action or horror or a buddy com­edy.

Instead, he followed his own path—working with directors he admired like Spike Lee and Woody Allen and David Fincher; choosing scripts that inspired him; going his own way.

“I really honestly don’t think about how I want my career to go,” explains Norton, now 36. “I don’t even really know what that means. That sounds very confining, the idea of ‘Oh, this is my career.’ I don’t look at doing things that are creative that way. It’s too conscious, too cerebral. My agent, the reason I work with this guy, he never says things to me like, ‘It would be really good if you mixed in one of these.’ Cause I’d fire him. I just don’t want that kind of thinking around me. I don’t think that way myself.”

So Norton insists that the fact that he has not technically appeared on screen in almost three years (last year he did play the role of the leper king in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, but his face was obscured by a mask), is not part of some master plan.

He was just doing other things: an off-Broadway play—Lanford Wilson’s incendiary AIDS allegory, Burn This—for one; his con­tinued charity work, which includes a board membership at Baltimore’s Enterprise Foundation and founding the BP Solar Neighbors program, for another. He wasn’t looking to work for the sake of work, or to advance his career, or to please anyone other than himself.

“In 2002, I made a big popcorn movie [The Italian Job], and then I made The 25th Hour and then I made a play, that was prob­ably one of the most intense performance things I’ve ever done,” he says. “I was just content. I was satiated. You do a play like Burn This and what are you going to do? Walk off and walk onto anoth­er movie set? It’s like, no way.”

Then, one day, he got a script from his agent for a little film called Down in the Valley. The movie focuses on a lonesome cow­boy named Harlan who is living in the present-day San Fernando Valley. With his laconic charm and old-fashioned chivalry, the cowboy is able to ingratiate himself to a directionless teenage girl (Evan Rachel Wood) and her sad-sack kid brother (Rory Culkin). As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the cowboy is not all he claims to be, and that the film is actually a kind of deconstruc­tion of the romantic myth of the West.

The film’s writer/director David Jacobson, who had one film under his belt, the cult biopic Dahmer (yes, about that Dahmer) was skeptical that he’d get his dream star Norton for the role of Harlan, but figured it was worth a shot.

“To me, he’s far and away the best actor of his era,” says Jacobson. “I admire his creativity and his choices he makes as an actor. He has the charisma and chops to be a leading man yet he can sink into these character roles. And I love that.”

Much to Jacobson’s delight, Norton agreed to meet with him. Jacobson admits to being nervous, but the two men were almost immediately simpatico.

“I’m not friends with tons of celebrities, but he doesn’t seem very much like an actor to me,” Jacobson says. “There is a definite actor type. He’s not ‘me, me, me, look at me!’ If you sit down with him, he’ll talk about everything. We’d often talk about the envi­ronment or politics, and finally get to the film.”

They became collaborators. Norton was a producer and editor and even helped with the rewrites. And the developer’s grandson saw how this film fit in neatly with his family’s life work:

“I said to David, ‘Why don’t we make a Western about our West? The West that people our age actually experience and what has that actually become? You can’t ride a horse across it anymore. It is this wilderness of sprawl. It’s a very community-less, sprawling environ­ment of concrete and highways and tiny little pockets of former communities that are now all fragmented. It’s totally bankrupt.”

The film, like so much of Norton’s work, is challenging. By the end, you don’t know if Harlan was the destroyer or the savior of the two kids. Which is just fine by Norton. He hates films that spoon-feed the audience.

“If you really think about the films that sort of hang around in your head and sort of tickle at you over time, they are usually the ones that don’t answer the questions for you,” he says. “They are usually the ones that aren’t ersatz ‘disturbing’ films. They’re films that are in fact disturbing because they don’t resolve them­selves neatly for you. They leave you with as many questions as they do answers.”

“To me, he’s far and away the best actor of his era.”

Down in the Valley isn’t the only film that Norton has coming out in ’06—his The Illusionist played at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews—but it is the one he is ushering into theaters most carefully.

Because the film is complex, and because it has no major stars (maybe Norton would’ve qualified as a major movie star three years ago, but film fans notoriously have the memory of gnats), Norton knows that there’s a chance that Down in the Valley will have just a brief stint in Baltimore before it ulti­mately finds a second audience on DVD.

“Most of the films that I’ve done that I considered artistically successful have been massive failures financially,” he says with a weary grin. “And yet, in the long run have not been at all. Because video gave them a second life.”

Still, he hopes that Down in the Valley will buck that trend to become one of those magical indie films that strikes a chord across the country, particularly in his hometown.

“I really do hope that Baltimore will go see this film. Because if they do…” he tries to draw an analogy: “It’s like your vote. You don’t think your vote matters, but it does. If people go and see it, it sends messages. It does go up the pipe. And then Baltimore would get more of those kinds of movies.”

At press time, it wasn’t clear yet whether or not the film would have a gala benefit screening at The Senator (as seven of Norton’s films have, raising $750,000 for Baltimore-area causes). But Norton does have a longstanding relationship with that grand old movie house, and its ever­intrepid owner, Tom Kiefaber.

Those who caught The Senator’s recent run of Heart of Gold, the Neil Young con­cert film, might’ve heard Kiefaber crypti­cally thank Norton before each showing.

So what did Norton have to do with Heart of Gold? Nothing, directly.

You see, Kiefaber felt passionately that the film should play at The Senator and asked Norton if he could pull any strings to make it happen. Norton did more than pull a few strings; he called director Jonathan Demme personal­ly and lobbied on The Senator’s behalf.

“I will always be grateful to him for that selfless act of kindness and concern on our behalf,” says Kiefaber. ”When we find our­selves really up against it, Edward has always responded to our ‘SOS.'”

You can probably count on one hand (heck, maybe on one finger of one hand) the number of movie stars who would make that phone call to Demme. But that’s the beauty of Norton.

There’s this massive machinery of Hollywood that manages to consume everyone who encounters it. And yet, somehow Norton stays above the fray-making the films he wants to make, advocating the causes he wants to advo­cate, and caring enough about his home­town theater to drop everything and make that emergency phone call.

He seems almost constitutionally incapable of sell­ing out.

Bob Dylan—and, more important­ly, James Rouse—would be proud.

Dinner and a show may finally be on equal footing in Columbia. For years, fans who flocked to Merriweather Post Pavilion had precious few dining options if they wanted to grab a bite to eat then walk to the concert. Cured Table & Tap is aiming to change that. Located just a long guitar riff from the music venue, its ambitious menu includes a diverse selection of craft beer, cocktails, and dishes such as bone marrow and game steaks.

There’s nothing rock ’n’ roll about the restaurant’s exterior. It’s housed in an office building occupied by MedStar Health, and from the outside, it’s tough to tell whether you’re walking into a restaurant or a doctor’s office. Inside, framed posters of legendary Merriweather concerts adorn the walls of a large open space with high- and low-top tables. (There’s also a more formal—though rather sterile—dining room.) On an afternoon about two months after it opened, we grabbed stools at the long, winding bar for lunch. We started with jackfruit tacos: kimchi, avocado, and jack pickled slaw packed into corn tortillas that were a flavor revelation, although, at $10 for two, an expensive “snack” (their category on the menu).

Of our sandwiches, at least on our visit, the pâté melt outpaced an average oyster po’ boy. Made with pork and chicken and served on fluffy ciabatta topped with greens, smoked gouda, cured relish, and grainy mustard, it was a rich treat. For a side, better to go with a house salad than the good-but-not-great fries or fried Brussels sprouts and chickpeas, which were a tad greasy for our taste.

While we ate, our bartender, Michael, was creating a vodka-based cocktail for an internal competition. The winner’s concoction was to be served on tap alongside the “Burt Reynolds or Something. . .” (acronym: BROS), which is what we started dinner with when we returned the next week. Made with mezcal, agave nectar, and Angostura, Peychaud’s, and chocolate bitters, it shouldn’t be skipped. It paired well with a tasty charcuterie plate of smoked gouda, duck pastrami, and bresaola, which are thin slices of air-dried, salted beef. Our entrees were solid, if not spectacular. The coconut-braised short rib was the best of the bunch, although the carrot purée, freekeh, and squash gremolata didn’t add much to the lovely tender meat.

After dinner, we strolled to 18th & 21st, an attached sister restaurant that features live jazz most nights. It struck us as odd that one of the dessert cocktails offered at both establishments (their menus are not identical) is named for a movie rather than a band. Still, “The Dude Abides” (vodka and nitro coffee stout, vanilla tincture) was a satisfying nightcap to an enjoyable meal. True, that’s just, like, our opinion, man, but it’s one we’re confident you’ll share after dinner—with or without a show—at Cured.

CURED TABLE & TAP 10980 Grantchester Way, Columbia, 667-786-7111. HOURS Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.- 11p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.- 11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. PARKING Free in adjoining garage. PRICES Appetizers: $6-14; soups and salads: $8-18; sandwiches: $11-18; entrees: $17-32; desserts: $7-10.
AMBIANCE Business casual.

I have my own version of a culinary crystal ball, and, with few exceptions, it’s almost always accurate. Here it is: Long before the entrees arrive, once the water and wine are flowing, and the bread and the salad have been served, I can predict how the rest of the meal is likely to go. These items act as a sort of litmus test, telling me all that I need to know. If all goes well, I’m an eager guest, excited to see what will follow. If not, I tend to feel like a hostage, and the meal becomes something that I dread.

