Many restaurants are extending their special restaurant-week deals through Feb. 8, due to popular demand for reservations, says Sara Hisamoto, PR director for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. That’s good news for us. Now, there’s still time to enjoy a meal for a lot less then usual (three-course dinner, $30.09; three-course lunch at [...]

If a night on the town is important to your sweetie, it’s time to plan for Valentine’s Day, especially since it falls on a Saturday this year. Baltimore has lots of romantic places to consider. But one you may not have thought of is Miss Shirley’s Cafe—yes, the same place the serves up bountiful breakfasts [...]

Who knew? A new chef has taken over the kitchen at one of Baltimore’s grand dames, The Brass Elephant, and unveiled a menu for our times—entrées for $25 and less. Chef Marcus Olson, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Oregon, and worked in London, Paris, and New York, calls himself a neo-classic chef, [...]

Better than Obama Bobbleheads, Zeke’s Roastery in Lauraville has come up with a great way to honor our next president—Executive Order, a blend of coffee representing Barak Obama’s heritage.
The limited-edition mix— Kenyan coffee, Sumatra Mandheling, and certified Hawaiian Kona beans—is available at Zeke’s for $15 a pound, $8 a half-pound. Sounds like a great way [...]

Iconic American artist Andrew Wyeth died today at age 91. I was lucky enough to have had a brief, pleasant encounter a couple of years ago with the private painter when I was doing a newspaper story on his granddaughter Victoria Wyeth. He was very proud of her. Victoria, who was close to her grandfather, [...]

I had the fortune of being invited to judge a chili cook-off at the National Aquarium on Wednesday. Don’t worry. There was no dolphin stew. But while the sharks, eels, and rays were lazily circling the waters, the crew at the Aquarium was chowing down on 12 wonderful chilis and four outstanding winter soups made [...]

Chef Cyrus Keefer quietly opened his pride and joy this week—Brasserie 10 South in the former Xanadu spot at 10 S. Calvert St. He’s taken over the bottom floor. (A club called Lux, separate from the restaurant, will be on the second level.)
Look for the brasserie’s menu to have classic French and new American dishes [...]

Don't forget about native Baltimorean Melissa Harrison, who is still hanging on in episode seven of Bravo's "Top Chef," which airs at 10 p.m. tonight.
Melissa—who grew up in Sparks, graduated from Garrison Forest School in 1998, and went to Baltimore International College for her culinary education— moved to Colorado about five years ago because she [...]

There seems to have been some sightings of acerbic, bad-boy chef Anthony Bourdain in Baltimore today. Hmm, what could the star of the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” be doing in Charm City?
Perhaps it has to do with an item on his Sept. 1 blog about the TV projects he is planning:
“And a Detroit/Buffalo/Baltimore hybrid show [...]

Restaurants come and go, and in this economy, we may have to say goodbye to more places than we’d like. So it’s encouraging to know that Da Mimmo has stood the test of time and is celebrating its 25th anniversary with several fun events.
Proprietor Mary Ann Cricchio will kick off the celebration on Jan. 11, [...]