There's more to see, do and explore in Baltimore than ever before. Recently dubbed the “Coolest City on the East Coast” by Travel + Leisure, and one of the most exciting food cities by Zagat, Baltimore has experienced one of the largest millennial booms in the nation. If 2017 is any indication, 2018 is going to be an even bigger year for Baltimore, further evidenced by the city's #15 ranking on the New York Times' “52 Places to Go in 2018”  list. Read on for more of what's going on in Charm City in the coming months, year and beyond.

New Hotels, Renovations and Waterfront Developments

Hotel Revival – Hotel Revival, a Joie de Vivre property, opens in the Mount Vernon Cultural District early 2018. Highlights include a ground-floor signature restaurant and bar; three private karaoke boxes; a second-floor reception and lobby lounge with a dedicated bar; and an enclosed rooftop bar and restaurant with prime views of the Washington Monument and surrounding neighborhoods. www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/maryland/baltimore-hotels/hotel-revival-baltimore

Canopy Hilton – Coming early 2019 to Harbor Point, a three million square foot waterfront development site between Harbor East and historic Fell's Point, is Canopy, Hilton's newest hotel brand that redefines the lifestyle space. The 156-room hotel will feature a first floor waterfront lobby and a restaurant with an outdoor terrace offering dramatic views of the Inner Harbor atop the 12-story Wills Street Wharf mixed use building. www.canopy3.hilton.com

Port Covington – A 235-acre waterfront site undergoing major development, thanks in part to Sagamore Development, Under Armour founder Kevin Plank's real estate company. Kevin Plank's Sagamore Spirit Distillery is already a resident of the Port Covington neighborhood, joined by Rye Street Tavern, an Americana restaurant with food and drinks with Mid-Atlantic roots and seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers and fishmongers, created by James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Carmellini. The first official phase of the development, slated to occur in the next five years, will include an 8-acre waterfront park, 630-room hotel, 1,100 new residential units, nearly 800,000 square feet in retail and restaurant space, 1 million-plus square feet of office space, a 64,000-square-foot entertainment complex and more.  www.buildportcovington.com

Harbor Point – A former manufacturing site, Harbor Point is the city's largest downtown waterfront site currently under development and a leader in Baltimore's urban renaissance. Over the next ten years, the development will include: three million square feet of office, retail, hotel and residential space, as well as 9.5 acres of waterfront parks and a continuation of the Inner Harbor promenade. Innovation and sustainability are key focuses for the development, and each of its projects is striving to achieve the highest LEED certification possible in an amenity-rich environment. In 2017, Sandlot, a 30,000-square-foot oasis featuring locally sourced food concepts and family-friendly recreation and games, opened in the Harbor Point neighborhood. www.beattydevelopment.com/harbor-point

Cultural Happenings

Bicentennial of Frederick Douglass' Birth – Celebrate the 200th birthday of Maryland abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Baltimore, where he learned to read and worked at shipyards in Fell's Point before escaping to freedom in 1838. Visit his former home at 524 S. Dallas Street, among the row of houses he built on Dallas Street for African American renters that still stand today. Baltimore's cultural institutions, such as the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, are also honoring Douglass' historic legacy with exhibits, lectures, tours, and more. www.baltimore.org/campaign/celebrate-african-american-experience-baltimore  

Light City (April 6-21, 2018) – For the first time ever, Light City, America's first international light, music and innovation festival, will be held over three consecutive weekends with Neighborhood Lights kicking off April 6-8 and the BGE Light Art Walk transforming Baltimore's Inner Harbor into an interactive playground of light and music April 14-21. Light City is expanding to spread more love throughout all areas of Baltimore City with Neighborhood Lights growing from eight neighborhoods to 14, and through the creation of the “Where's Charlie the Peacock” project, in which one of the most popular original light art pieces from Light City 2016 travels throughout the city popping up every night in a different community from April 6-21. Labs@LightCity Innovation Conferences offers a unique “pay what you can” rate to allow even more people to attend the sessions. www.lightcity.org   

American Visionary Art Museum — The Great Mystery Show (Through Sept. 2, 2018) From psychics to physicists, AVAM's new exhibit artfully peels away the veil from the unknown. The exhibit playfully explores mystery as that one secret power behind great art, science, and pursuit of the sacred. Mysteries personal and universal, punctuated by the out-of-this-world testimony of astronauts, mystery writers, theoreticians, poets and psychics, aim to inspire the "sleuth for the truth" detective within each of us. www.avam.org

Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) — Tomás Saraceno: Entangled Orbits (Through June 2018) This exhibit at the BMA brings together a group of fascinating sculptural works by internationally acclaimed Argentinian artist and trained architect Tomás Saraceno who is also a pioneer in scanning, reconstructing, and reimagining spider webs and possesses the only three-dimensional spider web collection in existence. www.artbma.org 