On my first of four visits to Lupa Trattoria Romana, a Roman rebrand of the former Petit Louis space in Columbia, I felt a sense of inner peace almost immediately. The requested “chilled” water was pleasingly cold, and a carafe for refilling was left on the table. The house-made bread was thick and chewy and served alongside a bottle of earthy EVOO. The salad itself, a fresh bed of arugula tossed with lemon vinaigrette and Parmigiano, was simple—and sublime. And a bottle of Spanish rosé summarily arrived after it was ordered, then was placed on a silver wine coaster.

Co-owner Tony Foreman and his business partner, Cindy Wolf, have been feeding Baltimoreans for more than two decades at their restaurants, including Charleston, where Wolf is a chef, and Cinghiale (where Lupa executive chef James Lewandowski does double time). Despite the comings and goings of so many spots in the area, they remain the consummate restaurant owners.

Foreman says that they decided to rebrand the space because the Petit Louis French bistro concept, which works so well in Roland Park, didn’t work as well when Louis opened in Columbia. “People thought that French food was more for special occasions,” explains Foreman. “We were packed on the weekends, but not during the week.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Foreman himself is now a father of two and likely recognized the need for more casual, family-friendly spots with good food.

In keeping with the homey Italian concept at Lupa, Old World still lifes adorn the pumpkin-colored walls, and the dining room is littered with large farm tables for family-style dining. Lupa—meaning she-wolf, a sly wink to Chef Wolf’s name—is Cinghiale’s more casual cousin. Its menu, whose origins are inspired by the traditions of la cucina Romana—one of the world’s most populist cuisines—is humble and inexpensive and uses simple techniques to highlight seasonal ingredients.

Lupa’s offerings highlight many of the hallmarks of Roman cuisine, including bitter vegetables (escarole salad here), oxtail (puréed into ragu and served with fettucine), fried vegetables (like crisp threads of carrots on top of a sautéed calamari appetizer), and thick, Roman-style pizza. The wine list—featuring bottles from Central Italy, America, and France, plus 20 wines by the glass—is reasonably priced.

span class=”Apple-converted-space”>

Entrees are similarly enticing. For the primi, or starch course, there are some dozen pastas to pick from, including the hallmark Roman pastas cacio e pepe and Perciatelli all’ Amatriciana (guanciale, roasted tomatoes, and dried chilies). I’m a sucker for seafood, so indulged in the spaghetti neri, squid ink spaghetti with grilled calamari, shrimp, lemon, and dried chili. The inky, house-made black strands of pasta tossed in olive oil and shrimp stock strongly tasted of the sea and, when paired with the seafood, were a paragon of umami.

Sticking with the sea, I also enjoyed the sweet and herbaceous pan-seared bronzino with its carrot purée swoosh and a sauce of lemon butter and fennel pollen pesto.

It would be easy to overlook the featured chicken dish, but you shouldn’t. In this case, the poultry is wrapped in prosciutto and served on a bed of creamy farro with Swiss chard in a red-wine reduction sauce. This version, a riff on veal saltimbocca, is flavor-packed and anything but ordinary.

For dessert, there’s a wonderful selection—20 flavors in all—of gelati and sorbetti. On various visits, we mixed and matched the stracciatella, hazelnut, chocolate, and tiramisu replete with giant hunks of espresso-soaked ladyfingers. Finally, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, and cleanse your palate with a shot of limoncello.

LUPA TRATTORIA ROMANA. 10215 Wincopin Cir., Columbia, 410-964-9999. HOURS: Brunch: Tues.-Fri. 11 a.m.-2 :30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; dinner: Mon.-Sat. 5-10 p.m., Sun. 5-9 p.m. PRICES: Appetizers: $9-28; pastas: $15-21; entrees: $23-29; desserts: $8.75. AMBIANCE: Rustic Italian.

Visual Art

Profiles of Color III
Fredericksburg, Virginia, artist Ronald Jackson reimagines African-American portraiture in his solo show Profiles of Color III: Fabric, Face, and Form at Galerie Myrtis. The mixed-media pieces are collaged with bold shapes and patterns, reminiscent of Klimt but with a contemporary African accent. June 30 through July 28, with an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. June 30 at Gallery Myrtis, 2224 N. Charles St.

Landmarked
Ada Pinkston explores historical landmarks and monuments in Landmarked, a highly participatory show that invites visitors to respond to prompts and, in doing so, become part of the exhibit as it unfolds. A pedestal in the gallery will serve as a space for performance art pieces throughout the duration of the show, including a special night of guest performers on June 16. June 1 to 22 at Cardinal, 1758 Park Ave.

Music

BSO’s New Music Festival
Imagine the elegance of classical music performance against the backdrop of Graffiti Alley and you have the June 22 Chamber Jam with Mind on Fire, Shodekeh, and Ok Miss, part of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s four-day New Music Festival. In its second year, the fest brings contemporary classical music to venues across the city, highlighting living composers. This year, Kevin Puts’ oboe concerto Moonlight, a piece commissioned by the BSO, will premiere at a free show at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. June 20 to 23.

John Williams at Camden Yards
Celebrated American composer (and lifelong baseball fan) John Williams—who has written scores and served as music director for films that include E.T., Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and Star Wars—will be at Camden Yards on June 11 to throw the first pitch. Before the Orioles game, the BSO will perform a selection of his well-known pieces, starting at 6:30 p.m. The game will be followed by the June 13 Evening with John Williams performance at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Theater

Nights on the Fringe
Ballet, theater, puppetry, film, crankies, spoken word, dance, circus arts . . . the list goes on for Nights on the Fringe, a vaudeville-inspired cabaret weekend presented by Charm City Fringe—in case you are itching to see some Fringe-worthy shows before the main festival in November. The evenings will be hosted by Aaron Henkin (WYPR’s Out of the Blocks) and Umar Khan (Gin & Jokes, Super Comedy). 8 p.m. June 8 and 9 at the Baltimore Theatre Project.

Literary Arts

Books in Bloom
The daylong Books in Bloom festival brings a host of writers across all literary genres to Columbia for readings, discussions, children’s activities, and a pop-up bookstore. The lineup includes Amanda Lucidon, Edwidge Danticat, Elliot Ackerman, Ian Mackenzie, Jane Delury, Jeannie Valasco, Katia D. Ulysse, Nathan Bomey, Sujata Massey, Vikram Sunderam, and others. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 10 at downtown Columbia Lakefront, 10221 Wincopin Circle, Columbia.

Miscellanea

CreateScape
Creative Labs’ CreateScape event celebrates the DIY arts culture of Baltimore through a free, three-day open house at the group’s headquarters. With a focus on health, creativity, sustainability and collaboration, the fest, hosted by Creative Labs, will cross yoga and dance battles with live music and street art. An array of artisan vendors will give this event a festival feel. June 8 to 10 at Creative Labs, 1786b Union Ave.

Healthy Baltimore: A Festival of Wellness
The free Healthy Baltimore festival at Port Covington will bring an array of music, food, and health and fitness vendors aimed to get you on track—plus the inspiration to move your soul and your body with a performance by Talib Kweli. Pre-registration is required. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 16 at The Field in Port Covington, 200 E. Cromwell St.

OPEN

Cured and 18th & 21st: After much anticipation, the team behind Howard County’s Iron Bridge Wine Co. has finally cut the ribbon at this hybrid concept inside the new One Merriweather building in Columbia. The building houses a casual Mid-Atlantic eatery called Cured up front, as well as 18th & 21st in the back —a speakeasy-style jazz club named after the amendments that enacted and later repealed Prohibition. The menus in both dining rooms are spearheaded by chef Christopher Lewis, a local industry veteran who most recently ran the kitchen at Iron Bridge. To celebrate the grand opening and Capital JazzFest happening just a few hundred yards away at Merriweather Post Pavilion this weekend, 18th & 21st will highlight performances by local jazz musicians all weekend long. 10980 Grantchester Way, Columbia, 667-786-7111

COMING SOON

The Pizza Trust: Just when we thought Belvedere Square Market had everything, a new pizza joint is being thrown into the mix later this summer. James Clark, who owns Clark Burger inside the Senator Theatre across York Road, is debuting this new spot that will serve quick-fire pizzas, wings, fries, and salads. The menu of personal pies includes varieties like the “Mobtown” (garlic oil, mozzarella, caramelized shallots, roasted red peppers, and toasted pine nuts), the “Dirty Bird” (truffle bechamel sauce, herb chicken, bacon bits, and B-More Saucy buffalo drizzle), and the “Trust,” which tops hand-stretched dough with house red sauce, green peppers, and sweet and spicy Italian sausage. 529 E. Belvedere Ave., 443-961-8111.

