Hampden Scores Big in The City Paper's Best of Baltimore

Here are the Hampden highlights from The City Paper's Best of Baltimore that came out yesterday:

Full story & details HERE.

First off, City Paper picks Seton Hill as best neighborhood, but the readers pick Hampden! (The also pick Baltimore Crime as the best local blog, FYI. There's always next year, Hampdenites!)

Hampden dominates the reader's picks:
Best Local Women's Clothing Store: Doubledutch Boutique
Best Shoe Store: Ma Petite Shoe
Best Local Hardware Store: Falkenhan's Hardware
Best "Adult" Store: Sugar (Do the quotation marks mean that folks who shop at Sugar aren't really adults?)
Best Independent Bookstore: Atomic Books
Best Liquor Store: The Wine Source
Best Auto-Repair Shop: Brentwood Automotive
Best New Restaurant: Rocket to Venus
Best Wannabe Scenester Bar: Rocket to Venus (Wannabe? Please.)
Best Bar for Nonsmokers: Hon Bar (and Hawker says best bartenders!)
Best Karaoke: Frazier's on the Avenue
Best Jukebox: Rocket to Venus

. . . And the City Paper picks:

Best Development Project That Should Be Happening But Isn't: The Old Northern District Police Station
(City Paper says that long-rumored reopening of Mamie's in the Station isn't happening because of the delay.)

Best Pool We Wish Was Public: Assembly Apartments at Clipper Mill
(Well, duh.)

Best Spa: ReNew Organic Day Spa
(And Hawker's never been there! This must be fixed!)

Best Independent Bookstore: Atomic Books
(Hawker, like The City Paper, often finds things there she didn't know she wanted.)

Best Adult Store: Sugar
(What can Hawker say? Hampden embraces pleasure.)

Best Liquor Store: The Wine Source
(which almost didn't win because according to The City Paper, "enough with Hampden already." Nice.)

Best Place to Buy Vinyl: True Vine
(Rumor has it that a couple of Baltimore dj's and hip-hip stars dump their excess vinyl at True Vine. There are treasures to be found there!)

Best Hairstylist: Cliff Butler of Sprout

Best Champion of Local Food: Dogwood
(The dining room should reopen September 25th!)

Best New Restaurant: R2V
(No surprise.)

Best New Appetizer: Rocket to Venus's Brussels Sprouts
(Is there anybody that doesn't like the way they make 'em?)

Best Pie: Common Ground Café
(Feels like an upset--go Common Ground!)

Best Chicken Quesadillas: Golden West Café
(This just in: Hampden respects the quesadilla!)

There is so much Hampden all over that City Paper, Hawker may have missed something. Please advise!