Best Place to Buy Liquor on Sundays: Hopkins Deli

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If there’s one thing we can’t stand, its getting all geared up to go somewhere, do something, or get something, only to get there and find the doors locked and lights out because its Sunday. In a town like this with so many small businesses, it can be twice as bad, because whoever isn’t closed Sunday is probably closed Monday. Nowhere is this more a problem than with arcane, useless, Christian-inspired laws about buying liquor on Sundays.

Fortunately for us, Hopkins Deli stands at the ready 7 days a week to insure our liquor cabinet never goes empty.

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Long a favorite of the Hopkins Blue Jays, the Deli caters not only to college kids, but to lazy drunks of all ages, all over North Baltimore. Open every day all day from 8 am until 11 pm, this place is more than the sum of it’s parts. It’s a carryout with a full menu of pizzas and subs, pasta, wings, etc, a full service liquor store with a decent beer and wine selection, part convenience store and part grocery suprette, plus a nice spot to play keno and enjoy free wifi.

But aside from being able to nab a fifth of Granddad and a sixer of Heavy Seas at 10 pm on a Sunday, the real brilliance of Hopkins Deli is in their delivery. You can call or even order online, and it’s an open secret that they’ll deliver anything in the store along with your order.

So, if like the Chop you find yourself tired, lazy, hungover and hungry on Sunday evening with an empty fridge and nothing but Kahlua and Seagram’s gin to sustain you, Hopkins Deli can be a lifesaver when you don’t feel like taking a shower, getting dressed, and making 3 or 4 different stops. Since we moved into the Stately North Baltimore Pleasure Dome, its quickly become our go-to spot in the clutch.

Lets say you need a six pack of Lagunitas, some cheese fries and wings, a can of Maxwell House, a loaf of bread, a can of cat food, a mega millions ticket and a copy of the Sunday Sun… no problem. It’s all at your door in half an hour.

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Hopkins Deli is at 110 West 39th Street, on the ground floor of Hopkins House Apartments. 410-366-6603 or www.hopkins-deli.com For the record: times are never so desperate that we’re down to Kahlua and gin. That’s not how we roll.

Baltimore Free Store Opens New Location Today

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Like we mentioned last week, The Chop loves free stuff, so we’re pretty excited about the grand opening of the all new Baltimore Free Store today.

The Baltimore Free Store is another one of those radical ideas that isn’t really that radical, and is merely common sense once it’s considered objectively. Their mission statement “envisions a society where relations are not based upon individual greed, consumption, and private ownership”. Sure, that sounds a little like Marx, but it sounds a little like Jesus too.

The Free Store has been open in a hard-to-find Highlandtown area warehouse for several years now, but their new location at 1413 West Baltimore Street (map) in Union Square marks an arrival in their first proper storefront, where they’ll be open Saturdays from 10 am to 4 pm, with a couple Sundays thrown in too. It’s an especially big move, since not only is it a real store in a proper neighborhood, but it’s on a main pedestrian thoroughfare as well, very near to the park, the HL Mencken house, and Hollins Market.

The Baltimore Free Store moves to the Union Square neighborhood today. Grand Opening 10 am- 4 pm.

The Chop’s experience in West Baltimore is pretty much limited to the punk shows we used to see at the Loft, Sushi Cafe, and a few other spots, so its almost like stepping into a foreign city for an afternoon. If nothing else, its a good excuse to go get lunch at Baltimore Pho, which we’ve been hearing good things about, and have been meaning to get to since they opened.

And the more stuff we can get for free the better, because tonight is poker night, and we’re likely to lose whatever we bring to the table. Your Chop has never played poker, has never bothered to learn the rules of poker, and can barely hold our own in a game of Go Fish.

But to hell with it. Tonight is more about beer in the cooler, dinner off the grill, and sitting around being manly men with guys we like, and don’t see nearly enough of these days.

The Orioles & Horseshit in Downtown Baltimore Tonight

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You know you live in a fine town when you’re turning up your nose at the chance to see incredibly talented, nationally acclaimed bands from your city for no other reason than ‘meh.’ But that’s exactly what we’re up to.

We skipped Sick Sick Birds and the other openers on the canceled Leatherface bill last night, and we also couldn’t be bothered to go see that show at Floristree yesterday featuring Arboretum and Pontiak. Tonight we ought to be going to see Wye Oak at their EP release show, but we probably won’t.