Donut Alliance: After one year of peddling their tasty treats at local eateries and cafes, husband-and-wife team Jeff and Emily Arenberg are settling in a brick-and-mortar of their own. Slated to officially open on Harford Road in Lauraville later this month, Donut Alliance will feature a daily selection of the couple’s signature vegan varieties including strawberry lemonade, maple facon (vegan bacon), and classic Boston cream. “We’re avid bakers,” Emily says. “So we’re always trying to get to where non-vegans can’t tell the difference.” 4311 Harford Rd., 410-627-4597

Sophomore Coffee: This yet-to-open coffee shop introduced itself to the scene with a pop-up at Hunting Ground last weekend, and it will be back at the Hampden vintage shop this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stop by to sample the signature brews (either hot or iced) in advance of Sophomore Coffee’s debut in Old Goucher in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates. Hunting Ground, 3649 Falls Rd., 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

NEWS

The Elk Room: It’s been an exciting week for Atlas Restaurant Group’s speakeasy-style cocktail bar in Harbor East. On Wednesday, the dimly lit hangout was awarded a coveted spot on Esquire’s annual list of the “21 Best Bars in America.” The write-up gives shout-outs to industry veterans Shaun Stewart (who actually recently moved on from Elk Room) and Andrew Nichols, and praises the duo’s creative drinks including “The Poe’s Raven”—a smoked rum and coconut cocktail that was inspired by the rum-ham bit in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. “Being named one of the Best Bars in America is a result of all of the hard work, passion, and dedication that our team puts into the Elk Room each and every day,” says Atlas managing partner Eric Smith, who oversees the beverage program. “We are very appreciative of the recognition, and will continue to raise the bar when it comes to cocktails and service.” In previous years, Esquire’s list has included The Brewer’s Art, Rye, and Mt. Royal Tavern. The Elk Room, 1010 Fleet St., 410-244-5830

EPICUREAN EVENTS

6/1: Lobster Roll Fridays Return to The Corner Pantry
You know it’s the start of summer when chef Neill Howell brings this Friday tradition back to The Corner Pantry in Mt. Washington. Starting this Friday, June 1, Howell will be whipping up his classic Maine lobster rolls on housemade bread served with an order of crispy chips. Swing by the Falls Road haunt on Fridays throughout the summer starting at 11 a.m. to taste the signature summer dish. 6080 Falls Road, 667-308-2331, $28.

6/2: Great Grapes Wine & Food Festival
Throw on a pair of sunnies and head to Oregon Ridge Park this Saturday to sip more than 100 Maryland-made wines from the likes of Boordy Vineyards, Linganore Winecellars, Basignani Winery, Olney Winery, Royal Rabbit Vineyards, and more. Plus, there will be a la carte local beer, food truck fare, live music, and a playground area with crafts for kids. If that’s not enough to convince you, ’90s chart-toppers Vertical Horizon (think “Everything You Want” and “Best I Ever Had”) will perform a headlining set at 7 p.m. Oregon Ridge Park, 13401 Beaver Dam Rd., Cockeysville, 1-8 p.m., $29-39

Having a family doesn’t have to mean kissing your love of live music goodbye—at least not during Baltimore’s sunny seasons. Concert-hopping can totally be tougher with kids in tow, but this time of year the city is packed with outdoor, kid-friendly events parents can actually relax and enjoy. An atmosphere that puts parents at ease while catering to young ones means concert fun for all. This year, there’s plenty to choose from and few reasons to stay home.  

WTMD First Thursdays
The much-loved First Thursday concerts are back at Canton Waterfront Park starting May 3. Two stages, food vendors, drinks by The Brewer’s Art, and even a kid’s zone are sure to keep the whole family entertained. Artists like Jessica Lea Mayfield and Lake Street Drive will bring big crowds, so come early and post-up until those little yawns set in.

Summer Concerts at Oregon Ridge
This local park is known for its nature center and beautiful trails. But Oregon Ridge has music-lover appeal, too. From KarmaFest to Music in the Woods, and the always eagerly anticipated Hot August Music, the venue holds several day-long events perfect for every age. Kids can take listen to tunes, head over to the playground, and maybe snag a hug from the Oriole Bird, too (who tends to make an appearance at Hot August.

Belvedere Square Summer Sounds
If you’re in the market (Belvedere Market, that is) for a laid-back, post-work-week hang, Summer Sounds is just what the family ordered. Every Friday evening from May 25 until September 7, the square comes alive with music by local artists, and plenty of family dancing. Delicious food and slurpable drinks are available from Grand Cru and the market shops. Kids come for the face-painting, kid-zone games, and general running amuck with neighborhood friends. Parents stay for the music and sweet sangria. Equally sweet is the adult interaction and relaxed vibes the concerts never fails to bring.

MECU Pavilion (formerly Pier Six)
Not all concert venues are family-friendly, but MECU has a few perks that make bringing the kids a sinch. With lots of lawn space to roam, you won’t have to worry about tots getting lost in the shuffle or those little ear drums, either. Kids of all ages are welcome and those under two get in free. A few of this summer’s shows include Primus, LSD (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam), and The Barenaked Ladies. And if you’re really in it for the kids, don’t miss KidzBop Live on August 10.

Summer Socials on the Waterfront
Waterfront Partnership makes West Shore Park another great spot to gather and get down. Every second Friday from May through August, food trucks line the streets while Dooby’s provides drinks for thirsty concert-goers. This year, performers like Kelly Bell Band, The New Romance, What’s Next, and The Loose Ties take the stage. Kids surely aren’t forgotten at this summer standby either, with creative kid-zone fun, like giant building blocks.

Shop and Eat to the Beat on the Avenue
Live music begins at White Marsh on May 25 and continues every Friday and Saturday through Labor Day. The first band of the year is Nelly’s Echo. Other performers include the Cajun and zydeco sounds of The Crawdaddies and reggae from Jah Works. Food can be purchased from any of the avenues eateries and beer, wine, and crushes are available in the event area. With plenty of retail stores to hit up nearby, there are tons of reasons to check out the family-centric weekly events.

Feet on the Street in Towson
Bands, bouncy castles, face-painting, and more make this Towson mainstay an event local families look forward to every year. On Friday evenings from May 18 through September 28, local bands like Jury, Crushing Day, and Kitty Black will perform. Families can relax, eat, drink, and get their feet moving over on Allegheny Avenue.

Summer Concerts at Merriweather Post Pavilion
While you might not want to take your kids to the Vans Warped Tour on Sunday, July 27 just yet (though the event is all ages—and they might just enjoy the mohawks and crowd-surfing!), Merriweather has plenty of day-long events that are perfect for the whole family. From the Capital Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 3 to the Summer Spirit Festival on August 4 and 5, there are more than a few concerts to choose from. The kid-friendly site has a spacious lawn with plenty of room for the kids to wiggle, cruise the vendors or just rock out.

The roof of Columbia’s Merriweather Post Pavilion—under which millions of music lovers have jammed to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Willie Nelson throughout the years—caved in suddenly around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 13. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the incident has left many wondering about the future of the iconic venue, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last July.

“I woke up to the news on Saturday morning and I was in shock,” says Ian Kennedy, executive director of the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission (DCACC), which took over ownership of Merriweather from the Howard Hughes Corporation in 2016. “Then I went to the venue and it was even more shocking.”

The collapse occurred in the midst of Merriweather’s five-year renovation project, which began in 2015 and has since yielded an updated box office, additional bathrooms, a stage expansion, new concession stands with increased food options, and two backstage swimming pools. As part of the revamp, the roof of the amphitheater was being hydraulically lifted 20 feet over a period of months.

Officials from I.M.P., the management company that operates Merriweather, say that the process was nearly finished, and the roof was almost at the point where it was ready to be permanently secured when it unexpectedly fell.

“Last night, in the middle of our months-long roof-raising operation, the winds of fate prevailed,” I.M.P. chairman Seth Hurwitz said in a statement following the incident. “They decided that, instead of simply raising the roof, we should just go ahead and build a new one.”

Despite the setback, Hurwitz assures that Merriweather’s season will resume as planned in the spring. Officials have commissioned a team of experts to investigate the reasons behind the collapse (some are speculating it was caused by strong winds), and plan to debut a new roof in time for the first show of 2018.    

In an effort to maintain some of the pavilion’s history, crews from Columbia-based Costello Construction are hoping to reclaim pieces of wood that survived the collapse and use it in the new design.

“Seeing all the support gave me a tremendous amount of hope. There is a sort of clarity that comes in moments of crisis, and that has strengthened our resolve,” Kennedy says. “We’re going to rebuild it in a way that preserves what everyone loved about it.”

Kennedy, a longtime Howard County resident, happens to be an expert on the resilience of the beloved concert destination. Back in 2003, he co-founded the Save Merriweather Campaign—a crusade to preserve the pavilion after then-owners General Growth Properties threatened to downsize the venue and turn the rest of the property into a retail and residential development. 

“We have saved Merriweather before, and we’ll save it again,” Kennedy says. “It was built as Columbia’s beacon—to show folks from around the region, and ultimately around the country, that Columbia was all about the idea of bringing people together. It’s always been more than just a concert venue.”

Although the physical structure has been damaged, Kennedy says that the spirit of Merriweather remains.

“We have signs posted that say, ‘Welcome to Merriweather, make yourself at home,’” he mentions. “That speaks to the feeling of the place, and that is the backbone of our resilience. This isn’t about a structure, or a roof, or the midnight blue seats, or any of the physical pieces of it. It’s the soul of the place, and that will always be there.”

Kennedy expects the upcoming concert season to be one of his all-time favorites, with the only announced act so far being Sugarland with Brandy Clark and Clare Bowen on Saturday, July 14.

“It’s interesting that last year we celebrated our 50th anniversary, and we’re starting out our next chapter of Merriweather’s existence with this,” he says. “But we’re fully invested in saving it, and that is exciting in some ways. Over the past few days my thought process has gone from a little bit of despair, to certainly some sorrow and sadness, and now it’s of hope and resolve.”

