With its restaurants and shops, Baltimore's restored Inner Harbor district is a social center for locals. Photograph by Richard T. Nowitz/CORBIS

48 Hours Baltimore: The Best of a City in Two Days

Boldly Baltimore

With its spruced up neighborhoods and booming restaurant scene, Charm City makes a comeback.

Think Baltimore. Your fingers are dusted with Old Bay seasoning as you mine hard-shell crabs. You walk the promenade along the Inner Harbor, then spend two hours at the city's state-of-the-art aquarium until it's time to head over to the ball game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And if that were all there were, it would be enough.

But Baltimore's most engaging spots are in the nooks of its idiosyncratic neighborhoods. Just the names—Ridgely's Delight, Federal Hill, Mount Vernon—drip with character. And yet, unlike its attention-stealing sister city, Washington, DC, Baltimore has no pretensions of grandeur. It is instead exquisite in its smallness. "It's a small town with all the advantages of being big," says Tony Foreman, sommelier and co-owner of Charleston restaurant. "If you've grown up in Baltimore, you might go away, but you'll always come back." Its soul glimmers in places like the Cross Street Market where Ravens and O's faithful emphatically chant at mounted televisions and tuck into just-shucked oysters with a local brew like Chesapeake Lager.

Baltimore has used the success of the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards as a springboard to develop other niches. That means better restaurants, nightlife, and attractions in the neighborhoods that fishhook around the waterfront.

FAST FACTS

In the War of 1812, the British Navy tried to smash Baltimore's thriving harbor, which was producing swift, nettlesome schooners at the time. Inspired by the ensuing battle at Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, a lawyer on board a British vessel to negotiate the release of an American prisoner, wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner." More than a century later, Key's distant relative, F. Scott Fitzgerald, also spent time in Baltimore.

DON'T MISS

The municipally owned city markets, which are cheap, offer good, local fare. At the downtown Lexington Market, try Faidley Seafood's crabcakes. On Friday nights, Federal Hill's Cross Street Market has a lively happy hour. Check out the sushi bar. The B&O Railroad Museum, west of the Inner Harbor, is a train-lover's dream, with a roundhouse and yard filled with vintage locomotives spanning two centuries. All of the exhibits at the American Visionary Art Museum, on Federal Hill, are of works by self-taught artists. The Frederick Douglass "Path to Freedom Walking Tour" follows the great abolitionist's life in Fell's Point, where he learned to read and escaped slavery.

SHOPPING

In Mount Vernon, Antique Row, itself more than 100 years old, has about 20 antique shops that are often priced to dealers, so you can get some finds. The Antique Treasury has fine art, furniture, glass, and porcelain. Drusilla's Books specializes in antiquarian and rare books, and the Imperial Half Bushel features silver.

In Fell's Point, shops can be funky, like Killer Trash, a vintage clothes store. At .925 the Silver Shop you'll find affordable silver jewelry, and Grrreat Bears and Childhood Delights is a toy store with dollhouses and bears. Crabby Dick's, a favorite restaurant for steamed crabs, sells spices and crab paraphernalia.

LODGING

The Admiral Fell Inn is a historic European-style urban hotel with the intimate feel of the Fell's Point neighborhood. Its 80 comfortable rooms feature four-poster beds. Baltimore's high-amenity hotel is the Harbor Court Hotel, which overlooks the Inner Harbor. Mr. Mole B&B, located in the tree-lined Bolton Hill neighborhood, offers English-style comfort and a large Dutch-style breakfast with your room.

WHERE THE LOCALS EAT

In 1966, Lawrence Cardinal Shehan, Archbishop of Baltimore, declared that he was "ready to defend the right of the tasty crab, the luscious oyster, the noble rockfish (aka striped bass)....to continue their part in the penitential practice of Friday." Today, it would still be heretical not to partake of seafood, but Baltimore restaurant patrons are also finding gastronomic enlightenment beyond steamed crustaceans. Atlantic is a seafood restaurant in the waterfront area of Canton with a fine sushi counter. The signature dish is "filet mignon of tuna," with a crust of smoky bacon that would upset archbishops on Fridays, but has gone over well with regulars. In Little Italy, Aldo's is a superb ristorante whose menu stands out from the hearty southern Italian spaghetti-and-meatballs style common in the area. Baltimore's culinary pièce de résistance is Charleston, where chef Cindy Wolf uses classical French techniques to produce a daring menu that includes a fried green tomato sandwich with lobster and lump crab hash, and pan seared foie gras with white beans in a port reduction. The wine list developed by Wolf's husband-partner, Tony Foreman, has a dedicated following that includes renowned connoisseur and Baltimore-area native Robert Parker, the esteemed wine critic and founder of the newsletter The Wine Advocate, who keeps a locker in the restaurant's wine library.

TRAVELWISE

Sightseeing, Culture, Shopping

.925 the Silver Shop: 1640 Thames St., +1 410 327 0036.
American Visionary Art Museum: 800 Key Hwy., +1 410 244 1900.
Antique Treasury: 809 N. Howard St., +1 410 728 6363.
B&O Railroad Museum: 901 W. Pratt St., +1 410 752 2490; www.borail.org.
Drusilla's Books: 817 N. Howard St., +1 410 225 0277.
Grrreat Bears and Childhood Delights: 1643 Thames St., +1 410 276 4429.
Imperial Half Bushel: 831 N. Howard St., +1 410 462 1192.
Killer Trash: 602 S. Broadway, +1 410 675 2449.

Restaurants, Bars, & Markets

Aldo's Ristorante Italiano: 306 S. High St., +1 410 727 0700.
Atlantic: 2400 Boston St., +1 410 675 4565.
Charleston: 1000 Lancaster St., +1 410 332 7373.
Faidley Seafood (Lexington Market): 200 N. Paca St., +1 410 727 4898.

Lodging

Admiral Fell Inn: 888 S. Broadway, +1 410 522 7377, fax +1 410 522 0707; www.admiralfell.com. $145-215 U.S.
Harbor Court Hotel: 550 Light St., +1 410 234 0550, fax +1 410 659 5925; www.harborcourt.com. $225-350 U.S.
Mr. Mole B&B: 1601 Bolton St., +1 410 728 1179, fax +1 410 728 3379; www.mrmolebb.com. $119-150 U.S.

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details before making travel plans.