I'm pre-disappointed in this.

When I saw Bourdain in Baltimore and he confirmed that, yes, he was profiling Charm City, I couldn't wait to see what he would come up with. First discovering that we were being lumped in with 2 other cities which really have very very little in common with us, and that we were being lumped into the Rust Belt (which doesn't seem a very apt description to me), I was a bit put off. Add to that the fact that Bourdain is apparently obsessed with the wire; it seems as though he's coming to Baltimore looking for things that will confirm his existing opinions and beliefs.

And he's eating somewhere with the word "Factory" in the name?

...although I guess with 19 people shot in 6 hours last night, this might not be the best day to be arguing against a view of Baltimore courtesy of The Wire...

19 people shot in 6 hours last night

Wow.

To EL: And, we should be view the result as happy because...

Our hotels are too full? The shops in the Inner Harbor are doing too much business? Our Convention & Visitors Bureau has too big a budget and has already attracted too many visitors? Our MD Film Office has too many features being filmed here?

This is not on the Food Network, folks; this is on the Travel Channel. It's costs a fortune to try to fix a hatchet job like Bourdain is doing.

I didn't realize I had to draw a smiley face EVERY time I made a joke. EL

I've always wondered where convicted murderers like to eat. Now I know. It sounds more like revenge for Bourdain than genuine interest. Still those are all better choices than an East Baltimore backyard BBQ.

Here it is, with typos:

http://tinyurl.com/lz4rla

NEW FLASH - Monday morning shooting brings deadly toll to 19 shot in 6 hours
Monday, 27 July 2009 12:31

Two men shot early Monday morning in the Southeast district bring the city's deadly toll of shootings to 19 in just under six hours.

Around 2 am on the 1000 Block of New Hope Circle two unidentified men were shot, police said. One man was shot in the hand and the other in the leg.

The shootings capped a deadly stretch from 9pm Sunday evening until 2am Monday morning in which 19 people were shot and two killed.
Among the shootings were 12 people at an outdoor cookout on Ashland Avenue. Police have recovered 9mm and 45 caliber casings from the crime scene. Wounded were a pregnant woman and a 3-year old girl. None of the victims are believed to have life threatneing injuries

The Monday monring shooting brought the total of double shootings to three in the Southeast district. Two of the victims who were shot on Conklin Street, both teenagers, were killed.

Maybe they got into a pit beef isn't barbecue thang.

The barbeque was a memorial for someone who was shot the week before.

The Roost is a solid choice, and Chaps isn't horrible, but Mo's Seafood? Snoop is obviously better at plugging them than eating them.

Bourdain hates Baltimore. He did his worse heroin days here. From the trailers and stuff, he wasn't as negative as he could have been.

sean, Baltimore and Detroit have a lot in common. The biggest difference is that Detroit has given up and Baltimore hasn't. Baltimore is very rust belt. If you don't believe it, you need to spend some time in the SE. After the shooting stops.

So what part of town is Michael's Steak and Lobster in?

Bucky, Michael's Steak and Lobster is in an odd little pocket that's isolated by artifical geography (highways and railroad tracks). There's not a lot of human traffic to cause problems.

I think the lake trout and the pit beef fit into the standard Bourdain patterns of picking out working class foods. I don't, however, understand Mo's seafood. What does that restaurant represent? It's not a classic establishment. It's not a working class haunt? It's not a place that is doing something new or creative. It's just one of those DB restaurants that Baltimore has far too many of.

Isn't Michael's technically in A-J? It is in the Southeast (where both Hal and I live), but it is pretty different from our haunts.

A-J isn't one of the more charming neighbourhoods in town, but it isn't as bad as Baltimore Highlands (where the barbeque and shootout was). Close, though.

Isn't Michael's technically in A-J?

Probably so, but it's on the other side of Eastern Ave. Six lanes of busy traffic provides a pretty good buffer zone.

RoCK, what's a "DB" restaurant?

If he's eating with Snoop because she likes the place, then it makes sense. (How my hair look Mike?)

I knew he wouldn't be able to resist Chaps. Because of where it is.

DB or D Bag, think Massengill

Oh, RoCK, I would have expected a more creative insult than that.

He hates Baltimore. Every place he visited is related to the Wire, Wire characters and Wire cop consultants, etc. It makes perfect sense. He's saying, don't go to Baltimore, you will get murdered. Sorry you couldn't get good smack here, Tony. Or maybe too good. In his book he semi-romanticizes being a junkie in NYC. Hard to do that in Balto. Get over it.

As for Mo's? It's a blight upon the city and the neighborhood. Snoop likes to go there because it's a nexus for drug dealers and bangers. It's high ghetto.

Before you tell me I'm a racist let me tell you how I personally witnessed a running gun battle from the third floor of my house. A party for a drug dealer let out of Mo's and erupted into a gun battle that carried down the street to my house. It was exactly like in a movie except really uncool. Skanky hos in high heels hiding in the gutter from stray bullets. People remarkably materializing on roofs with long metallic objects. Shots flying around hitting who knows what. Random beatings of slow moving skanks on the wrong side. Cops belatedly showing up. People limping around the streets with torn clothes and bloody faces.

Bourdain knows exactly what he's doing. He's portraying the city as a lawless ghetto. Kudos Tony, you finally got your foot up Baltimore's ass. It's hate propaganda and that's not what it should be about.

It's sad that he would malign Little Italy by focusing on the blight on the edge of the neighborhood.

That's Mo's cachet for the gang bangin' srkimpst lovin' criminals that love the place. Plus crab cakes.

Would you like a Mo's on your block?

Wow. Just wow.

NIMBY?

Can we wait until the episode airs, and maybe even watch it, before we jump to conclusions?

That's why I said I was "pre-disappointed."

There was a Mo's Seafood in Fallston/Bel Air about ten years ago. I think it was the same owners. That place, like the one in LI, had a reputation of catering to a thug crowd.

Reading Kitchen Confidential was enough to make me strongly dislike Anthony Bourdain. Reading about his Baltimore picks has done nothing to change that feeling.

why he couldn't pick classic places like Attman's or even Lexington Market or Cross Street Market is unbelievable. These three places are all Baltimore staples for people visiting their first time.

I had pretty much made up my mind NOT to watch, but then came upon the show while flipping channels. I saw most of the Baltimore segment. All I can say is, this is not MY Baltimore.

The whole thing about Mo's is bothering me. I've never eaten there (it doesn't smell right to me from outside), but our former department secretary, a fine, upstanding church lady, loved it. So I don't think just "thugs" eat there, and I suspect we may have a class thing going on.

I might have to go eat there.

I cringed when I saw the promo. I have 39 years in this town and NEVER knew I was in the "rust belt". I have never enjoyed Bourdain's one hour rants on let's slander this town and make it sound crack riddled and the murder capitol of the world. I was repelled by his sarcastic view of the world and life. And by the way, I was also a fan. Note the past tense.

Baltimore like any other town has it's faults. Like any other town Baltimore has a drug scene, has murders, and has crime. There is also a lot of wonderful to Baltimore. The small town neighborhoods that exist, flower, and bloom. The amazing restaurants that keep loyal patrons returning year after year.

If I had coffee I'd go on and end up rattling dull and boring. It narrowns to this... I am offended at Bourdain's sarcastic and narrow portrayal of my home town.

I've had no problems in the past at the Mo's outposts in Parkville and Glen Burnie. Ditto for the old Fisherman's Wharf in Towson (which I think was under common ownership at one time).

it's never been more apparent how full of scat bourdain is until he sat there and tried to wax poetic about lake trout.

I haven't seen last night's episode yet, but in general, he's been much nicer in the new episodes than in the beginning. I remember on in particular, where he was served guinea pig and made no secret at all of how much he HATED it.

Now he's all congenial and loves everything and everybody. Better before.

There are two things that sell Tony's show:

1.) He delves (or at least appears to delve) deeper into the location than the average travelogue.

The key thing that went wrong with this episode is that someone decided to attempt to examine three different cities in one episode. This resulted in a "jack of all trades, master of nothing" phenomenon. The locations selected suffered, the writing suffered (Look at the staged transition dialogue they attempted when transitioning out of the Baltimore segment.), and (particularly in the case of Baltimore) the concept suffered.

2.) Honesty and authenticity.

In this episode, both were utterly lacking. The forced dialogue, the staged meetings with "The Wire's" actors, the briefness of the 3-in-1 format all lead me to feel like the show lacked the honesty and authenticity that has been the strength of the show.