In many ways, Terry Virts is just your average native Marylander. He loves the Orioles and fondly recalls growing up in Columbia during the 1970s and ’80s. How is he not like the average Marylander? Well, as a retired astronaut and one-time commander of the International Space Station, he has spent 213 days in space, which he documented extensively in thousands upon thousands of hi-def videos and still photos. Since retiring from NASA in August 2016, he has spent his time organizing his images and career recollections into a book, the newly released View From Above: An Astronaut Photographs the World. While in town on his book tour last week, he stopped by Baltimore’s offices (where he geeked out about our Orioles-themed décor) and answered our questions about growing up in Columbia, working with the Russians, and thinking he might die in space.

*This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

The book just came out last week and is the result of your 16-year career with NASA, including your stint on the International Space Station, during which you took the most photos anyone has ever taken from space. That’s what they told me, yeah. When I landed, they were like, ‘Ugh. Finally, you’re back on Earth.’ Because they told me I took 319,000-plus pictures. 

Were they ever like, ‘Maybe hold off taking pictures for a day or two?’ Oh, totally. And it wasn’t just fun pictures. Like sometimes, if you’re doing an experiment, they want three different views. If you’re filming experiments, that payload stuff would kill all the downlink so there’s no time to get your fun stuff down. We had RED, this Hollywood-quality camera. Jim Cameron told me he used it to film Avatar. The RED camera was the worst. My last week I was like, ‘You know what, I took enough stills.’ So I got the RED out, and they had always warned us to be real judicious with it because it uses so many gigabytes. But I just filmed away, and they were like, ‘Oh my God!’ But you know what, a week later they had it all down, and they made the most popular UHD highlight reel. It was a couple years ago when UHD was new. It’s amazing. And they’ll have that forever. Yeah, it was like, ‘Sorry. You’ve got to download it.’

So tell us something about space that the average person doesn’t know. So it’s nothing like Star Wars. The Wookiees are not that loud in real space. The Storm Troopers are actually nice guys. [Laughs]

Well, tell us about floating. In space, you move with your hands and you carry things with your feet.

Why? Because you have to grab onto handrails to push yourself around. The way we’re designed: Hands are fine motion and feet are [mimes pounding his feet]. You can do that [mimes jumping], but you’re going to shoot up to the ceiling.

What are the annoying parts about being in space? Well, floating is super annoying. Like, anybody can move over there and get to the door, but to end up at the door [facing it with your hand near the handle], you have to push and rotate at the correct number of degrees per second and your brain has to figure out that it’s going to take five seconds to get there and I need to rotate 10 degrees.

How long does that learning curve take? The first couple of days, it is pretty steep. After a week, I was still not there. After two weeks, I was good but I wasn’t [at my peak]. It probably took me a month before I was good, and I got really good. 

What about sleeping in space? Yeah, you get sunrise and sunset every hour and a half, unless you’re in high beta [orbit]. I went through a week with no sunsets. 

It’s like living in Scandinavia in the summer or something? Right or Antarctica in the winter. It’s just constant sunlight. So you close the windows and you don’t know what the sun is doing and you set your alarm to GMT [Greenwich Mean Time]. 

Why GMT? Because it’s the International Space Station and the bus and the subway system [in Russia] does not run in the middle of the night. So we had to pick a time that was close to their normal work hours for their mission control people. Going GMT is close, it’s a couple hours difference. We didn’t just cave and use Moscow time. So it kind of saves face for us. [We can say] ‘Okay, GMT, that’s official.’ But the real reason is the Moscow subway schedule—so I’ve been told. I was still in the Air Force when the [ISS was launched]. 

Speaking of the Russians, you were up on the ISS with how many others? Five others. There were three Russians, two Americans, and an Italian.

This was in 2015, which, even then, was a tense time in U.S.-Russian relations. How did that affect your working relationships? It was great. It was the highlight of my mission having my Russian crewmates there. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. We all knew that these things were happening on Earth and we would just consciously, actively say, ‘We’re going to ignore the politics and focus on staying alive.’ Because on the other side of the window is vacuum and death. In a universe of a lot of bad stuff happening, the space station was a good example of how people can work together. 

Can you give an example of something political that threatened to divide you? Well, [the U.S.] put sanctions on Russia. And when that happened, the ruble got devalued in half. So my cosmonaut friends were calling home asking their wives, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ And I’m the guy that did it, and I’m commander, so that could have been very divisive. So I made a very active decision to spend time with them, have dinner with them, to talk. And actually, the cosmonauts are paid in dollars—that’s just the way their contract is—so in the long run, their salaries doubled.

And then [the U.S.] had an orbital rocket that blew up here in Virginia, a Russian Progress rocket blew up, and a Space X rocket blew up. Three rockets in eight months. When the Progress blew up, it was the Soyuz [Russian spacecraft] rocket after [the one that delivered me to the ISS], so they wanted to do an investigation before they launched the next crew to replace us. So we didn’t know how long we were going to be stuck in space. And we were very flexible. Every day I would say, ‘Okay, guys, tell us your rumors,’ because I didn’t want rumors. I was like, ‘Let’s get ’em out. What is everybody hearing?’ And the Russians had the best because it was their rocket. I would talk to the station program manager [at NASA] and he was great. He was just like, ‘Here’s what we know. The reality is, it’s their rocket and they’re going to decide.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I can deal with that.’ There have been other examples when crews got delayed—or they didn’t even get delayed; they had threats of delays—and they were like, ‘Arggghh!’ But we were very positive. And our international partners get paid by the day. When they get extended, they get paid even more. The folks were not that upset about having to stay longer. 

You were born in Baltimore, grew up in Columbia, graduated from Oakland Mills High School. What are your memories of growing up in Columbia? I lived in Lanham and Gambrills first. I didn’t move to Columbia until fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher just found me on Facebook. He remembered stuff. He was like, ‘There was this trip to D.C. and you bought a prism, and you spent 15 minutes explaining how a prism works.’ I remember that but it’s crazy that he remembers that.

So obviously you had an aptitude for science. Yeah, math and science were my strong suits. 

What was your experience going through Columbia’s public schools? It was amazing. The public school system then, that I went through, was rated one of the, I think, top 10 in the country. First of all, it was a multi-racial place. It was kind of weird because I didn’t really think about when I was growing up because I had friends of all [backgrounds]—a Korean guy, an Indian guy. We had everything, and it just wasn’t a big deal. And academically, it was amazing. I got to take Calc 3 in high school and had French every year, seventh through twelfth grade. I became a French minor. I became an astronaut because of my French experience. Madame Micka, I talk about her in my book. She was my French teacher in high school. 

What do you mean you became an astronaut because of your French experience? There are 100 test pilots who are great, but I was the guy who had done an exchange at the French air force academy, and I had international foreign language [experience]. For something like being an astronaut that’s so competitive, you want to have something that makes you stand out, and that made me stand out. No one ever tells you why they picked you, but I just know in my heart that it wasn’t only math and science, it was also the language side of things that got me in. 

You really did want to be a pilot from a young age. There’s a cute picture of you in the book standing on the wing of a plane. Where do you think this love of flying came from? The first book I ever read was about Apollo. It was one of those picture books for kids and I was in Lanham, and I can remember it. It just stuck. My mom was a secretary at Goddard [Flight Center in Greenbelt] and my dad and my stepdad both worked at Goddard. But they weren’t pilots. It was satellites, not human space flight. 

But you were around the culture. Yeah, they would bring home pictures. I remember when Viking landed on Mars I got pictures from Mars. They would get, probably, posters from books they could bring home. They would just bring stuff like that home and my room was just covered with airplanes and stuff. And every summer I’d get Astronomy magazine and, the day it showed up, I would sit there and read the whole thing. 

Do you think a human is going to go to Mars? I’m sure, eventually. I hope sooner rather than later, and I hope America leads it. If we don’t, other countries will. The thing about humanity is that nothing is static. Just ask the Portuguese, ask the Brits, or ask the Chinese. They decided to build a wall, and for 1,000 years they just wallowed in themselves and they didn’t grow. The whole world did this [mimes expanding] and China was behind the wall. So America had the 20th century, right? That was our century. But that doesn’t mean the 21st century is going to be our century unless we decide to make it so.

 What is the most dangerous situation you’ve ever encountered in spaceflight? There’s a whole chapter in the book about it called “Emergencies in Space.” There was an ammonia leak. We’re sitting there, minding our own business, and the alarm goes off, and we pop our heads out. Samantha, my Italian crewmate, we’re looking at the panel. I see ‘ATM.’ There are three kinds of emergencies: There’s fire. There’s an air leak. And there’s toxic atmosphere, which is ammonia inside the atmosphere. Ammonia is the coolant. So cars have radiator fluid, the station uses ammonia. That’s how it stays cool—on the American side. The Russian side uses sugar water. It’s not as efficient. It’s not as good a coolant, like ammonia, but it’s sugar water. Ammonia kills you dead.

