Thursday, November 20, 2025
Along a single block of Fells Point’s Thames Street are six spots for eating and drinking — eight if you count the Cannon Room and Rec Pier Chop House across Thames (pronounced “thames”) in the Pendry Baltimore hotel, a high-end redevelopment of the 1914 Recreation Pier, the Baltimore police station in “Homicide: Life on the Street.”
In numerical (that is, eastbound) order, starting with 1700, the six are: Sláinte, Kooper’s, the Undefeated, the Waterfront, Thames Street Oyster House and the Cat’s Eye Pub. Across S. Ann Street at 1800 Thames is another, Penny Black. And, somehow, the Daily Grind coffeehouse and Luana Kaufman’s quirky Emporium Collagia squeeze in too.
Penny Black on Thames Street in Fells Point. Photo by Richard Selden.
A mob scene of 20- and 30-somethings in warm weather, in the winter months the streets of Fells Point — paved with Belgian blocks carried as ballast in the Age of Sail — evoke a misty port in Northern Europe.
Is an atmospheric, semi-secluded getaway up your alley? Consider slipping into Fells Point off season. Other than to venture onto Baltimore’s eight-mile Waterfront Promenade, and perhaps stop into adjacent Little Italy, you can stay put from the time you arrive to the time you depart.
And if you crave festivity, on two December Saturdays it will come to you.
The big holiday event in Fells (city government omits the apostrophe) is Olde Tyme Christmas, taking place this year on Saturday, Dec. 6. St. Nick will arrive by tugboat at Broadway Pier, next to the Pendry hotel, at 9 a.m. From 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., he’ll pose for photos at Thames Street Mexican restaurant Barcocina, which will host craft activities. The action moves to Broadway Square, Fells Point’s central gathering place, for pet photos with Santa and free hot beverages from 1 to 4 p.m. After the tree lighting, around 5:45 p.m., comes the grand finale: the annual parade of lighted boats.
A wood dwelling among the brick row houses. Photo by Richard Selden.
The following Saturday, Dec. 13, is the Eggnog Tasting Tour, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Caroling group the Ding Dongs will perform as you meander from one noggery to the next. Check-in for this 21+ event will be at Broadway Square and two other locations, with tickets $28 in advance and $30 at the door, if still available.
Want to get out on the water? