Fun and Food in Baltimore

Happy Sunday peeps!

If you've been following my Instagram photos, you may have seen that I spent last weekend in Baltimore, Maryland visiting one of my best friends and old college roommate [side note: hi Kathleen! thanks for not hating me when I needed to stop and take pictures every five minutes]. One thing people asked about or mentioned was that they had no idea that Baltimore could be a destination or that they had no idea how cute the town is. My goal here is to change that because I had the best time!

People walking through the Fells Point Festival

Saturday morning we headed down to the Fell's Point area where the Fell's Point Festival was happening. There were so many cute street vendors set up in tents all along the streets. My personal favorite was a booth that sold products made from vintage album covers called The Tunes Company (check out his online store!). I bought an old Bruce Springsteen Greetings from Asbury Park wall clock and couldn't be happier about it.

This is now hanging on my wall at home!

Beer taps for sale at a booth at the festival

Even without the festival there, the Fells Point district was awesome to check out because of the charming, colorful and historic buildings, the cobblestone streets, and all of the shops and restaurants!

One of my favorites that we went into was a little cocktail bar called Rye. If you're into craft cocktails like me, this is definitely a place to go.

The drink I ordered - included sparkling wine and tequila but I forget the name!

One of my favorite parts of this bar was the vintage-inspired decor, like this Vote Against Prohibition sign. Fun fact: there was originally an outdoor mural like the one below somewhere in Baltimore, but it wasn't put up until after prohibition had ended and was only painted to be included on a film set!

And now onto my favorite part of the city... the food. 

One of my good friends actually runs a food-centric Instagram focused on Baltimore [shout out to See More, Eat More, Bmore] and I'm glad I finally got to experience a little taste of this city myself!

First up, Barcocina. We had brunch there on Saturday and it's located right on the water. We were lucky enough to sit outside with some incredible views.

The food is Mexican inspired and absolutely delicious. Definitely opt for the $13 bottomless mimosas (they have other juices as well, we got cranberry mimosas too!) and start with some guacamole. I honestly wanted to try everything on the menu, but I went with the breakfast quesadilla which was absolutely delicious. My friend's hash brown tacos (the shells are made from the potatoes!) looked insanely good too.

Oaxaca Guacamole & Mimosas

Breakfast Quesadillas

Hash Brown Tacos

The entire brunch spread below! In complete honesty, I spent about 5 minutes photographing this from various angles, moving plates around, and getting laughed at by the group of guys sitting behind us 😂 Oh well, no shame here.

Day two's brunch was spent at Cava Mezze. Pro tip: make a reservation beforehand! I usually make reservations but this entire trip was on a whim and made up as we went along. We arrived around 1PM and the restaurant was completely full and booked, but we were lucky to get two of the last seats at the bar.

The best thing about Cava Mezze is the bottomless brunch isn't about the endless drinks, but the endless food. For only $35, you can order as many of the brunch plates as you want in two hours (mimosas are only 25 cents each). Needless to say, I tried half of the menu. Some of my favorites are below:

Skillet Cakes

Steak & Eggs - I wish I had ordered two of these!

Nutella Waffles

These three were definitely my favorite choices here. All of the portions are just enough to get a good sample of everything without being too small or too overwhelming.

We chose Cava Mezze because of it's location near PowerPlant Live, where we went to the Taco Festival on Sunday (and actually ate zero tacos because we were still so full from brunch!) Even without eating tacos, the area was super cute and the perfect setting for a festival!

I honestly wish I had more time there and will definitely be back in Baltimore sometime in the future. But if you find yourself in the area or feel like making a quick trek down to visit the city, there are lots of festivals and events coming up soon!

Happening now to October 22nd: Baltimore Beer Week

October 28: Great Halloween Lantern Parade & Festival

November 2: Whiskey Festival

November 11: Bacon Jam

Until next time friends, cheers!