So I go, ‘ATM?’ It was such a big deal that I just couldn’t process it. So we put on oxygen masks, run down to the Russian segment, and close the hatch because the Russian segment is safe. And then you’re supposed to take all of your clothes off because if there’s ammonia in your clothes, its poisonous, and then you go through another hatch. But we didn’t take our clothes off. No one smelled anything. We were like, ‘We’re probably fine.’ And the ground was kind of mad at us about that. Thirty minutes [later], the ground goes, ‘Hey, just kidding, it was a false alarm.’ So we’re just like, ‘Ugh.’ It just kills the day’s schedule. So we get back and we’re putting things away because we had just dropped everything and the CAPCOM [the Capsule Communicator] calls up and says, ‘Execute ammonia response now. This is a real thing. This isn’t a drill.’ It was this super intense voice. We were like, ‘Crap!’ We put the masks on, we go down, we close the hatch, we don’t take our clothes off. We do the whole thing. We get a sampler out. Okay, the air is good. Twenty or thirty minutes later we take our masks off and we’re like, ‘huh.’

What I knew had happened was the computer [activated] the alarm automatically. I knew there would be a crowd of engineers looking at every little bit of data. What I assumed had happened was, after the first alarm, they went, ‘Nah, that’s not really a leak. Tell them it’s not.’ And then they [continued] to watch the data and it [looked] like it was still leaking and they said, ‘Yeah, that’s a leak. It’s a small one, but it’s a real leak.’ And then they called us back. Since I’ve worked in mission control for years, I knew what was going on; they didn’t tell us this. And then we sat around for hours on the Russian side and the Russian deputy prime minister called up in the middle of sanctions and all these bad things and says, ‘Hey Americans, you can stay as long as you want. We’re going to work together.’ This was the same guy that had said we could take a trampoline to the space station after the U.S. had put sanctions on Russia. The same guy who was having a Twitter battle with, I guess, Obama at the time called up and said, ‘Hey we’re going to work together and get through this.’ So it was a great, great, great example international cooperation in space when things were really bad down here.

So we spent the day like, ‘So, there’s a small leak on the station.’ What’s going to happen if it continues to leak is the station pops. It just gets over-pressurized and the metal explodes—unless they vent it. They could vent it and then there’s no air and ammonia stuck to the walls. So we’re like, the station’s dead, and we’re going to stay on the Russian segment for a few weeks—with the one pair of underwear because all my clothes are over there—and then go back to Earth and the station will go into the Pacific. And then I went and took a nap. I was like, ‘I don’t have anything else to do. I’m going to take a nap.’ And then they called up and said, ‘Just kidding, it was a false alarm.’ [Laughs]

But then when we went back to the American segment they said, ‘But just keep your masks on just in case.’ So my crewmate and I, we put our masks on and we had these samplers and we were floating around and it was like this surreal alien movie. There were things floating around—we just abandoned stuff and left—so it was like being the first person on this ghost ship in space. And then everything was fine. That’s a story that no one knows and it’s an amazing story.

So, essentially, you got told it was a false alarm twice? Yes. And there have always been false fire alarms, and there have been a few false air leak alarms, but there’s never been a false ammonia alarm.

Ever? That’s the one and only ammonia alarm. The ammonia alarm is a big deal. That’s the one you don’t want to get. They sent a text to my family at four in the morning. The text is in the book. My wife got it and she gave it to me for the book. In general, space flight sucks for families. It’s just hard. Everyone’s always like, ‘Oh you’re so lucky your dad’s an astronaut!’ My kids are like, [rolls eyes]. We were watching the NBA five or six years ago and my daughter, she was probably like 10 at the time, and we were watching the Heat and they were in the finals and she just looks at me and says, ‘Dad, why can’t you be more like LeBron James?’   

With all of the competition in the local craft beer market these days, it’s hard to imagine there’s a void to fill. But the team at Hysteria Brewing Company, which is about to open its doors this weekend in Columbia, wants to stand out in the market.

“When I was working at The Wine Source, I would lament what I saw missing,” says Zachary Michel, an assistant brewer and marketing manger for Hysteria. “We didn’t see a lot of local barrel-aged beers, not a ton of sours or stouts. We’re excited to be making beers we haven’t seen much yet. It’s like how bands play music they have always wanted to hear.”

Hysteria was originally the brainchild of owner Richard Gue, who has been home brewing for a decade. While he currently owns a business right next-door from the brewery space—with two partners Geoff Lopes and Jordan Baney—a brewery was always the dream.

“He’s a guy who is really entrepreneurial and driven to start projects,” Michel says. “I think the spark started with that first batch he brewed 10 years ago and has taken off ever since.”

The philosophy behind the brewery and its name is taking the creativity and experimentation from home brewing, or the “mad science” as Michel calls it, and bringing it into the commercial side. Hysteria’s barrel-aging program is something the team is particularly excited about—especially head brewer Jordan McGraw, who came from DuClaw Brewing.

“Brewers have really been pushing the boundaries of barrel aging and it’s so cool to look at these flavors from an almost culinary standpoint,” Michel says. “A chardonnay barrel could enhance the flavors of an IPA, a red wine barrel with a stout. We’re hoping to play around with gin and brandy barrels soon, and want to push beyond the staples.”

Expect releases like a barrel-aged sour with barrels from Black Ankle Vineyards, a coffee milk stout made with Orinoco Coffee beans, and a New England-style IPA named after old Orioles baseball tactic The Baltimore Chop.

“Any way we can pay homage to the local area, we’re going to try to,” Michel says. “Our goal is to eventually source everything as locally as possible and really have the terroir of Maryland in our beer.”

In addition to beer, Hysteria will feature non-alcoholic offerings on tap, including nitro coffee and handcrafted sodas, as a way to be more inclusive with its customer base and entice a more diverse clientele.

“It was really important for us to have a place where everyone feels included,” Michel says. “We want to attract people outside of the craft beer nerd world and tried to brainstorm ways to engage people who aren’t yet engaged.”

Some of those ideas can be seen in its Columbia taproom, which boasts a steampunk vibe, multi-shelf library, record player, and many communal tables. In essence, the brewery is combining the community-minded spirit of a cafe with the offerings of a pub.

“What I love about cafes is that you can hang out alone, pull out a book, and read,” Michel says. “Community isn’t just about events. It’s about making all kinds of people feel welcome and included on a daily basis.”

For now, that welcome party starts this weekend with a grand opening party July 1 and 2. They’ll be four special cask ales throughout the weekend, as well as live music, yard games, and food from The Green Bowl, Homeslyce, Bullhead Pit Beef, and Mike’s Gelato.

“Rich grew up in Columbia so this will be a homecoming of sorts,” Michel says. “But we’re all huge fans of Maryland and we’re excited to make products that speak to what’s happening on a local level.”

Country-club food ordinarily invokes flashbacks of a Cornish game hen glazed in apricot sauce or some such benign dish that doesn’t offend—or particularly please—the palate. But these days, as diners become more food savvy, country-club fare—once offered mainly for the convenience of members—reflects the increasing sophistication of patrons.

Case in point: The Turn House. Situated in a 2-year-old clubhouse in Columbia on the semiprivate Hobbits Glen Golf Course, this New American spot is way above par—and you don’t have to be a member to eat here (though you do get a discount if you are).

The Turn House marks the return of HoCo hometown boy Thomas Zippelli, who at just 27 is the restaurant’s executive chef and owner. Don’t let his youth fool you: Zippelli is fresh from working at such hallowed culinary grounds as the Michelin-starred The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and more recently Eleven Madison Park in New York (voted one of the 50 best restaurants in the world). 

Zippelli’s pedigree is on full display here.

The biweekly dinner menu highlights seasonal produce from local farms. Whatever the season, you can expect a nice selection of shareable starters, including meat and cheese slates and oysters on the half shell; generously portioned small plates that are more than enough to make a meal, especially when you add a protein; and six entrees (an assortment of steak, seafood, and pasta). Many trendy favorites are here: pimento cheese dip, burrata, or beef tartare, but Zippelli takes them to the next level—his artistry is impressive, the ingredients are high caliber, and his execution is flawless.

On our first outing, a warm wire basket of house-made sourdough and semolina bread arrived straight out of the oven. Self-control gave way to polishing off the better part of the basket, along with a ramekin of cultured Vermont butter. Once the damage was done, we also eagerly ate our way through the creamy crab dip—Maryland-sourced in early April—with a side of soft pretzel bites and spectacularly crisp house-made chips. The classic Caesar with grilled sourdough bread was also a satisfying starter.

The entrees were similarly sterling. A gorgeously charred piece of striped bass with creamed leeks, smoked potatoes, clams, and potato crumble suggested a deconstructed bowl of clam chowder and offered incredible umami flavor. The seasonal pasta dish, a bowl of house-made gnocchi stuffed with wild mushrooms and tossed with snap pea tendrils, pearl onions, and crumbles of feta, offered a delectable taste of spring and was unusually light for a dish that can be leaden. A side of charred broccoli with a kicky romesco sauce helped us get in our daily requirement of greens.

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad
The beet and goat cheese salad with prosciutto and pistachio gremolata is just the right combination of salty and sweet.

Several days later, on a midday visit, we joined a group of golfers in the cozy bar area and chose from a more casual menu of soups, salads, and sandwiches. Zippelli has his work cut out for him here as he tries to strike the balance between pleasing the links lunch set and fine-diners after dark, but he does so  without missing a beat.

This time around, we shared a roasted carrot salad, a dream of a dish composed of heirloom carrots, chewy wheat berries, radishes, and a dollop of dill panna cotta. We also split a succulent sandwich of barbecued pulled pork with a fennel Brussels sprout slaw that cut the sweetness of the sandwich.