Look at the episode when Tony went to Italy. He had creative differences with his Italian director, and he embarrassed himself when attempting to cook an "authentic Italian meal" for Italians. The result was uncomfortable, honest television that was riveting.

His Lebanon episode is probably the shining example of the honesty that his show is capable of and that is the key to its success. If you haven't seen it, watch it. He and his crew are trapped in Lebanon during the 2006 July War with Israel. Tension, fear, and hope are permitted to take their place as the principles, while Tony takes a secondary role, allowing true emotion to be the star.

Like Lissa, I'm finding the tone of some of the Mo-bashing disturbing (and I don't even like Mo's). "Dave"'s 8:07 AM comment is particularly distasteful.

I wonder if he ordered Mo's Signature drink

Great job taking a reasonable discussion and ruining it.

EL, please remove this post due to the racist reference, and if at all possible, block that IP from posting.

Thanks for pointing this out. It's a help when I'm trying to police this many comments. EL

I've only been to the Mo's in Parkville and it was pretty good.

I think Bourdain should have showed both the high and the low of the three cities. Even if he only featured working class haunts, the video montage should have shown that Baltimore is a mix. You walk away from that episode thining that Baltimore is only run down. It's not Gary, Indiana; Chester, PA or East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dave at 8:07am is racist, please moderate.

I agree with Trouble & Hal Elizabeth. The reference is racist and doesn't belong here. (8:07 AM )

I debate with my friends all the time that Baltimore is indeed safe, all the while knowing that it's about as ghetto as it gets. Anthony Bourdain's choices simply reflect what American likes to think (and sadly, it's true, as this past weekend's events prove) about this tragically violent city.

A week ago I would have taken offense at Bourdain's dismal portrayal of the city. Now I'm just hanging my head in shame, because he's right.

And now that the show has aired, the Z on TV blog has posted a second topic on this subject, this time devoted to serious dissing of Bourdain.

Nik, I have to a disagree. Shootings that wound 19 people in 6 hours are NOT the norm for Baltimore. You kind of just proved why Bourdain posturing his view of Baltimore the way he did was a sh*tty thing to do.

We do have things in common with those Cities. Take a look around you. "Its as ghetto as it gets."

Sure, we have things in common with those cities. We also have things in common with New York (probably more than Detroit or Buffalo), Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, etc. It seems more than a bit dismissive to lump up in with two other cities, especially cities that aren't even near the Atlantic, cities that share none of the coastal aspects of Baltimore. As I said before, we're, at best, on the periphery of the Rust Belt. We're more Chesapeake. Wouldn't it have made more sense to lump Pittsburgh in with these places?

Perhaps Baltimore gets included with other Rust Belt cities because of Bethlehem Steel and Sparrows Point?

I see sean's point, that its more coastal/Chesapeake than the Rusters. But Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Detroit are all on the water as well. Water access is a means to get manufactured goods to market.

New York City, Chicago and Philly were all great manufacturing towns at one point, but no one calls them rust belt.

To me a rust belt city is an manufacturing town that has not been able to reinvent themselves into something else. Detroit and Buffalo have not made that transition, but I think Baltimore has due to places like Hopkins and UMaB as well as our proximity to DC.

As I posted on another Sun thread, I think the term "belt" denotes a region, specifically the Great Lakes/Upper Midwest. No one calls every single city that has a born-again church as "bible belt," or anyplace with a certain type of comedian as being in the "borscht belt."

If we apply "rust belt" to every single post-industrial city, the term loses its meaning.

Good points, both RoCK and baltoellen.

I have no idea what Dave at 8:07 said but I find OMG's posting: "Skanky hos in high heels hiding in the gutter from stray bullets." Sexist and Racist but since he's the teachers pet I guess it's cool.

Hon, gotta say, I've known plenty of white skanky hos. So maybe just sexist! ;)

But yeah, I also find that terms like "high ghetto" and "as ghetto as it gets" make me a little... uncomfortable. And yeah, yeah, I know "ghetto" comes from Italian/Venetian, and I know about its historical use relating to areas in which Jews were confined in Europe, etc.

I have to say, I'm not really surprised. I've lived in Baltimore all my life and I love my hometown, but the show was pretty much what I was expecting it to be (coming from Bourdain).

