Irene Smith is a go-getter. She was on board last year for the food-truck trend with her Souper Freaks mobile van. Then, she set her sights on the vacated dining space in the Woman’s Industrial Exchange (333 N. Charles St., 410-244-6450). In December, she officially opened the Woman’s Industrial Kitchen, an homage to both the comfort food once served by doting waitresses and to other Maryland women—famous and unknown. Tables, for instance, pay respect to Billie Holliday, Emily Post, and Nancy Pelosi with photos and passages. The menu reveres women, too.

Bill Bateman never donned a cap and gown, never shifted the tassel from one side of the mortarboard to the other, never clutched a diploma.

He’s revealing this, the regret evident in his eyes, as he sits at a table sipping a glass of HobNob Pinot Noir at the Parkville restaurant that bears his name. There are 17 other such restaurants scattered from Edgewater to southern Pennsylvania, a mini chicken empire that has rendered Bateman’s name synonymous with Buffalo wings in this city.

Freezing conditions outside inspire us to have a closer look at ice wines. These decadent dessert wines are made from the juice of frozen grapes. Since most of the grape’s moisture is locked up as ice, only a small amount of sweet nectar is extracted when the grapes are crushed.

Before the massive sandwiches arrive, but after the Maryland crab soup with knuckle-sized crab lumps is devoured, Larry Schwartz emerges from the kitchen at Larry’s 1332 (1332 Sulphur Spring Rd., Arbutus, 443-304-2841), the cafe he opened last summer. He’s dressed charmingly casual in a worn black sweatshirt as he stops at each table, not seeking praise but instead asking what he can do better. Sorry, Larry, but we wouldn’t change a thing.

Maybe Julia Faye Briggs should have read tea leaves to reveal her future. She would have found out that she was going to have a second career after she retired as an IT specialist for the government. Serendipity led Briggs to an empty space in The Stone Mansion (4901 Springarden Dr., 410-367-8253), an 1863 rambling home in the city’s modern-day Coldspring Newtown neighborhood near Sinai Hospital. “I wasn’t looking to open a business,” she says. “It was looking for me.” She opened Tea by Julia Faye Tea Room & Tea Store in 2010.

There was a need for cheese, explains Sharon Johnson of Federal Hill who recently opened Cheese Galore & More, a new stall at Cross Street Market (1065 S. Charles St., 410-244-5515). Johnson had been in sales and food management for 20 years before becoming the victim of company reorganizations and the economy. "Food is in my blood," she says. "I decided to try this." The shop's case is filled with delectable goat cheeses, Bries, Taleggio, and Stiltons. (The mango-ginger has been a sellout.) Even stinky Limburger is popular, Johnson says.

Once in a while, it's nice to go a little overboard on spending, especially during the holiday season. We hunted down a trio of luxurious wines that will make a special gift for the wine lover in your life—or for you.