North of downtown, in one afternoon
Remington, Hampden and Charles Village in a day, in the order to walk them: a farmers market that runs all winter, a free art museum, ten kitchens in an old body shop, a Sicilian bakery open until nine, and a basement pub with live music four nights a week.
Updated Sep 28, 2026 · each stop says the day its sources were read, and what they left unconfirmed
Remington, Hampden and Charles Village sit in a line up the Jones Falls, and between them they hold the Baltimore people live in rather than visit: a market running since 1980, a worker-owned bookshop, a free museum, two old industrial buildings with new lives, and music in a basement on a weeknight. This is for the visitor with one free day, the newcomer choosing an end of town, and the Baltimorean who only comes up for the museum.
The order is a day, east to west and morning to night. Start at the Saturday market in Waverly, walk across to the museum, eat lunch in Remington, spend the afternoon up in Hampden, then either stay there for the music on a weeknight or come back down to 23rd Street for dinner and a drink. The last four stops fold into it: a later morning, a lawn to sit on, and two weekends a year when the streets fill.
Before you go
- Saturday is the day this was built for. The market runs 7am to noon on Saturdays only, all year, and most of the rest of the list is open that day too.
- The music is on weeknights: the Bluebird's basement pub has jams Monday to Thursday, and The Session at Avenue Kitchen & Bar is Wednesday only. On a Thursday the BMA stays open until 9pm as well.
- Mondays are thin. The BMA, Doppio and Equitea are closed Monday and Tuesday, and Red Emma's and the Union Craft taproom close on Monday. Clavel shuts on Sunday.
- Driving to the Ottobar? Do not park in the gated lots beside it: they belong to Miller's Court residents, close at 5pm, and cars are towed. Use the street or the metered lot on 26th Street between Maryland and Charles.
- Two dates to plan a weekend around: the Baltimore Book Festival fills the streets of Waverly for two days each September, and the Black Wall Street Expo takes the lot at 25th and Maryland for one afternoon each autumn.
- 1
Waverly · Food · $
32nd Street Farmers Market
Start early on a Saturday, at the market that does not stop for winter. It has run since 1980, answers to two names, 32nd Street and Waverly, and fills over seventy booths from seven until noon every Saturday of the year. The rule behind it is why the early start pays: a vendor grows or makes what they sell, so you are buying from farmers and makers rather than resellers. Get a coffee at the Zeke's stall and a pastry at Doppio's, then walk two blocks over to Greenmount Avenue.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: Accessibility, parking, and whether SNAP or matching programmes run here
Hours: Sat 7am-noon, year round · full listing
- 2
Waverly · Food · $
Red Emma's
Red Emma's opens at nine, two blocks from the market, which makes it the natural second stop: a worker-owned bookshop, coffee house and kitchen on Greenmount Avenue, with a vegetarian and vegan menu. Downstairs is a free school classroom that runs talks most weeks, so it is as much a meeting place as a cafe. Sit with a new book and whatever you carried from the market, then head west to the museum. On the first Wednesday of a month, come back at six for Spread the Jam, which takes players at any level.
Sources read Sep 21, 2026
Not confirmed: What time the jam ends, and who hosts it now. Both come from the Jazz Alliance rather than the shop. Step-free access to the downstairs classroom
Hours: Tue-Sat 9am-8pm; Sun 10am-4pm; closed Monday · full listing
- 3
Charles Village · Arts · Free
Baltimore Museum of Art
Walk west to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which is free and says so plainly: reserve a ticket or take one at the Welcome Desk, and only the special exhibitions are ticketed. That makes it a museum you can use rather than save up for, an hour now and another on a Thursday, when it stays open until nine: with the Walters, one of only two free museum evenings in the city. Leave time for the Sculpture Gardens, which keep the same hours when the weather allows. The step-free way in is the ramped Zamoiski East Entrance.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Hours: Wed-Sun 10am-5pm, Thu until 9pm; closed Mon-Tue, and on New Year's Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas · full listing
- 4
Remington · Food · $
Illegal Tender Pit Beef
Lunch depends on the date. On the third Friday of the month, three friends, Mike, Rich and Matt, set up a charcoal grill, a slicer and a folding table outside Mount Royal Soaps on Huntingdon Avenue and slice pit beef to order, from ten until half past two. That is twelve days a year at a fixed spot, so if your free day can be a third Friday, make it one. From April to November the same address holds a night market, five to nine, with them on its food list. Any other day, lunch is R House.
Sources read Sep 22, 2026
Not confirmed: Payment, age and access. Whether the daytime pop-up and the evening market are both worked, and whether the daytime one runs through the winter, since only the market's April to November season is published. Festival and night market dates go up as they come.
