Did anyone notice the name change of Fells Point’s most popular coffeehouse? The Daily Grind is now Fells Grind. Check out the new sign. A barista told me the coffee shop recently broke away from the Daily Grind franchise. It looks the same—shabby, eclectic, and functional—and the coffee is still great.

The Dogwood in Hampden reopens today (Dec. 17). We’re glad chef/co-owner Galen Sampson is back with his sustainable American cuisine. Dinner will be served from 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. (The restaurant is closed Christmas and New Year’s Day.)

Now, you can enjoy chef/co-owner Jason Ambrose’s New American cuisine at Salt Tavern seven days a week. Starting at 4 p.m. Dec. 20, the restaurant, which gave many Baltimoreans their first taste of duck-fat fries, will be open on Sundays. Reservations are accepted.

Meanwhile, The Wine Market in Locust Point is offering a $33 for three courses deal Tuesdays through Thursdays. Diners can also enjoy three suggested wines for $3 a glass with this menu offer.

Choices include dishes like: appetizer, braised veal cheek agnolotti; entree, molasses smoked rib-eye; and dessert, banana-vanilla bean bread pudding. Besides executive chef Jason Lear’s great food, we love the free parking there.

Here’s a case where fruitcake is not the butt of a joke. The much-maligned sweet bread figures prominently in A Christmas Memory, a heartwarming holiday book by Truman Capote that always moves me. It’s hard to believe that the same author who penned the chilling In Cold Blood wrote this loving ode.

Capote’s 1956 tale—it’s really more like a short story—is said to be an autobiographical telling of a time during his childhood in Alabama when he lived with his much older cousin Sook Faulk. In the book, the boy is seven; the woman is 60-something. On a certain day each year, the "woman with shorn white hair" wakes up and exclaims, "Oh, my, it’s fruitcake weather." It’s definitely a period piece, though timeless and poignant.

I’ve made traditional fruitcake a few times. The booze-soaked cheesecloth was the key ingredient. I finally gave up when I admitted to myself that I really don’t like the cloying candied fruit, no much how much liquor is in the cake. And then I found a recipe in the cookbook American Favorites by Betty Rosbottom—one of the coolest cooking instructors in the country—that doesn’t call for the awful red and green cherries and citron. This is a cake that people actually request! Try it. It may end the doorstop jokes once and for all.

Fruitcake Hater’s Fruitcake

For the cake

3 large navel oranges

1 cup dried cranberries

¾ cup golden raisins

½ cup dried currants

½ cup chopped dried apricots

2 cups sugar

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup chopped walnuts

For the icing

8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened

6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Optional: dried fruit (cranberries, apricots, golden raisins, and currants) for topping

Arrange a rack at center position and preheat oven to 325 degrees. To prepare the cake: Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Grate zest from oranges to make 3 tablespoons for cake and 2 teaspoons for icing; set aside. Squeeze oranges to yield 2/3 cup juice for cake and ¼ cup for icing; set aside.

In a medium nonreactive (stainless-steel) saucepan, combine dried cranberries, raisins, currants, apricots, and 2/3 orange juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, or until fruit is plumped. Drain well and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add 3 tablespoons orange zest and vanilla extract; beat well.

In another large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Alternately, add flour mixture and buttermilk to egg mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in walnuts and fruit. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.

To prepare icing: Beat together cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add reserved ¼ cup orange juice and reserved 2 teaspoons orange zest; beat well. Spread on top of cake. Top with dried fruit, if desired.

(Cake can be made 5 days ahead; cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before serving.)

—From American Favorites by Betty Rosbottom

But the coffee shop, which also served great organic sandwiches, may not be gone forever. Greg Bandelin, the owner of Grind On, is seeking to open elsewhere on Harford Road, according to Mark Tough, executive director of the Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville Inc.

We hope so. Grind On, which served Zeke’s Coffee and was picked best coffee shop by City Paper this year, was a charming setting with its sunshine yellow and cheery red décor. We haven’t been able to catch up with Greg, but when we talked to him after the cafe first opened in 2008, he said he was committed to the area. After all, he lives there, too.

Mr. Rain's Fun House, the new restaurant at the American Visionary Art Museum, has to have one of the most unusual names in town. (If you know of other crazy restaurant names, let me know.)

I’m reviewing the restaurant for our February issue (drat, our lengthy publication deadlines), but I thought readers might be curious about the name’s origins before then. Perez Klebahn, the restaurant’s general manager and beverage director, filled me in.

Perez is partners with owners chef Bill Buszinski and his wife Maria, who is Mr. Rain’s business manager. They wanted the restaurant to have synergy with the museum and its Americana when it came to a name, Perez said.

They first settled on "Funhouse" to reflect the museum’s popular Sideshow gift shop. "It’s a little quirky, but it’s supposed to be as fun and offbeat as the museum," Klebahn said. But legally the name was claimed, so they had to embellish  it.

So how did the partners get to the "Mr. Rain" part?" As it turns out, Rain is the middle name of the Buszinskis’ six-year-old son, Jaden Rain. They added "Mr." as an homage to the Beatles’ song
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! Emphasis on "Mr."

You have to love how these people think. But, keep in mind, while their style is playful, the cuisine at Mr. Rain’s—comfort food with cultural influences—is serious business. You won’t be disappointed if you visit.

Look for Langermann’s, Baltimore’s newest restaurant, to open this weekend (Dec. 12, or sooner) in the old Kiss Cafe space in the Can Company, says chef/owner Neal Langermann. While the cuisine is mostly Southern inspired, diners can also expect to find American regional offerings, too, he says.

The chef, who formerly worked at Georgia Brown’s in DC, says the restaurant’s philosophy is to focus on hospitality and the care of the guests as well as the food. The restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily.

Most entrees are priced under $21 and feature dishes such as a pork chop with candied yams, spinach, and Calvados apple jus ($18.95), and shrimp and grits with shallots, tomatoes, and andouille sausage in a buttery clam broth ($17.95). The chef recommends appetizers like the fried green tomatoes with chow-chow ($6.95) and the seared diver scallops with creamed corn and tomato chutney ($8.95). There’s lighter fare, too.

Langermann and managing partner David McGill had been looking for a restaurant spot in Columbia before stumbling on the Canton location. "It was the right place and the right time for us to land," the chef said. "We want it to be a neighborhood restaurant, where people come time and time again."

And they’re free! Thank you, Radisson Hotel at Cross Keys. The first one starts tomorrow (Dec. 2) from 6:30-8 p.m. at the hotel.

The event will feature three wines from Basignani Winery in Sparks, which will be paired with appetizers from the new farm-to-table menu at the hotel’s Crossroads Restaurant.

Representative from the winery will be on hand to discuss the wines: Piccolo, Chardonnay, and Riesling.  Of course, if a sampling isn’t enough, guests will be able to buy a glass or bottle of the wines that night.

The next Wine Wednesday will be Dec. 16 and feature wines from Woodhall Wine Cellars in Parkton.

Actor Geoff Stults ("The Break Up" with Jennifer Aniston and "Wedding Crashers") and Stacy Keibler, a former professional wrestling diva and Dancing with the Stars contestant, dined at RA Sushi in Harbor East on Friday night, according to Bridget Forney of Profiles media-relations agency.

The two are rumored to be dating, she said. Stacy is a Baltimore native, and Geoff was here for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The couple was spotted eating the Viva Las Vegas roll, Tootsy Maki, Lobster and Shrimp roll, and Crispy Onion Albacore and Salmon Carpaccio.