California Tortilla on Pratt Street is Closed

Posted on October 28, 2013 by The Chop

It is with a heavy heart that we announce here that California Tortilla has closed its doors at the Pratt Street location. The restaurant closed quietly and without fanfare recently, and in truth we only noticed the change when we happened to be downtown during the dinner hour and wanted a burrito last week. It made it through September, but couldn’t survive the postseason.

We imagine that most of you could probably care less about this, and some of you may even be happy about it. After all, who cares about the loss of another corporate fast-food megachain? There’s another burrito place around the corner, Chop. Why don’t you just flag down a food truck or something?

But to us, Cal Tort was more than just a burrito joint. Unlike most burrito joints, Cal Tort had a beer cooler. Being able to enjoy a burrito and a brew without submitting to table service in a sit down restaurant is a great thing, but more than that California Tortilla had a good thing going: two for $6 beers before every Orioles home game.

That special had been running for several years, and with its spacious patio that rivals any outdoor seating arrangement in Baltimore for size or atmosphere Cal Tort was the go-to place for the Chop and friends to meet before games. It was a happy medium- a better deal than the pricy craft offerings at Pratt St Ale House and a more relaxed environment than the crammed and crowded scene outside Pickles, Sliders and the Bullpen.

Many, many was the Summer night it made the perfect spot to grab a table and wait to meet friends coming from the light rail or nearby parking. We’d get a quesadilla and a couple of beers for around $10, and even use their wifi to check that night’s pitchers and hardball gossip. Often as not we’d even miss the first pitch just to drink two more. It became practically a part of the park in our mind, and some of our best memories in recent years from Opening Days to ALDS games involved a stop at Cal Tort. Hell, the Chop was practically a regular- often being recognized by the staff there.

And not for nothing but their food was good. We liked the big wall of hot sauces and personally think Chipotle is bland and overrated.

But things change. Nothing gold can stay and time of the seasons etc etc. We know of some other likely spots for pre-gaming (which we’ll decline to mention here) and hell, it’s possible that something as good or better could open up in the empty space at Pratt and Howard. But it won’t be Cal Tort. A piece of Birdland has died for us, and it’ll never be like it was.

Tomorrow: Cross My Heart @ Metro Gallery

Posted on October 25, 2013 by The Chop

Ryan Shelkett doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. That’s a shame, and someone really ought to write him one as he’s been one of the most talented and prominent participants in Baltimore’s music scene over the last 20 years. Fronting bands Dead Red Sea, Blank, Liars’ Academy, and most recently the Desert Boys, Shelkett’s influence and importance in Baltimore can’t be overstated.

And then there’s a little band he had called Cross My Heart. From about 1998 to 2003 Cross My Heart was one of the best bands not just in Baltimore but anywhere. Along with acts like Braid, Joan of Arc, At The Drive In and Ranier Maria they were on the leading edge of defining a sound that was much more nuanced and reflective than anything punk kids were used to at the time. And they innovated without sacrificing any of the raw, passionate feeling of bands like Jawbreaker or Drive Like Jehu, who had come before and layered new sounds on punk’s basic architecture.

Cross My Heart

Personally, Cross My Heart was one of the first, if not the very first band we were ever much into that wasn’t strictly hardcore or punk. When you hit 19 or 20 you realize you can only spend so much time on stuff like Sick of It All and Agnostic Front. Eventually those old three chords aren’t enough, and you find yourself spending less time inside VFW’s and fire halls and more time hanging around on Davis Street or driving to College Park.

Along with Q and Not U, Cross My Heart was mainly responsible for teaching us how to appreciate musical energy in shorter bursts. They opened our eyes to the idea that a song can be slow, quiet even, and still have the force and impact of even the toughest of hardcore. Rather than songs about vague notions of injustice or equality, Cross My Heart introduced us for the first time to music that was lyrically introspective and self-exploratory. It’s tougher to be honest than to be tough.

They made our taste in music exactly what it is today, and to our mind everything that Cross My Heart recorded has held up exceptionally well and has borne repeated regular listening over the last 15 years in our house. This is especially true of their debut self-titled EP which was and is nothing short of a masterpiece and easily the best record that Shelkett has made in his impressive musical career.

Cross My Heart plays the Metro Gallery tomorrow with J Robbins before joining a large contingent of Baltimore bands at the Fest in Gainesville. Tickets are $12, but remembering what it’s like to be 19 is priceless.

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Editorial Note: The Metro Gallery is also hosting a Punk Rock Flea Market tomorrow which is separate from the show. All the tables and booth spaces have been reserved, so there will be plenty of old band shirts, crates of records to pick through, flyers and posters as well as various and sundry items that aren’t necessarily punk related but still pretty cool like books and clothing and DVD’s and art.

The flea market takes place from 12-5. Entry is free and the bar will open so come hang out, browse and bargain with the punks of Baltimore.