Hours: Third Friday of the month, outside Mount Royal Soaps. Their own bio gives 10am to 2:30pm. Visit Baltimore lists them as a food vendor at the Mount Royal Soaps Night Market the same evening, 5 to 9pm, and says that market runs April to November. Whether they trade straight through both, or work one and not the other, is not published anywhere. Other appearances follow whatever event they are working. · full listing
- 5
Remington · Food · $$
R. House
R House is the answer when nobody in the group wants the same thing. A former auto body shop on 29th Street now holds ten kitchens and one bar: tacos, Korean, fried chicken, poke, Creole, hot dogs, and Taharka Bros to finish. It is the first of two old industrial buildings on this route, and the easiest room in Remington to lose an hour in. Doors open at eight every day, and at the weekend it turns into Brunch House from eleven to three, which is exactly where a Saturday coming down from the museum lands.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: Hours and the current stall line-up against the hall's own site, plus accessibility and parking. The Baltimore Jazz Alliance lists a straight-ahead jazz jam here every Monday, 6pm to 9pm, no cover but tips welcome. R House does not say so anywhere we could read: its own site timed out on 21 Sep 2026, so the jam is a lead and not a fact.
Hours: Mon-Thu and Sun 8am-11pm; Fri-Sat 8am-midnight · full listing
- 6
Remington · Food · $
Doppio Pasticceria
Straight across 29th Street is Doppio, a Sicilian bakery, and the reason to know it is the clock. It opens at eight, and Thursday to Saturday it stays open until nine, which makes it one of the few places in this city where a pastry and a coffee is an evening rather than a morning. Take something now for the walk up to Hampden, or save it for later: on a Saturday it is the dessert stop after an early dinner on 23rd Street. On Wednesday it shuts at three, and it is closed Monday and Tuesday.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: Accessibility and parking. The hours page also carried a dated closure notice, so check it before a special trip.
Hours: Wed 8am-3pm; Thu-Sat 8am-9pm; Sun 8am-8:30pm; closed Mon-Tue · full listing
- 7
Hampden · Food · $$
Union Collective
Then go north and west into Hampden for the afternoon. Union Collective is the second old industrial building of the day and the bigger one: a 155,000 square foot Sears warehouse that sat empty and now holds a dozen independent businesses, anchored by Union Craft Brewing's taproom and beer garden. The Charmery for ice cream, Vent Coffee Roasters, Baltimore Spirits Company, Carroll and Son Fine Foods and a climbing gym share the roof. Every tenant keeps its own hours, so plan around the brewery's: noon Friday to Sunday, three midweek, closed Monday.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: The other tenants' hours, accessibility and parking
Hours: Union Craft taproom and beer garden: Tue-Thu 3pm-10pm; Fri-Sat noon-10pm; Sun noon-8pm; closed Mon. Every other tenant sets its own. · full listing
- 8
Hampden · Music · $$
The Bluebird
On a weeknight, stay in Hampden and head to the Bluebird on Hickory Avenue. It is a cocktail room with a basement underneath, and the basement, the Pub, is the reason to know it: candlelit, brick and small, with live music Monday to Thursday. The Django jazz jam has met every Monday since 2012, old time and bluegrass jams take turns on Tuesdays, and the Baltimore Jazz Underground plays most Wednesdays and every Thursday. Monday and Tuesday are free and all ages; the jazz is $10, every dollar to the musicians. The entrance is up a flight of steps.
Sources read Sep 27, 2026
Not confirmed: The Tuesday finish. The venue's Hours page gives the Tuesday jam as 7pm to 11pm while its Pub page runs the old time jam to 10pm and the bluegrass jam to 10pm, so the two disagree. The times of the Irish Music School night, which the Pub page does not give. Access, and the Cocktail Room's age policy
Hours: Cocktail Room Sun-Thu 5pm-12am; Fri-Sat 5pm-1am. Kitchen Sun-Thu 5pm-10pm; Fri-Sat 5pm-11pm. The Pub runs music Mon-Thu evenings. · full listing
- 9
Hampden · Music · $
Avenue Kitchen & Bar
On a Wednesday, walk over to The Avenue itself, 36th Street, for The Session at Avenue Kitchen & Bar. Clarence Ward III has run it for the best part of a decade, and it is the jam other Baltimore players treat as the standing weekly. He runs the Monday jam at Motor House as well, so between the two he holds down both ends of the week. No cover, tips welcome, downbeat at seven, and it pays to be early. With no word on its kitchen, eat first: the Bluebird's kitchen runs to ten.