I'm just surprised no one else has commented on Snoop's burgeoning sex toy business...

I think we try to keep the sex toy discussions over on Facebook, TheBeav.

Plus I think most of us are trying not to think about that. So thanks.

I don't think that "skanky hos", i.e., women dressed like prostitutes, some of whom probably were prostitutes, is sexist. That's also assuming they were women and not men in drag. I didn't say what race they were because this was not a mono-race event. If you assume that they were all black you would be both wrong and racist in your assumptions.

Whether you realize it or not ghetto style is a mega-bidness. It's promoted by hip hop artists and TV and movies. Grillz? How is that not ghetto? [if you don't know what grillz are, get thee to google]

Am I being pejorative. Yes, but I would have the same sneering chuckle-contempt for country music style. Would you then say I hate all twangy white people? How about if I didn't like Goth style? Do I hate all mopey rich white suburban kids? Well, even that no.

Their behavior was ghetto, I think of that meaning inappropriate urban-style behavior, affecting or acting out violent criminal behavior, compared with say, redneck behavior or Wall Street bad behavior. No pickup trucks or spreadsheets were in evidence.

Come on, Snoop isn't going to Mo's for the food. She likes it because it's a haven for people she grew up with in the street trades that landed her in jail for murder.

I dare you to witness a street war near your house and describe it in dry dispassionate words. I was there. How many other people have first hand knowledge of what is rumored or implied?

Actually how cool would it be to see how Jane Austen or William F Buckley might describe it. I'll leave that to better writers than me.

sean ... uh ... nailed it.

La la la la ... can't hear you.

I'm having cognitive dissonance for lunch today. Mmmm... you can taste the artificial consistency.

Quick, someone get me a copy of Baltimore Magazine or the Urbanite so that I can have visions of charming Charm City dancing in my head like marshmallow unicorns.

Ahhhhh, better. Let us never speak of this again.

I was a bit hesitant to dip my toe into this one, with good reason.

So here's a new topic: the other day, I went to Joe's Tex-Mex Crab Shack. The service was terrible, so I didn't tip anything. Of course, the server, who was an obvious hipster (horn-rimmed glasses, tight pants, ironic tattoos of Anthony Bourdain) acted like it was my fault that I didn't understand the concept of a Tex-Mex crab.

The whole reason I went to this place, though, is that Rachael Ray stated they have the best Tex-Mex crab cakes - outside of New York, of course. I think I saw that on her blog somewhere (I tried writing a comment after my visit, but it looked like the blogware wasn't working). Plus, I later found out she never even went to the place! I think her list was based on viewer suggestions or something.

My biggest complaint, though, is that there were tons of parents with children running all over the place - absolutely no control over them. In fact, the only positive note in the whole visit was that the foie gras stuffed crabs were pretty good, although I was shocked they didn't have any Old Bay. All they had was ketchup. And it was on everything.

Next time I'm in the area, I'm just going to Starbucks. Or Birches. Or Golden West. The places was just too ghetto for me.

PS: A final note: their "Cowboy Coffee" was definitely more Texan than Mexican. And I think it was decaf.

I agree with Owlie on this one.

Some people believe that any disparaging remarks directed at anyone who is a member of a protect class is prima facie evidence of racism, sexism, etc.. This is flawed thinking.

Cowboys don't drink no decaf.

Lissa wrote: I think we try to keep the sex toy discussions over on Facebook

Or over on the doggie blog, Unleashed. Check yesterday's topics.

sean - excellent job. Laura Lee will be envious when she comes out of hiding.

It is disparaging of a class, however. And the majority of poor, urban residents don't deserve to be lumped with thugs, prostitutes and gangsters.

"I don't think that "skanky hos", i.e., women dressed like prostitutes, some of whom probably were prostitutes, is sexist. That's also assuming they were women and not men in drag."

So provocatively dressed woman are probably prostitutes or maybe drag queens. Keep digging that hole...

Ewww Bucky. I saw that earlier this morning. I am sorry, but I find that product way out of line.

This is a repost of what I said over on Z's blog about last night's episode:

Bourdain did a complete disservice to this city. He has always had disdain for Baltimore (surprised he can even remember his time in Baltimore in the 80s since he was supposedly in a heroin haze most of the time), and it definitely seemed as if he had a personal agenda to only show one angle of this city.