The Walters Art Museum — Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire's Legacy & After Fabergé (Through May 27, 2018) Between 1885 and the revolution of 1917, Peter Carl Fabergé's workshop created exquisite jeweled and enameled Easter eggs for the Russian tsars. This exhibition includes more than 70 stunning objects that highlight the extraordinary artistry of Russian jewelers and enamel-workers, including the Walters' Fabergé Easter eggs – two of only 50 known in the world. A concurrent exhibition, After Fabergé, by contemporary artist Jonathan Monaghan, reinvents the famous Easter eggs for the 21st century in a series of five prints that comment on consumer culture and changing definitions of luxury. www.thewalters.org

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Film Center — Debuted in May 2017, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Film Center, located in Baltimore's up-and-coming Station North Arts & Entertainment District, is the new home of MdFF, the organization that creates and delivers the annual Maryland Film Festival. An $18.2 million “rescued ruin,” the Parkway features year round curated, bold programming that showcases films from every era, region, and genre, with a focus on independent, international, documentary, classic, and cult-favorite films. The Parkway is currently showcasing Black Cinema of the Seventies, a massive retrospective of black voices in cinema during the decade, through March 2018. www.mdfilmfest.com

The Dish on Baltimore

Union Collective – Baltimore-born UNION Craft Brewing will be the anchor tenant of a major commercial project, UNION Collective, transforming 10.5 acres of warehouse space into a destination for locally-minded consumers to interact with Baltimore makers, purchase Baltimore-made products and get an authentic taste of the area's growing craft beer and food scene. Union Collective is slated to open in spring 2018. www.union-collective.com

Bygone – This restaurant atop the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences opened in early 2018 and serves a menu of upscale, classic American cuisine in a swanky space reminiscent of the 1920s with sweeping views of the city. www.atlasrestaurantgroup.com

Tagliata and The Elk Room – Tagliata is an Italian Chophouse located in Harbor East featuring handmade pastas, hand-cut steaks & chops, charcuterie and Baltimore's largest wine line consisting of over 1,000 varieties. Adjacent to Tagliata is The Elk Room, a speakeasy-style spot with handcrafted cocktails, charcuterie and bites, where cell phones and photographs are not allowed. www.tagliatarestaurant.com  www.theelkroom.com 

Ida B's Table – In late August 2017, Chef David Thomas opened Ida B's Table, a modern soul food restaurant, in homage to legendary journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Located in a landmark building, the historic CJ Youse Candy Box Factory was originally designed by prominent Baltimore firm Archer & Allen. Many of the original fixtures, including the doors, have been reclaimed and reused for Ida B's Table. This mixture of classic 19th century design and modern comfort reflect the historical era and contemporary impact of their namesake, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett. www.idabstable.com

Bluebird Cocktail Room – This literary-themed bar in Hampden comes from former Woodberry Kitchen bartenders. The 104-seat-space, located above a Belgian beer bar, features large communal tables, navy blue walls, a gas fireplace, and a long bar for pub-style dining service. The cocktails (named after the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf) are complemented by a menu of European bistro fare including charcuterie, fried sweetbreads, and steak frites. www.thebluebirdbaltimore.com 

Minnow – From the brothers behind La Cuchara comes this South Baltimore seafood specialist offering regionally-sourced catches (think rockfish crudo, cornmeal-crusted soft shell crabs) alongside non-fish options like a burger and fried chicken, plus beer, cocktails and a deep wine list. The rustic-modern corner digs boast a communal chef's table with a view of the open kitchen. www.minnowbaltimore.com

Gordon Ramsay Steak – Chef Gordon Ramsay, of “Hell's Kitchen” and “MasterChef” fame, has opened a new steak house at the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore serving signature dishes from his Las Vegas restaurant, such as beef Wellington and sticky toffee pudding, as well as more seafood dishes and regional specialties. www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/gordon-ramsay-steak-baltimore

Getting Around Town

Baltimore Bike Share – Baltimore City is spending millions to grow its cycling infrastructure and recently launched the largest pedelec (electric-assist) bicycle fleet in North America. Baltimore Bike Share is available 24/7 and offers both pedelec and traditional 8-gear bicycles for residents and visitors to explore the city car-free. www.bmorebikeshare.com

Baltimore Water Taxi – Under Armour founder Kevin Plank recently purchased the Baltimore Water Taxi to upgrade its fleet of passenger vessels and routes. The new boats are designed to reflect a sleek look that also reflects Baltimore's rich port history. www.baltimorewatertaxi.com

www.baltimore.org  

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