ENAR is in Baltimore - Here's What To Do

14 Mar 2014

This year’s meeting of the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society (ENAR) is in lovely Baltimore, Maryland. As local residents Jeff and I thought we’d put down a few suggestions for what to do during your stay here in case you’re not familiar with the area.

Venue

The conference is being held at the Marriott in the Harbor East area of the city, which is relatively new and a great location. There are a number of good restaurants right in the vicinity, including Wit & Wisdom in the Four Seasons hotel across the street and Pabu, an excellent Japanese restaurant that I personally believe is the best restaurant in Baltimore (a very close second is Woodberry Kitchen, which is a bit farther away near Hampden). If you go to Pabu, just don’t get sushi; try something new for a change. Around Harbor East you’ll also find a Cinghiale (excellent northern Italian restaurant), Charleston (expensive southern food), Lebanese Taverna, and Ouzo Bay. If you’re sick of restaurants, there’s also a Whole Foods. If you want a great breakfast, you can walk just a few blocks down Aliceanna street to the Blue Moon Cafe. Get the eggs Benedict. If you get the Cap’n Crunch French toast, you will need a nap afterwards.

Just east of Harbor East is an area called Fell’s Point. This is commonly known as the “bar district” and it lives up to its reputation. Max’s in Fell’s Point (on the square) has an obscene number of beers on tap. The Heavy Seas Alehouse on Central Avenue has some excellent beers from the local Heavy Seas brewery and also has great food from chef Matt Seeber. Finally, the Daily Grind coffee shop is a local institution.

Around the Inner Harbor

Outside of the immediate Harbor East area, there are a number of things to do. For kids, there’s Port Discovery, which my 3-year-old son seems to really enjoy. There’s also the National Aquarium where the Tuesday networking event will be held. This is also a great place for kids if you’re bringing family. There’s a neat little park on Pier 6 that is small, but has a number of kid-related things to do. It’s a nice place to hang out when the weather is nice. Around the other side of the harbor is the Maryland Science Center, another kid-fun place, and just west of the Harbor down Pratt Street is the B&O Railroad Museum, which I think is good for both kids and adults (I like trains).

Unfortunately, at this time there’s no football or baseball to watch.

Around Baltimore

There are a lot of really interesting things to check out around Baltimore if you have the time. If you need to get around downtown and the surrounding areas there’s the Charm City Circulator which is a free bus that runs every 15 minutes or so. The Mt. Vernon district has a number of cultural things to do. For classical music fans there’s the wonderful Baltimore Symphony Orchestra directed by Marin Alsop. The Peabody Institute often has some interesting concerts going on given by the students there. There’s the Walters Art Museum, which is free, and has a very interesting collection. There are also a number of good restaurants and coffee shops in Mt. Vernon, like Dooby’s (excellent dinner) and Red Emma’s  (lots of Noam Chomsky).

That’s all I can think of right now. If you have other questions about Baltimore while you’re here for ENAR tweet us up at @simplystats.