On both visits, servers were friendly and enthusiastic. During dinner, our waitress, Corinne, was so excited about the food that we wanted her to sit at our table. (“Eat for me,” she said as she delivered our entrees.) On a second visit, our server shared that he was the only one working the lunch shift in a dining room of 40 or so people. Despite the challenge, our drinks came out quickly and the meal was well-paced.

The surroundings are similarly inviting. The main dining room is modern and airy with two fireplaces, touches of teal, and an adjacent alfresco patio with sweeping views of the golf course, though with food this fine, white tablecloths would be fitting. My other issue in the décor department is the fake-plant wall, an odd choice given the farm-fresh mission of a menu touting “only the freshest, local ingredients.” Fresh flowers or plants—or nothing at all—would be preferable.

These are minor quibbles for a place that’s well worth your time—and dining dollars. Consider going even if you don’t know the difference between a birdie and a bogey.

THE TURN HOUSE 11130 Willow Bottom Dr., Columbia, 410-740-2096. HOURS Mon. 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tue.-Thu. and Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. PRICES Appetizers: $8-18; entrees: $13-40; desserts: $8. AMBIANCE Clubby.

Fifty years ago, revolutionary real estate developer Jim Rouse set out to transform 14,000 acres of Howard County farmland into a hub for diversity, tolerance, and growth. Still today, Columbia maintains Rouse’s vision with more than 100,000 residents, a top-notch school system, beautiful urban green spaces, and a vibrant arts scene.  

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the city’s official founding on June 21, neighborhood leaders have organized a number of events this month to showcase the people and places that make Columbia so unique.

To 6/9: Posters of Wilde Lake
Back in the ’60s, Rouse commissioned California-born printmaker Gail Holliday to create colorful posters marketing his new community. At this ongoing exhibition, the Rouse Company’s former artist-in-residence showcases a collection of works dedicated to the image of Wilde Lake. Slayton House, 10400 Cross Fox Lane, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., 410-730-3987

6/4: Of Stars and Hurricanes: Two Columbia Novelists Return
The Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) is partnering with the Wild Lake Community Association to present an evening with two of the community’s most notable authors. Head to the Slayton House Theatre to hear excerpts from the most recent works of husband-and-wife novelists—and former Columbia residents—Carrie and John Gregory Brown. The society will also honor community leaders Padriac and Ellen Kennedy for their work to strengthen Howard County’s literary scene. Slayton House, 10400 Cross Fox Lane, 4-6 p.m., $20, 410-730-3987

6/10: The HeART of Columbia
A number of Columbia’s art organizations are coming together to present this exhibition of artifacts from the city’s history. Howard Community College, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., 443-518-1000

6/11: Books in Bloom
Dubbed Columbia’s first-ever book festival, this get-together will highlight readings, panel discussions, a poetry wall, and its own pop-up book store spanning a variety of genres. The family-friendly event will also serve as a launch party for the Howard County Library’s new summer reading program, offering crafts, story time areas, and panels geared toward young adults. Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, 12-5 p.m., 410-715-5550

6/16-18: LakeFest
Gather around the landmark People Tree for this annual spring festival, which is going all out this year in honor of Columbia’s big birthday. Aside from checking out the juried arts show, stroll around Lake Kittamaqundi to get creative with kids crafts, experience an inflatable multi-room sculpture, and dance along to live jazz, blues, and funk music. There will also be plenty of eats onsite, including boxed lunches from Whole Foods and crab cake made from Rouse’s favorite recipe. Lake Kittamaqundi, Columbia, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., 410-423-1878

6/19-7/29: Columbia Portraits
Enjoy stories of the community’s past and present from the perspective of realist painter Mary Jo Messenger at this art show, which will showcase her portraits of Columbia residents. Slayton House, 10400 Cross Fox Lane, 9 a.m.-8 p.m., 410-730-3987

6/21: Columbia Orchestra Summer Concert
This acclaimed community orchestra will assemble on the new Chrysalis Stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion in celebration of Columbia’s actual anniversary on June 21. Pack a picnic dinner, spread out a blanket, and enjoy highlights from My Fair Lady, familiar hits by The Beatles, the iconic outdoor “1812 Overture,” and an epic “Happy Birthday” singalong. Chrysalis at Symphony Woods, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, 7 p.m., 410-465-8777

6/23: Stoop Storytelling
As part of the 30th annual Columbia Festival of the Arts—which runs June 16-25—this migrating storytelling series will present an evening focused on cinematic events and experiences. Hear from seven non-professional speakers who will share true tales about movies that have significantly impacted their lives. Smith Theatre at the Horowitz Performing Arts Center, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, 8-10 p.m., $18, 410-997-2324

6/24: Sprout Film Festival

View a selection of short films presented in partnership with the Howard County Autism Society and Arc of Howard County—a nonprofit that provides services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The thought-provoking pieces, which share the poignant stories of individuals with disabilities, will all feature post-screening Q&A sessions. Monteabaro Hall at Howard Community College, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, 4-8 p.m., $15, 443-518-1000

6/25: River Romp
Bring the whole family to enjoy this summer program at Robinson Nature Center, an education facility nestled on 18 acres of land adjacent to the Middle Patuxent River. Following a picnic lunch, splash around, search for animals, and race handmade boats down the stream. Robinson Nature Center, 6692 Cedar Lane, 12:30-2:30 p.m., 410-313-0400, $6-25

7/4: Howard County 4th of July Festival and Fireworks
Don your patriotic patterns to dance along to live music and indulge in seasonal eats and drinks before watching the annual fireworks display light up the lakefront. Downtown Columbia Lakefront, 5-10 p.m., Free, 410-313-4700

7/15: Merriweather 50th Anniversary Concert
Back in 1967, a 40-acre plot in the woods of Howard County was transformed into Merriweather Post Pavilion, the hallowed amphitheater that has since showcased performances by everyone from Janis Joplin and Jimmy Buffet to Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead. To celebrate the venue’s 50th year of bringing live music to the community, Merriweather has organized this show featuring an epic lineup of Americana icons. Enjoy old favorites from Willie Nelson, Father John Misty, special guest host Grace Potter, and Jackson Browne—who recorded three tracks off of his 1977 album Running on Empty at the pavilion. Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, 6 p.m., $55-125

For more information about Columbia’s 50th anniversary, pick up a copy of our June issue on newsstands now.

This week’s rainy, grey weather felt like the ideal backdrop for a performance by indie folk darlings Bon Iver at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Hailing from Wisconsin, the five-piece band is heavily guided by frontman Justin Vernon and is currently on a multi-city American tour promoting its latest album, 22, A Million.

As the band’s first album in five years, it’s a departure from Vernon’s previous work full of acoustic strums and woodsy themes. Instead, his signature falsetto voice is backed by plenty of synth and saxophone. 

The better part of Wednesday night’s setlist ran through the tracks of 22, A Million, with a vibrant light show full of religious imagery and words that is certainly an apparent theme in his latest work. Many of these songs—in particular “33 God”—vacillated between haunting simplicity and bold, sonic peaks. 

Vernon broke from the music a few times during the set. First, he promoted his new gender equality campaign, 2 A Million, which is aimed to increase awareness about domestic violence and sexual abuse. The second time, he announced how happy he was to be in Maryland and have his family in the audience. 

As if that triggered instant nostalgia, the latter half of the set was dedicated to his earlier work including “Bracket, WI” and the singularly beautiful “Holocene.” But the highlight for many in the crowd, from casual fans to die-hards alike, was his stripped down acoustic version of “Skinny Love,” in which his impassioned, undulating voice really shined.

Bon Iver’s performance is just one of many that Merriweather can boast this summer, in which national artists are making the Columbia amphitheater their definitive Mid-Atlantic stop. The venue is currently undergoing a $19 million renovation and gearing up for a 50th anniversary concert on July 15.

Read more about the history of Merriweather, including legendary performances by Jimi Hendrix and The Who, in our upcoming June issue. 

Field Notes is a monthly roundup of environmental news from around the area. If you have a story you’d like considered for a future Field Notes, email mamy@baltimoremagazine.net. Put “Field Notes Suggestion” in the subject line.

Bay Watch

When is a C- a cause for celebration? When we’re talking about the Chesapeake Bay’s health grade. Late last week, the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation released its report on the bay’s overall health in 2016, granting the estuary its highest grade since the foundation began issuing reports in 1998.

The report divides data into three main categories—pollution, habitat, and fisheries—then grades various indicators within each category to calculate an overall score out of a possible 100 points. This year’s overall score was a 34, which equates, in this specially weighted grading system, to a C-.

Except for a slight decrease in the amount of forested buffers, the bay showed improvement or remained steady across all sectors. Especially notable is the 10-point jump in the health of the blue crab population and the continued hardiness of the rockfish population, which garnered an A-, the scorecard’s highest individual grade.

But while things have improved, there is still a long way to go to reach that 100-point A+ (which would be like restoring the bay to how it was in the 1600s). Particularly troubling are the pollution scores, with nitrogen and phosphorus levels still earning F and D grades, respectively. (Excess nitrogen and phosphorus contribute to algae blooms that block sunlight and create dead zones in the bay. Certain algal blooms can be toxic to humans and pets, as well.)

