Category: Entertainment & Events

10 Maryland Restaurant Week Picks

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Maryland Restaurant Week includes crab cakes options and you want to try Tidewater Grille on the Chesapeake Bay

Maryland Restaurant Week is coming. And today is National Maryland Day. While these and other daily calendar celebrations are fun to observe like yesterday’s daily horoscopes use to be, having a foodie food reminder is even better! 🎉

For Maryland Restaurant Week, Tidewater Grille in Havre de Grace is on the menu with Maryland famous crab cakes and bites 🍽️ They are located on the Chesapeake Bay where you can enjoy porch seating. And if that’s not something to be happy about… they play live music on weekend nights 🎶 You don’t have to drive all the way to a piano bar or the beach for free entertainment.

And along the drum of good eats, Chesapeake Bay Beach Club on Kent Island is across the Bay Bridge (towards Ocean City or OC for short) on the Eastern Shore.

This is the inn with a spa you gotta checkout (and you won’t wanna checkout! 🛏️). It’s a special place with tasteful modern accents throughout, and one restaurant private dining space has unique exposed white ducts in the high ceiling peak. I can appreciate having planned thousands of private events.

The inn’s spaces are an architectural design dream. There’s a spa and they offer yoga. It’s a culinary hotel that has fresh herbs growing in the gardens. It’s not just for Oprah and the nouveau riche anymore!

And the Annapolis state capitol in Anne Arundel County is no run down county. And these are a sample of the restaurant run down picks I have for Maryland Restaurant Week (that’s extensive like DC Restaurant Week)…

In Annapolis, Blackwall Hitch is participating (also in Alexandria).

And for Maryland Restaurant Week, you’ll be surprised that there are special with coffee houses, bakeries, and even sports and entertainment places like Sports and Social that’s a chain that on the list for Bethesda, MD.

Montgomery County is an affluent county with Bethesda’s Seasons 52 and its Columbia location. If you’re into modern diners, Columbia’s Silver Diner is also participating.

And if you’re Italian seeking, Baltimore’s Amicci’s of Little Italy eatery and La Tavola off the famous Albermarle Street n Baltimore’s Little Italy 🇮🇹 serving authentic dishes with oozing burrata, generous parmagiano-reggiano, and gluten-free pasta options.

Further north in Frederick (if you’re heading to western PA), you can stop in at Outback (the steakhouse that is) for their Bloomin’ Onion, sirloin or chicken with sides, and cheesecake for dessert.

And 32Palm in Hilton Ocean Suites where you can get the best of both restaurant and hotel hospitality worlds. It’s down by the iconic Ocean City Jolly Roger Amusement Park where all the hoopla is at night! 🚥

So now you have the low-down and have plenty of Maryland Restaurant Week places to consider.

maryland restaurant week has Maryland crab soup on menus

Boardwalk Candy Kitchen Beanie Baby Nostalgia

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Delaware has a few Candy Kitchen Beanie Baby carrying (now TY toys) stores.
Downtown Bethany Beach

In my heart is the Candy Kitchen Beanie Baby memory… what am I talkin’ about? Keep reading…

First, I remember the 90s Beanie Baby craze from the traditional boardwalk candy store chain that’s everywhere along the Delmarva coast. Candy Kitchen stores all over Ocean City, MD and up the coast to Rehoboth and Bethany Beaches in Delaware. The first store opened around the tail end of the Great Depression, so it was a place that brought some joy to the times… and today, brings happiness. Who doesn’t love the smell o’ candy?

While Beanie-mania died down before Y2K, the candy craze has not.🍬 Those early years bring back youthful, carefree day memories…

In the 90s, I was a young adult chasing down the Beanie Babies on my weekends, looking for a Candy Kitchen Beanie Baby. There was one baby I had in mind that was either a soft stuffed cute bear, cat, dog, bird, or other wildlife creature that just came out.

Most living young and old had at least one Beanie Baby. But not everyone got them from a candy store like I did. That was my underground store I discovered.

…I remember driving hours with friends and all the way to Ocean City, MD during the heyday. I had the purple royal Beanie with a white rose and the Jerry Garcia swirly rainbow color Peace Bear. If you spout out the names now, I’d still know them… that’s how the kid at heart stays alive. ❤️

The Beanies usually were “special” because of the tag names, fabrics, and some had an emblem stamped on their chest and poems on the tag. And they’re so darn cute. I had a trash bag full of them. And that’s where there are now!

Once decorating a house and box-size computer tops, these stuffed animals were a fad that had a shelf life. And today’s TY versions look more like Furr-bies… and the kiddos love ’em not knowing the history of their plush toy maker.

…Like these unicorn babies (foals) that just woke up and have their tags on backward 😄 but still intact. They’re brother and sister. 🦄 They never met their Pegasus Beanie Baby ancestor.

…But, they are as cute as buttons, like button candy. And remind me of those Candy Kitchen 90s memories that are so ingrained in me because the sweet smell waff of chocolate fudge hit you in the face as soon as you walked in the store. And would do the same today, if you’ve never been to a CK or want to relive sweet memories.

Candy Kitchen is known for saltwater taffy 🍬, but I went for the cola gummies (not the fun gummy burgers and lips 👄)… being friendlier to my teeth and mouth. I appreciated seeing the colorful round-up pop and swirl lollipop candy 🍭 You can say I got two pops in one (candy and a cute Beanie Baby).

And today too if you visit, they still sell a few special TY tag stuffed toys like the Spiderman TY. Or you can have him and other items shipped with your candy, to brighten your day until you can find time to be a kid again. 😊

Need a place to stay? These are Ocean City hotels to check out (and checkin to!).