Other than that show, there’s not much doing in Baltimore tonight, so we’re probably going to say ‘Fuck it, let’s go down to Camden Yards.’ The most hated team in baseball is coming to town, so we’re going to make sure we sneak into some seats far, far away from the student night sections, and hope the rain-pocalypse breaks long enough to get in the post-game fireworks.

Of course there’s also the danger of rain on the parade, since the Preakness Parade of Lights is going off tonight as well. Between the two events happening at the same time, downtown is probably going to be a very festive clusterfuck tonight.

Word has it the parade is very equine heavy, being horse themed and all, featuring everything from the Budweiser Clydesdales to police horses and more, so we’re definitely going to be watching our step on the way back to the light rail, and we suggest you do the same.

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The Orioles play the Cleveland Indians at Camden Yards tonight. Jeremy Guthrie vs. Justin Masterson. 7:05 on MASN.

Leatherface is Canceled @ Ottobar Tonight

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We were very, very looking forward to seeing Leatherface at the Ottobar tonight (scroll down), but late breaking word on the street is that their visas were denied by the US customs and border protections. Long story short, they’re not playing tonight and shit’s fucked up.

'Keeping America safe from old punks since 1789.'

(For the record, the Chop has a pre-existing grudge against CBP, as they have prevented us from sneaking some really good booze into this country, and we give them two fingers and bollocks officially here and evermore.)

We heard by ‘word on the street’ at ~6 pm yesterday that Leatherface was denied their visas. Since we’re trying to be RESPONIBLE and all that, we called the Ottobar, and even stopped by in person to determine the current status, but the best we could come up with was “Yeah Bro… it’s probably not happening.” Our Twitter feed provides links to Leatherface cancellations in NYC and StL for this tour for the same reason.

So, we don’t expect to see Leatherface at the Ottobar tonight, and we don’t know what’s in store for refunds, rain checks, tonight’s bill, etc. When we know you’ll know, but in the meantime we expect to sit around and watch the O’s lose to a last-place team in the rain again.

Update: The Ottobar website now indicates that a 3 band show will take place and the cost for it will be $8 at the door. It also states that refunds for Leatherface pre-sales will be issued automatically.

News is still sparse, but you can read a little bit about it at Brooklyn Vegan, Dying Scene, Vinyl Collective, and Suburban Home Records.

Leatherface @ Ottobar Tonight

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With the British parliamentary elections taking up headlines the past few days, you’ve probably heard a lot about the special relationship enjoyed between our two countries. Aside from sounding slightly suggestive and covering intelligence, economics, and military power, the special relationship also encompasses Baltimore punk rock.

To wit: We sent them Double Dagger, and they’re sending Leatherface to the Ottobar tonight in return.

Leatherface plays the Ottobar tonight. 7 pm Doors.

This blog has come down pretty hard on aging English punk bands lately, and while the Sunderland lads are no spring chickens, we believe they’re the exception and not the rule. In more than twenty years of continuous recording and touring, they’ve not been spoiled by success. In fact, they may even be British punk’s best kept secret. They’re one of those bands that has influenced every band that came after them, whether those later bands realize it or not.

Leatherface has a new record out on No Idea Which proves our point. We’d probably have written them off forever if they had signed with Epitaph, but you know No Idea is going to do right by everyone concerned. Don’t believe us? You can go ahead and stream it right now from Punknews.org like we’re doing while we write this. We’re especially digging track #7, Diego Garcia.

Rounding out the bill tonight is Baltimore’s own Sick Sick Birds who we love so much we’ve written about them before, as well as local newcomers Post Freedom about whom we’ve heard good things, and Georgia’s Ninja Gun.

Part of us thinks this is going to be a massive sold-out show which will be legend in this town for years to come. But then we remind ourselves that it’s still a weeknight and that everyone who cares about Leatherface is our age or older, and/or a huge music nerd, so there might be plenty of elbow room at the bar. Either way, we get to put a big check mark next to their name in the column of ‘Bands we love and never got to see.’

Get out and see them tonight Baltimore. You’ll see the Queen go about in her knickers before they come back around again.

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Ottobar is at 2549 N. Howard Street. 410-662-0069 Tickets are available at www.missiontix.com