Besides the fact that he called this city effed up not once, but multiple times, which while it may be true, is not the defining factor of Baltimore. Baltimore is quirky, historic, eccentric, violent, diverse, congenial and effed up. There was several times throughout the show that I felt like yelling, "The Wire is a fictional television show, Tony!". Look, we all know that violence and drugs infect our streets, and it is a huge problem. But, why must Bourdain present Baltimore in only that way? What does that do to help our city? Does it drum up tourist dollars? Will people want to visit our fine city to eat freaking lake trout while touring a gang filled, drug adled, boarded up neighborhood? Not likely. If Bourdain had taken just one of the three segments he did on Baltimore and instead focused on great, quirky, true Baltimore food at somewhere like Bill's Terrace Inn, Lexington/Cross Street Market, or even a farm to table place like Dogwood or Woodberry, it would have just seemed a lot more fair.

One last thing...Rust Belt my ass...we are NOT the Rust Belt.

ps - Sean, that was most excellent!

Trixie - I was taken aback, as well.

At the risk of having Eve call me a Nazi, I would like to quantify the whole rust belt thing. The Rust Belt states, OH, MI, etc are in deep trouble. It turns out that getting rid of the old industries in MD may have been painful but beneficial in the long term. Consider the most elemental of rust belt miseries, unemployment.

June 2009 Unemp. Rate (% of labor force)

US 9.7

OH 11.2

MI 15.4

MD 7.5

The Maryland economy was never as beholden to the vicious cycles and interdependencies of the midwest Rust Belt states, certainly not in the last forty years.

So Bourdain comes to a state that has one of the most robust economies in the country and dumps it in with Michigan that has more than double the unemployment rate. Hatchet job.

Lissa, the only class I am talking about is the criminal class. I think we are at a semantic stalemate here. I would never disparage poor people; I am the product of a poor urban area and feel more comfortable there than in the suburbs.

Lissa! Even a cranky old white formerly-suburban PTA Lady can tell the difference between Urban Poor and Skanky Ho. True, nice people do not say skanky ho, but pretty much everyone knows one when they see it.

Everyone should understand that a 20 minute segment on a food/travel show can never capture the full experience of a city, just as even an hour of footage in Tokyo or Argentina cannot. However, spending 20 minutes on the Sun's 3 1/2 star restaurants (if there are any left :)) would be just as disingenuous as a supposed portrayal of "true" Baltimore. The episode chose to highlight a problem, and while it's disappointing that many people will take a more negative view of Baltimore from the exposure, the problem is real.

It can be embarrassing when other people notice your creaky, rotten back porch, but the solution isn't to complain about it. Fix it.

Gotta agree with Eve on this one.

I love Eve.

It's called the Travel Channel not the Anti-Travel Channel.

This is a dining blog, not an anti-dining blog, but we still discuss the good and the bad.

It was a lot more than the skanky ho comment.

MI's unemployement rate, as of last Thursday, was officially 17%. Detroit is easily 3x's that.

I can't defend the episode (haven't seen it yet), but while you can quibble with the rust belt moniker, Baltimore does belong with Buffalo and Detroit as port cities who had a lot of industry and don't any more.

Comcast in Harford County does not offer the Travel Channel. After all of the above I'm not at all sure whether I'm bummed or not.

I missed the first part, which I assume was the Baltimore part, because it was on opposite Two And A Half Men here, but I saw part of the second part. Feather bowling looks pretty fun.

Bucky - I'm with you. The best part of the whole show was the feather bowling. It was like a cross between bowling, curling (without the sweeping), and shuffleboard (and some variants of cornhole). Looks like fun. Especially when there is beer involved. The trash talk was pretty good, too.

Was that Detroit? Lissa - ever go feather bowling?

BG, I assume you were watching your fave show 2.5 Men also.

BG, Wikipedia claims that Detroit's Cadieux Cafe is the one and only feather bowling venue in the US.

I don't want to add to the fighting, as today the regulars went after each other far more than usual; however, I can't understand how anyone likes two and half men. That may be one of the worst shows on tv.

On another note, I'm going to Detroit in October, and I'm definately going to Cadieux Cafe. My wife is familar with the place. She even booked a band to play there once.

