Nailah’s (apparently now called Fresh Out the Kitchen) for Senegalese.

Heritage Smokehouse and Woodrow’s both have excellent BBQ.

Good Neighbor has great toast and amazing coffee.

Ethel’s has had a seafood boil during crawfish season (February’ish) in the past.

The lobster roll at Thames Street Oyster House is by far the best I’ve had. It has to be one of the best in the world, it’s just amazing. Nothing I had in NE compares.

When we go here we order what feels like a majority of the menu. When debating between two things the only wrong choice is not ordering both plus one more.

It’s one of the best Filipino restaurants in the country and definitely a top place in the city. I could eat the shrimp laing every day.

I asked enough questions on our one and only date to be able to answer those questions!

It was somewhere in Africa and generally the workers hung out together a lot. They would make it a point to check out as much as possible. It was safer to do things in a big group as well. So it sounded exciting from that perspective.

Divorce rates are high because the +1 usually finds miscellaneous admin jobs, at best. The novelty of being somewhere exciting wears off quick when you find yourself being a secretary after formally working as a senior engineer. And that often breeds resentment. The employed spouse also gets to travel a fair bit (for work) which means the +1 gets to fly solo a fair bit but never fully fits in.

People who don't get married before heading over often get married while over there. Apparently having similar jobs makes things... easier. But they get divorced too because once the job comes to an end people can find out they don't actually have too much in common.

I will give her credit, she held up to my interrogation quite well. She also probably thought I was interested, so there is that.

Bond Street Social was popular but the “early 30s bachelorette party” crowd has moved on

Been there. 10/10 or 0/10 depending on your opinion of trainwrecks.

She tells you she's taking a job overseas that starts in a few months. And wants to get married so she can take you with. It's the first date BTW.

You do see it through to the end because of the morbid curiosity. And ask a lot of questions.

Such as? What’s your best 3 examples of something unique?

It’s been like this ever since I’ve been here. And it happens elsewhere as well. The Fed Hill shopping area, despite being popular and relatively small, sees a ton of turnover and failed business. Margins are slim and its difficult to be successful.

I did meet a guy on a plane that works as a consultant to help people set up pizza shops. He said most people starting then have no clue what they’re doing from a business perspective. I assume that’s a thing in the larger restaurant industry and contributes to the high rate of failure.

Yes? What is really that unique?

Unique food done well is really, really hard to come by.

You could check out Peerce's

• https://goo.gl/maps/xFQgjdqQbFtgTntB6

I think Baltimore's only had 1 gbps (now 1.2 gbps) for like 4-5 years. And the upload is still a fairly slow ~50 mbps. So much for the free market delivering better services at a lower price.

The municipal fiber thing sounds amazing based upon communities that have successfully implemented it. Then I consider Baltimore's track record at just about... everything. Sigh!

Yeah, this doesn't always work... sometimes it does, sometimes they don't care. I think it used to work more in the past (my dad used to be the king of free HBO/Showtime/etc) but it's hit or miss now. Especially when Baltimore basically has no actual choice.

Comcast is really the only game in town unless you live in a handful of buildings where you can get Fios or some others. TMobile and Verizon 5G are hit or miss - more miss. Read reddit for some reviews of those and you'll probably nope out. Port networks has a wireless service but it serves limited areas and is SLOW.

They'll be open at 8 for the special event.

Checkerspot opens at 10am - that would be my choice

You can wear anything you want. My buddy went in basketball shorts. Most people will be dressed up but it is not a requirement.

Charleston is stellar and not far outside of Fells. Cost is $$$$, though. It definitely meets the low key requirement.

> they don’t always pick up the phone.

I tried calling a bunch during the "the world is going to end let's binge zombie movies on Netflix" phase of COVID and they NEVER answered their phone. I just assumed they were out of business or had greatly reduced hours like many restaurants that were struggling.

This is really similar to FL. By land mass it is largely wasteland with insane politics. However, there are some islands of sanity in that wasteland as well as a few bastions of hope.

I think a large part of it is that the elderly are often retired with too much time on their hands so they look for drama. I’ve seen some shit go down at dog parks among old people and the level of gossip makes middle school seem tame. And the ones still working are bitter they didn’t make their millions that was promised to them.

This is basically game theory, not too unlike the prisoner’s dilemma. The best outcome comes if a critical mass of police come forward. But if a critical mass is not reached the people who come forward will be punished worse than if they had said nothing. I assume officers are aware of the odds being stacked against them.

I suspect if there were strong protections and safety nets in place we’d see A LOT more reporting of illegal business activities. Wage theft is a gigantic problem and often goes unreported. If you know your employer is screwing a coworker over on pay do you put your neck out and brace for termination? Or update your resume and move on. Most people pick the latter.

We need stronger worker’s rights, IMO. Nothing short of that will level the playing field.

I know someone who stripped to pay for most of college. She was very pragmatic about it and said “I can shake my ass or bust my ass.” She picked the former. Very well aware of what she was doing and why. Many of her coworkers lacked the same level of awareness and did not have a plan for what came next.

I have found this to be more common among my Hispanic friends. They will seemingly shy away from things that can be perceived as feminine or fancy. It’s definitely a thing that manifests in multiple ways.

God damnit Jim that fancy eggs benedict isn’t going to make people think you’re gay. Nor is a breakfast cocktail. Just order it. *Names not changed to protect the guilty