MICA Haunted House Tonight Through Saturday

Posted on October 24, 2013 by The Chop

A funny thing happens when you do a web search for “haunted houses in Baltimore.” You get pages of results for a bunch of haunted house attractions, none of which are actually in Baltimore and many of which are actually quite far away at an hour’s drive or more.

Any city dwellers who want a scare without a trip to the suburbs are typically forced to take a more DIY approach by visiting sites that are traditionally considered spooky or haunted like Poe’s Grave, Reservoir Hill or our favorite, the Greenmount Cemetery. And of course there’s always Ye Olde Fell’s Point Ghostwalk and Haunted Pub Crawl. Spooky Scary!

mica haunted house

But if you’re looking for a haunted-house proper you’re in luck because here’s this one at MICA tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.

The BBOX theater in the Gateway building might not be the creepy-crawliest from the outside, but the inside, with 15 rooms, has the potential to transform well with the help of a little fog and strobes and darkness. This year’s attraction has a Brothers Grimm theme and will feature handmade merch ranging from $2-$15. More info can be found on the Facebook event page.

And speaking of haunted houses, the Ottobar schedule indicates that they’ll be producing their haunted house again this year for two nights on Halloween and again on Friday November 1st. The Chop went to this last year and we seem to remember it was like $6 admission but included a drink ticket so it was a great value. There were also drink specials going all night and overall it was a very fun event that we’d recommend highly.

Chris Matthews Comes to Town: Our Bi-Weekly Political Roundup

Posted on October 23, 2013 by The Chop

Tonight’s the fourth Wednesday in October and that means that it’s once again time for the regular meeting of Baltimore’s Chapter of Drinking Liberally. For those not familiar DL is an informal group of Liberals and Progressives that meets twice monthly at Dougherty’s in Mount Vernon to have a few beers and chat about issues in the political and social spheres. Tonight’s meeting gets underway at 8, and new folks are encouraged to come out and say hello, as recent meetings have been increasingly small in number.

The fourth Wednesday also means it’s once again time to get on our high horse to rant and round-up all things political. Two weeks ago, we told you in this space that the Democrats were going to “win” the shutdown and looky-looky we were right again. John Boehner caved completely before we hit the debt ceiling and a bill that could have been passed before the shutdown even began was finally passed after more than two full weeks of Tea Party nonsense. After wavering badly on Syria President Obama once again looks like the guy with the biggest dick inside the beltway, which he probably is.

drinking-liberally1

Beyond the end of the shutdown the news has slowed down a bit. Healthcare.gov glitches, Corey Booker becoming a senator and then marrying a bunch of gay couples, etc. Obama did come out and announce what are going to be the White House’s next three priorities, which are passing a budget, passing a farm bill, and immigration reform. Those all seem pretty sensible and prudent and would set the country on the “right track,” but we’ll see. The House GOP is anything but sensible and prudent and it’s doubtful they’ve learned much of anything from their horribly embarrassing loss of the shutdown.

We also want to take this opportunity to point out that this Friday Hardball host Chris Matthews will appear at the Enoch Pratt Central Branch to hawk copies of his new book Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked about the relationship between President Reagan and former house speaker Tip O’Neill, under whom Matthews worked at the time.

The Chop is a fan of Matthews and so we’re looking forward to hearing him wax political off the air for once. Not that Hardball hasn’t been his own personal soapbox for years, but we will enjoy the chance to see him opine without the constraints of segment timing and broadcast cameras.

We’ve also been changing the channel every time we’ve seen Matthews start pitching his book in the past month since we knew we’d probably be going to see him on Friday, and between Hardball and NBC shows from Today straight through to the Tonight Show that’s been a lot of clicking.

Friday’s event is free and begins at 7:00.

Photos From the Mark Supik Co. Open Studio

Posted on October 22, 2013 by The Chop

Last Sunday we finally got a chance to check out a piece of Baltimore that we’ve been curious about for quite some time, and that many people here in town pass by frequently without realizing it. Mark Supik & Company’s shop at the corner of Baltimore and Haven Streets in Highlandtown doesn’t look like much from the outside, but behind the walls they’re one of the largest manufacturers of draft beer tap handles in the region.

For more than 30 years the shop has been producing a variety of turned-wood products, but specializing in tap handles. If you’ve had a few beers in your time it’s more than likely that some of them have been pulled from Supik handles, which are sold to breweries nationwide and in use all across the country, including right here in Charm City.

They opened the shop up to visitors Sunday as part of Baltimore Beer Week and School 33’s Open Studio Tours, showing off their vintage woodworking equipment and large collection of tap handles, as well as sampling beer from the Cross Street Irregulars brewing club in a pop-up beer garden behind the shop.

For those interested in home brewing and/or lucky enough to own a keg refrigerator, the Supik Company will allow you to design your own custom handle and ship it to you for $85. If you want to go a step further than that you can even attend an all day workshop and make the whole handle yourself by hand. More details and photos are available on their website.