For the record, I have never watched that show two and a half men. OMG is just trying to irritate me.

If I am ever in Detroit, I'm going to Cadieux Cafe. The food and the feather bowling look great. I think they said, however, that people book lanes as much as a year in advance. I doubt I'll ever have that much advance warning of a Detroit trip.

I wonder if anyone in Detroit is commenting tonight on their local food blog, wow, if I ever go to Baltimore I'm going to hit [the Roost, Mo's, Chaps]. I'm guessing not.

Ooops, I let the cat out of the bag. 2.5 Men is BG's secret passion.

Stop it, OMG, or I will beat you down by the pylons. You know I will.

RoCK wrote:...two and half men... That may be one of the worst shows on tv.

Nah...I watch a whole bunch of stuff that's worse than Two And A Half Men. You just need to set your sights lower, RoCK.

Ok, just finally watched the episode. And I liked it, both as a native Detroiter and as someone who lives here now.

I really liked the intro, with the bit about it being a damned shame that a country as rich as this has written off large parts of the population. It has, and it infuriates me.

I would have taken him to Chaps myself. He got that Mo's sucks, but he had a good time with the people there. Nothing wrong with that, and a lot that is right. I'm fine with The Roost as a choice, too. Sure, he didn't do anything in Hipster Baltimore or Northern Baltimore, but there are a lot of Baltimores (and no One True Baltimore) and he couldn't cover them all.

He impressed me in the Detroit section by going to my absolute favourite Lebanese restaurant, Al Amir's. This is right down the street from where I used to live, and is an excellent, inexpensive, authentic place. I miss it every day.

Polonia is ok, but there is better in Hamtramck. He mispronounced "Cadieux", but I'm not surprised.

Don't know much about Buffalo, so I can't judge that segment.

I don't get why people are upset. He told some truths. In 12 min., he wasn't going to tell The Truth.

No, I never made it to the Cadieux Cafe. Always wanted to go, but it is on the East Side, and I'm a West Sider born and bred. We don't like to cross that line.

Maybe when I go back. I love mussels.

Stop it, OMG, or I will beat you down by the pylons. You know I will.

I look forward to it, my love. I have a new Bourbon proof jacket; it 's 86 fool proof. But of course I've always been a fool for you, so there's no proof of its effectiveness.

Ok, what the hell were they pouring over his crab cake? As a crab cake purist, I took offense at that!

Other than that, I have to agree with Lissa, how much could he really do in the time that he had.

I think he should have gone to Gertrudes. But, hey, that's just my thoughts - where do you all think he should have gone?

Not a fan of Charlie Sheen ... in anything.

I love Sheen in the new Hanes commercials... although I'm not sure much of that is acting.

NEPA. you forgot to mention Hot Shots! Part Deux.

Ricky Vaughn (The Wild Thing) in Major League

A lot of people don't get Bourdain. He's not going to Attmans or the markets: he usually tries places where every day people eat (In Buffalo he said he would leave a review of the wings to Roker) that are a little off the map. I live in Baltimore and I don't bash it-but folks this city IS messed up in some ways. And as a laid off steelworker (Local 12517) anyone who says Bmore isn't rust belt should leave their cubicle long enough to count the closed plants in the 21226 zip alone. I liked the show.

Ricky Vaughn (The Wild Thing) in Major League

Good one Bucky. If I recall correctly, part of that movie was shot in Baltimore using the old Memorial Stadium.

According to IMdB, PCB Rob, the old Milwaukee County Stadium was used in Major League, with some exterior shots of the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Oriole Park at Camden Yards was used for Major League II in place of the unfinished Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field). Memorial Stadium was also used in Major League II, per IMdB, though I can't recall how it was used.

I'm convinced that Major League II is the one conclusive arguement for never making good movies into sequels.

I agree with you, bilzappa, but Attman's was on "The Wire," so it might have made it in. Season 1, first or second episode, I think. The judge has take away from there.

thanks hmpstd, I knew Baltimore's stadiums were used in one of them. Now that I think of it, I believe Memorial was used for the Indians "away" games and Oriole Park was their home field.

PCB Rob you are right. My parents took us down there to be extras in the seats.

That junkie's-eye view by kick'em 'cause-I-was-down Bourdain is on Travel Channel now.