Sources read Sep 21, 2026
Not confirmed: Everything the bar would normally state itself: its own opening hours, food, age policy and access. The Jazz Alliance gives the session as 7pm to 10pm on the page and 6pm to 9pm in that page's own web address, so the hour is worth checking before a special trip
Hours: Not published by the venue in a form we could read. The Session runs Wednesday evenings. · full listing
- 10
Remington · Food · $$
Clavel
On a Saturday, or any night the basements are quiet, come back down to Remington for dinner on 23rd Street. Clavel is a taqueria with a mezcal bar behind it, and the mezcal is the reason to book rather than walk in: there is a tasting bar you can reserve. Tacos, ceviches and cocktails the rest of the way, which makes it as good a table for a group as for two. It runs five to eleven, Monday to Saturday, and shuts on Sunday, so the Sunday version of this day ends in Hampden.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: Accessibility, parking, age policy and whether the tasting bar needs booking ahead
Hours: Mon-Sat 5pm-11pm; closed Sun · full listing
- 11
Remington · Nightlife · $$
W.C. Harlan
Afterwards, walk along 23rd Street to W.C. Harlan, if you can find it: a cocktail bar in a Remington rowhouse with no sign on it, candlelit and furnished like somebody's front room. That is the whole conceit, and after a day in converted industrial buildings it is the room that still feels like a house. The catch is that it publishes almost nothing about itself, hours included; the usual word is five until late, closed Sunday. Go knowing the door might be shut, with Clavel's mezcal bar back along the street as the fallback.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: The hours, which no source the bar controls appears to publish. Everything else too: age policy, accessibility, whether it takes bookings.
Hours: Not published by the bar. Listings elsewhere say 5pm to midnight Monday to Wednesday, 5pm to 1am Thursday to Saturday, closed Sunday. · full listing
- 12
Remington · Music · $$
Ottobar
Or, if there is a show on, end the night at the Ottobar instead, five minutes' walk from Clavel on North Howard Street. It has been putting on the loud half of this city's music since 1997, across two floors, and it is where Remington's evening gets its noise. Doors move with the show, so the ticket is your timetable. If you drive, stay out of the gated lots next door, which tow; the street and the metered lot on 26th are fine. Better still, do what the venue suggests and bike, or get a ride.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: The nightly hours and door times, which move with the show, plus accessibility and the age policy
Hours: Not published by the venue, which lists show times instead. Listings elsewhere say doors 9pm most nights and 6pm on Wednesday and Friday, through to 2am. · full listing
- 13
Remington · Food · $
The Equitea Co.
If your day starts later than the market, or falls on a Sunday, begin it here instead, on 28th Street, one street down from R House. The Equitea Co. calls itself a ceremonial matcha studio, which is a narrower thing than a cafe and worth knowing before you arrive wanting a flat white. Come for the matcha, then walk up to the museum. It keeps daytime hours only: nine to four Wednesday to Saturday, ten to three on Sunday, and closed Monday and Tuesday, the same two days as the museum.
Sources read Sep 26, 2026
Not confirmed: Accessibility and parking
Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 9am to 4pm; Sunday 10am to 3pm; closed Monday and Tuesday · full listing
- 14
Charles Village · Outdoor · Free
Wyman Park Dell
Between the museum and Remington, or wherever the day needs a pause, sit down in Wyman Park Dell, the bowl of lawn below the BMA at Charles and 29th. It is held by a volunteer conservancy rather than left to the parks department alone, and the steep slope on the museum side is why a herd of goats turns up once a year to eat the invasive growth off it, which is not a metaphor. There is no gate and nothing to pay, but like every city park it closes at sunset, so use it before dinner.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: Nothing is posted for the Dell itself beyond the city's rule
Hours: Sunrise to sunset, like every city park; the Dell is an open park with no gate · full listing
- 15
Charles Village · Arts · Free
Black Wall Street Expo
Two dates can make this day bigger. The first is the Black Wall Street Expo, one afternoon each autumn, noon to six, when an outdoor marketplace of Black-owned businesses takes over the lot at 25th Street and Maryland Avenue, with music and food alongside the vendors. It is run by the Notre Maison Connects nonprofit, free to walk into, free to park, and open to all ages. It sets its own date, so treat it as a reason to pick a weekend: on the day it fits between lunch in Remington and dinner on 23rd Street.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Hours: One afternoon a year; 12pm-6pm on the day · full listing
- 16
Waverly · Arts · Free
Baltimore Book Festival
The second is the Baltimore Book Festival, in its 27th year and no longer on the harbor. It runs in the streets of Waverly now, on 30th, 31st and 32nd Streets west of Greenmount, over nine stages: authors, panels, signings, children's programming and a street full of booksellers, all free to walk into, with the Saturday running late into an after-dark party. It is two days each September, and on that Saturday this guide's first morning grows: the market at seven, Red Emma's at nine, the festival from ten.
Sources read Sep 19, 2026
Not confirmed: Accessibility, parking, and whether any individual events inside the festival are ticketed
Hours: Festival weekend only: Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 10am-5pm · full listing
On at these places soon
- YHWH Nailgun · Ottobar, Fri 23 Oct, Doors 8pm
- OAK Trio · Baltimore Museum of Art, Sat 24 Oct, 3pm
- I Wanna Dance With Somebody before 9pm: Halloween edition · Ottobar, Sat 24 Oct, 5pm to 9pm
- Freakness: A Creature Race · Wyman Park Dell, Sat 24 Oct, 2pm to 5pm
- Flooding with Dosser and Racing Green · Ottobar, Wed 28 Oct, Doors 7pm
- Sweet Pill with Heart to Gold and Stereosity · Ottobar, Sun 1 Nov, Doors 7pm