Hampden, Part Four, Baltimore Maryland

By Hubert Schoemaker | | No Comments | Baltimore, Hampden, Local POV, Minxeats

We’re continuing our tour of Hampden’s “Avenue” on the 1000 block of West 36th Street. There aren’t as many restaurants in this block as in those prior, but there are at least two that any visitor to Baltimore should experience. The first of these is Café Hon, on the north side of 36th near Roland Avenue. If you’re a fan of Gordon Ramsay’s television shows, you may have seen the episode of Kitchen Nightmares featuring Café Hon. Though restaurants needing Ramsay’s assistance are typically sloppy or dated or straight up serve bad food, this Baltimore stalwart had a much more difficult problem to fix. As far back as 2004, the restaurant’s owner, Denise Whiting, had trademarked the word “hon.” Henceforth, it could only appear on her own napkins, hats, and tchotchkes (many of which are sold in the shop Hon Town adjacent to the restaurant). When the story broke in 2010, many Baltimoreans were livid. The word “hon” (pronounced closer to “hawn” in Bawlmerese) was a general term of semi-endearment, long used in not only this area but all around the northeast. How dare Whiting attempt to appropriate a part of our lexical history? There were even demonstrations and a call for a boycott of Café Hon. According to Whiting herself, this little public relations nightmare cost her between 20 and 25 percent of business. There was hope that the appearance on Ramsay’s show might help her situation, but it was only when Whiting relinquished her trademark that the animosity subsided. And Baltimore couldn’t hate her forever. After all, Whiting was the founder of Hampden’s annual “Hon Fest,” a fun daylong celebration of all things Baltimore, particularly the iconic beehive-haired, cat’s-eye-glasses-wearing mid-century ladies who were mothers and grandmothers to my generation. Watch John Waters’ movie Hairspray (the original, please, not the musical imposter) for examples of true Baltimore hons.

Sandwich from Café Hon

Café Hon managed to survive the drama and today still serves comfort food like chicken pot pie, meatloaf, crab cakes, and grilled cheese sandwiches. There’s a full bar, brunch on Sundays, pie, and a life-size statue of Elvis, too.

Apart from Café Hon, the Hon Bar, and Hon Town, the only other things on that side of the block are Hampden Junque, which sells, erm, old junk (some of which may be collectible), a bank, and a church. There’s more stuff across the street, including a bar, four restaurants, a pharmacy, and a couple of shops, one of which is a favorite of mine. Milagro sells jewelry and accessories, but the items I like best are the Mexican folk art pieces displayed on the walls. These include shadow boxes, tin art, and items for celebrating dia de los muertos. If you’re into images of skeletons having a good time, you’ll like Milagro.

Among the four restaurants on the south side of the street, the Food Market is my favorite. The menu is all over the place–in a good way–and divided into plates of varying sizes rather than the standard app-entree categories. I find most of the “little” and “small” plates are suitable for sharing, particularly things like the buttery Amish soft pretzels accompanied by a beer-cheese fondue, the roasted brussels sprouts with bacon, “liquid goat cheese,” and honey Dijon, and the crispy lobster fingers with truffle honey mustard (although you might want to bogart that last one for yourself). Large plates include more entree-ish items like steak frites and duck with spaetzle; there’s also a burger made with beef from famed purveyor Pat LaFrieda and a fine version of a sandwich known as a “Baltimore Club” with a crab cake and shrimp salad replacing the usual boring turkey. The place is usually rocking and pretty noisy, but the food is so good it’s worth it, even for quiet-lovers like me. And if you’re looking to recreate some of the Food Market’s dishes in the quietude and privacy of your own home, they have a cookbook available for purchase, aptly titled, “Food Market at Home.”

While Chef Chad Gauss of the Food Market gets his inspiration from various places around the world, the other three restaurants are very cuisine-specific. Suzie’s Soba, which was one of the very first restaurants on the street, specializes in Japanese- and Korean-inspired noodle dishes. Mount Everest next door has the Indian dishes we all know and love like lamb vindaloo, chicken tikka masala, and a selection of tandoori yummies, but also the somewhat more unfamiliar food of Nepal. Momo are plump steamed dumplings filled with chicken and spices, and chicken chilli features chunks of fried boneless chicken in a spicy sauce with green peppers and tomatoes. Finally, Grano Pasta Bar is a snug little corner restaurant with a simple concept made evident by its name. Choose one of eleven sauces from pesto to puttanesca to gorgonzola with walnuts, then select a pasta on which to put it. There are also a few salads to start your meal, and desserts like tiramisu with which to end it. The place is tiny and popular, so you may have to wait. Sidewalk seating opens up in the summer, which expands the place quite a bit, but if you can’t wait until then, you can hightail it back to the more expansive sister restaurant Grano Emporio on Chestnut Street.

Next time we’ll finish up our stroll down the Avenue with visits to a few more booze-tastic venues, but we still won’t be done with our visit to Hampden.

Read more on the Hampden Series

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Minxeats Baltimore food blogger and Co-author of the new book, Maryland’s Chesapeake: How the Bay and its Bounty Shaped a Cuisine, plus Food Lovers’ Guide to Baltimore, and Baltimore Chef’s Table.

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