The largest sources of nitrogen and phosphorus are agriculture runoff (particularly chicken manure and fertilizers), car and power plant emissions, sewage plant discharges, and suburban and urban stormwater runoff. Attempts to curtail the nitrogen and phosphorus runoff have resulted in controversial measures such as the Bay Restoration Fee (the so-called “flush tax”) and the much-maligned Stormwater Utility Fee (aka the “rain tax”).

But along with a suite of other actions that have been folded into a federally coordinated multi-state initiative called the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, there is a view that the oft-maligned fees are having a positive effect.

“We believe the Bay is reaching a tipping point,” the report’s introduction states. “As this report shows, the evidence is there. We are seeing the clearest water in decades, regrowth of acres of lush underwater grass beds, and the comeback of the Chesapeake’s native oysters, which were nearly eradicated by disease, pollution, and overfishing. . . . The bottom line is our report provides hope and promise for the future.”

Full report here.

So, That Was Christmas

And what have you done? Left your tree in the corner, dropping needles by the ton.

Don’t worry, Baltimore City Department of Public Works will be collecting Christmas trees with your regularly scheduled trash pickup throughout the rest of January (excluding Monday, January 16, because of Martin Luther King holiday). All tinsel and ornaments must be removed before pickup. Or, if you want to divert your tree from the landfill and turn it into free mulch for future garden projects, bring it to the the Southwest Citizens’ Convenience Center at 701 Reedbird Ave. in South Baltimore, Monday through Saturday (excluding the MLK holiday), from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents should bring their own containers for the mulch. DPW also would like to remind everyone that wrapping paper and many packaging materials are eligible for standard curbside recycling. An extensive list of recycleable items can be found here.

Baltimore County is also collecting old Christmas trees, beginning this week. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Anne Arundel County regulations can be found here.

Howard County runs a free mulch program similar to Baltimore City’s, as well as curbside pickup and recycling drop-off. Details are here.

Legislative Briefing

Last week, Gov. Larry Hogan announced his environmental priorities for the 2017 session of the Maryland General Assembly, which starts Wednesday at noon and lasts for 90 days.

Hogan wants to spend $65 million over three years on a variety of programs that focus on “targeted investments and market-based solutions to protect and preserve Maryland’s environment and natural resources.”

Forty-one million of the $65 million he has earmarked comes from a 2012 settlement with Exelon Corp. and must be invested in Tier 1 renewable energy projects. (Tier 1 renewables include solar, wind, and certain biomass and waste-to-energy methods.)

The rest of the $65 million would be distributed among four initiatives: increased tax credits and rebates for electric cars and charging stations, a $3 million investment in the state’s green jobs-training program, $7.5 million for a new clean-energy startup incubator at the University of Maryland, and up to $10 million in funding for a pollution credit-trading program.

But as The Sun pointed out in a recent editorial, those pet projects might not get much traction in the Democratic-controlled legislature. Instead, the General Assembly might focus on its own green agenda, which includes possibly overriding Gov. Hogan’s veto of a measure that would have boosted the state’s required quota of Tier 1 renewable energy from 20 percent to 25 percent by 2020. The legislature and the governor are also due for a reckoning about hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking. The controversial practice, in which a solution of water and chemicals is blasted into bedrock to release deposits of natural gas, is under a moratorium in the state while officials investigated its potential environmental impact. (It has been implicated in water and air pollution, as well as drilling-induced earthquakes.) But the ban expires this year and Hogan and the legislature will need to decide whether or not to allow it and, if so, how strictly it should be regulated.

Energy Star

Kudos to Columbia’s Wilde Lake Middle School. When the newly constructed school opened last week, it did so as the state’s first “net-zero energy” school. This means that, over the course of a year, the $33 million building will generate as much energy as it uses. The energy efficiency is achieved through both low-tech and high-tech means. There’s the school’s 2,000 solar panels, geothermal heating system, and lights that automatically dim when conditions are sunny.

But, as Scott Washington, the Director of School Construction for the Howard County Public School System, said in a video update on the project this fall, “Number one is the building orientation and envelope. That means how the building is situated on the site, as well as the envelope that the building is made out of—the roof structure, the wall structure, how insulated they are.”

The school also boasts an “energy kiosk” in the main hallway, which allows students to see, in real time, how much energy the building is using and generating. The school replaces the 48-year-old Wilde Lake school, which will be razed to make room for new playing fields and a bus loop.

Great Vertical

Time to add another entry into the city’s ever-growing register of urban farms.

Last month, a trio of organizations led by a Canadian agriculture technology companysigned a letter of intent to start a vertical farming operation in East Baltimore. The triumvirate is led by a Canadian agriculture technology company Arcturus Growthstar Technologies Inc., which procured financial backing from the Columbia-based venture capital firm CBO Financial to lease 25,000 square feet of indoor space from the local nonprofit Volunteers of America Chesapeake. The farm will grow greens like lettuce, basil, oregano, and cilantro in a climate-controlled environment and will offer agriculture job training to ex-offenders participating in Volunteers of America Chesapeake’s workforce re-entry program.

The $6 million project joins other agriculture and food system-related ventures popping up throughout East Baltimore. In the parking lot of the American Brewery building, another vertical farm, Urban Pastoral, grows greens in a LED-light-laden shipping container. Down the road, Walker Marsh raises cut flowers for market at Tha Flower Factory, a half-acre parcel where vacant rowhomes once stood. And in late September, the long-awaited Baltimore Food Hub broke ground at its 3.5-acre site at the corner of East Oliver and North Wolfe streets. The $23.5 million project, spearheaded by American Communities Trust and local workforce nonprofit Humanin, will eventually host job-training facilities, communal incubator space, and an excess of land to be dedicated to urban farming.

South of the Boarder: I think my roommate and I have agreed that we’re kind of going for a Southwest-rustic-chic vibe. There wasn’t much we could do about the all the beige paint since we’re renting and we have this super tall vaulted ceiling, so we just went with it and wanted to incorporate bold colors and interesting wood textures to offset that.

Simple Living: I wish I could say we got our furniture from some super trendy local furniture store, but we aren’t quite in that tax bracket. I’m pretty sure my couches are the cheapest ones from Value City, and our coffee table and TV cabinet are from Wayfair.com—who I would 100-percent recommend for their customer service alone!

Favorite Find: My favorite piece is definitely the TV stand. We waited about a month and a half for it to come and it was completely worth the wait. The color is insanely beautiful. Honorable mention goes to the gilded deer bust.

Shared Space: A lot of the art came from my roommate Elisabeth. She got the masks from Costa Rica, the Orthodox Christian art from her church, and has some of her own original, gorgeous paintings hanging. Some little decor pieces I’ve gotten from World Market, Sweet Elizabeth Jane in Ellicott City, and antique stores.

Head Games: We have a few skulls: The deer is most prominent, but we also have a goat. Elisabeth’s brother’s girlfriend is a hunter and was generous enough to donate some of the skulls she’s . . . acquired. We like to put a Rudolph nose on the deer skull around Christmas time. Really gets us in the spirit.

Instagram Inspiration: Plants give the space such a natural feel and the ledge in front of the fireplace is a perfect place to showcase them. I recently discovered Justina Blakeney’s Instagram and her aesthetic is a dream come true, and going to be a huge inspiration in how our room evolves. I want to live in her world.

Relaxation Station: I love hosting in this room. I frequently go overboard when I have people over and cook six days worth of food for, like, three people, but it’s super fun for me to cook for my friends and have everyone relax in our space. My roommate reads and writes a lot, and we all like to cuddle with Gretchen, Elisabeth’s super cute border collie, in here.

For cooking tips and recipes, visit Parker’s website The Anti Al Dente.

Cylburn Arboretum, Coldspring
The city’s living plant museum is home to all manner of domestic and exotic species in 20 themed gardens on 207 acres. We suggest throwing down a blanket near the Heritage Rose Garden behind the park’s stone mansion.

Lillian Holt Park and Center for the Arts, Overlea-Fullerton
This out-of-the-way oasis offers 13 acres of trails and gardens, including an arboretum, a lily pond, and a labyrinth with a Zen meditation garden. Chain restaurants proliferate nearby, or bring your own edibles.

Druid Hill Park, Reservoir Hill
Druid Hill Park stuns with its outdoor botanic gardens, which can be seen for a suggested $5 donation.

Jonas Green Park, Annapolis
This little sliver of greenery on the banks of the Severn River opposite the Naval Academy is beloved for its free fishing pier, petite beach, and tidy picnic area.

Flying Point Park, Edgewood
Jutting out into the Bush River, this serene slice of upper bay waterfront boasts ample recreational facilities, including picnic areas with grills and tables, plus a horseshoe pit, playground, and boat launch.

Downs Park, Pasadena
Another unheralded bayside gem, this 236-acre expanse of open space features walking trails, picnic amenities, a large playground, and, best of all, a dog-friendly beach. $6/car.

Middle Branch Park, Cherry Hill
Just over the Hanover Street Bridge from Federal Hill/Riverside, Middle Branch Park offers lovely views of the Patapsco. You may even see a crew team or two stroking down the river thanks to the nearby boathouse.

Wyman Park Dell, Johns Hopkins/Homewood
The 16-acre, bowl-like dell shields visitors from traffic on Charles and 29th streets. The shady lawns and slopes are especially helpful when seeking protection from the full heat of a Baltimore summer.

Patterson Park, Upper Fells Point/Butchers Hill/Canton
Pick your picturesque position: by the boat lake, perched near the pagoda, in front of the marble fountain, or down by the dog parks. Grab grub from any of the nearby eateries. We recommend a crab pie from Matthew’s Pizza.

Lake Kittamaqundi, Columbia
Shake off suburban office park stupor with a jaunt around this 27-acre man-made lake. Pop over to the nearby Whole Foods for a grab-and-go meal and you’ll be back at your desk with time to spare.

Federal Hill Park, Federal Hill
Gaze upon the hustle and bustle of downtown at this grassy rise overlooking the Inner Harbor. Benches, monuments, and a large playground make it fun for the whole family.

Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & Museum, Catonsville
This 142-acre site honors the life of Benjamin Banneker, often called the first African-American man of science. The park offers good walking trails and picnic areas, but do make time for the exhibits, too. Snacks from either Atwater’s or The Breadery will complete the experience.

Fort McHenry, Locust Point
The star-shaped fort played a “key” role in American history when Francis Scott Key watched its bombardment during the War of 1812 and wrote what would become the lyrics to our national anthem. There’s a $10 entrance fee to the historic area, but walking the perimeter along the water is free.

Hampton National Historic Site, Towson
There’s plenty to absorb at this former estate that once belonged to the prominent Ridgely family, from the beauty of the stately, cream-colored Georgian mansion to the sobering exhibits on slavery and indentured servitude.

Concertgoers at
Merriweather Post Pavilion can expect shorter lines this summer, as the outdoor music venue installs more concession stands and restrooms in renovations that began in February.

The changes are part of the first phase of a multiyear, $19 million-plus facelift, which will also include integrating new seats and raising the pavilion and stage roofs. The goal is to get the bulk of the renovations complete in 2017, when Merriweather celebrates its 50th anniversary.

“Let’s take Merriweather to the next generation or two generations down the road,” Merriweather general manager Brad Canfield said during a Tuesday morning tour of the site, as he pointed out changes in the biggest transformation in the venue’s history.

Howard Hughes Corp. plans to modernize the 47-year-old amphitheater’s aging facilities and help it compete for bigger acts. County officials and residents see the renovation as a critical component of downtown Columbia’s revitalization.

“It’s a central focal point of arts and culture and a real anchor of the town center of Columbia,” says former Howard County executive Ken Ulman, who now owns his own consulting firm and has been a big proponent of the renovations. “Its role is a catalyst for future redevelopment.”

The renovations will continue after the concert season debuts May 1, but construction crews will stop their work before each show. Most of the summer renovations are clustered in the west plaza, which is to the right of the stage. A new box office will open June 1, while a larger merchandise area and concession stand selling burritos, grilled cheese sandwiches, and margaritas will open later in the month. New restrooms and another larger concession stand selling everything from pizzas to nachos and soft pretzels will open in August near the pavilion, making it a quicker trip for folks who purchase seats.

Additionally, there will be some local food and drink served, as Hagerstown-based Hoffman’s Quality Meats will supply hot dogs, pulled pork, and sausage and Union Craft Brewing will sell beer. The new concessions will also have more refrigeration space and a dedicated kitchen so guests can get their hot dogs fresh off the grill rather than waiting for them to be shuttled from the other side of the venue.

“The idea is that these restrooms and snacks serve people [seated] in the pavilion,” though they will be open to everyone, says Canfield. “We can keep more fresh food and cook it faster. It will bring us closer to made-to-order cooking.”

Visitors will also get to arrive from a new entrance, just off Little Patuxent Parkway, when the concert season kicks off with a rock festival May 1-2. Other highlights of the season include British crooner Sam Smith, folk rockers Mumford and Sons and the two-day
Sweetlife Festival May 30-31 with Kendrick Lamar, Calvin Harris and dishes by Spike Gjerde, José Andrés, and other renowned chefs.

When the concert season wraps up, crews will begin replacing the nearly 500 seats with newer ones. The last four rows in the pavilion already have the newer seats and the rows of folding chairs in the far right and left loges will get permanent seats.

Howard Hughes will also construct a bigger stage with a higher roof and put more steel at the top where band crews can hang their production equipment. These changes will help it attract bigger touring productions, like the Dave Matthews Band, which hasn’t played at Merriweather in more than a decade.

“This is total plastic surgery—new elbows, new hips, new face,” Canfield says. “The challenge is keeping the character of the property, but improving it from a physical and cosmetic standpoint as much as we can.”

After two-and-a-half years of planning and a $750,000 investment, the owners of Victoria Gastro Pub will debut 11 new craft beers produced at the county’s first farm brewery.

Randy and Mary Marriner, and their daughters Tori Marriner and Rachael Mull, will unveil Manor Hill Brewing‘s beers at a release party March 23 at their popular Columbia restaurant. The party is open to the public and among the events slated for Howard County Beer Week, March 21-29.

Head brewer Ben Little has concocted several IPAs, a Belgian-style beer, and a German beer with the Manor Hill IPA, Farm Fuzz Witbier, and the Persimmon Gose. In addition to 10 beers sold on tap, beer fans will get to taste a cask beer, Ordinary Bitter, which Tori describes as an English bitter with an American twist.

Located in a converted 30-year-old barn at Randy and Mary’s Ellicott City farmhouse, Manor Hill Brewing will initially sell the beers on tap and in growlers at Victoria Gastro Pub. The family has partnered with Legends to distribute the beer to other restaurants by this summer.

“My dad has worked tirelessly to make this all come together. Between getting all the permits and approvals, it has been almost a full-time job,” says Tori.

Randy was one of the champions of a state bill passed in 2012 that allows Maryland farms to operate a brewery on site that can brew up to 15,000 barrels per year. Manor Hill is also taking advantage of the public’s burgeoning thirst for craft brews.

“We’ve caught the craft beer wave. Most craft brewers can’t make enough” to fill demand, Randy says.

Craft brewers saw an 18-percent growth through June of last year, according to national trade group Brewers Association.

The brewery won’t initially be open to the public since it’s on a residential property, but the family might hold special events there down the road. Manor Hill Brewing will produce about 2,000 barrels a year to start and will steadily manufacture more beer until it reaches its capacity of 15,000 barrels.

The Marriners will also have another restaurant on their plate within a year. Food Plenty will break ground within a month in a new development in Clarksville and will focus on seasonal, local comfort food.

“We’re all just thrilled. It’s a lot happening at once,” Tori says.

Dundalk

In 1916, Bethlehem Steel Corporation purchased 1,000 acres to build housing for nearby Sparrows Point workers. With winding, tree-lined streets modeled after the garden-city design of neighborhoods like Roland Park, Dundalk became a haven for blue-collar, middle-class families. It’s also become known for its July Fourth parade and annual Heritage Fair—a three-day Independence Day celebration.

Towson

Towson, like many of the city’s surrounding communities, blossomed as a true “streetcar suburb.” It’s growth was supported by service from the No. 8 streetcar line, pictured below circa 1950, which shuttled between the Baltimore County seat and Catonsville via the city center. At 16-plus miles, the No. 8 was the longest line in the country and, in November 1963, the final one to cease operation.

Downtown Towson is undergoing another renaissance with a recently renovated and expanded Towson Town Center, plus a new $300 million “transformation” project announced last year by county officials.

Columbia

Howard County

The brainchild of developer James W. Rouse, Columbia was created upon the ideals of racial, religious, and economic diversity—hard to come by in suburban 1960s America. Rouse’s vision included attracting enough businesses to create an economic base for his new city, and building a mix of detached single-family homes, townhouses, and apartments available at rents and prices to match the income of all local workers. The first residents moved in in 1967, and the planned community, encompassing 10 self-contained villages, hasn’t looked back.

Bengie’s Drive-In

Opening June 6, 1956, the Middle River theater is entering its 59th season of showing first-run features on its giant screen, purported to be the largest in the U.S.

That was then, this is now

Gino’s Restaurant

Named after Colts defensive end and restaurant co-founder Gino Marchetti, the first Gino’s opened in Dundalk in 1957. The franchise was bought out in 1982, and its last burger joint closed in 1986. Marchetti and his partners revived the company in 2010, and the Towson location opened in 2011, followed by locations in Glen Burnie, the stadiums, Aberdeen, and Bensalem, PA.

Do you believe in Western medicine, but also think Eastern practices have some validity? 

Then Columbia’s Nava Health and Vitality Center is the place for you. 

“We integrate a full complement of therapies to optimize the wellness of the client,” says medical director Douglas Lord, above. 

Whether you’re suffering fatigue, insomnia, pain, anxiety, digestive issues—and the list goes on—Nava doctors work together to create what they call a Custom Vitality Plan tailored to your specific needs and with your whole body in mind. 

“If someone comes in with a headache, they don’t walk out with a pill or other narrowed antidote,” explains Ana Goldseker, the director of nutrition. 

“We are able to check hormones, posture, muscle tension, and food choices to really find out where the headaches are coming from, rather than just treating the symptoms.” Dr. Mark Sivieri, a medical adviser, explains collaborative services. 

“We offer a multitude of therapies, including acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, nutritional counseling, hyperbaric oxygen, as well as intravenous vitamins,” he says. But no matter the treatment, Goldseker assures us that teamwork is the key. “There isn’t a decision made without the input of all practitioners.”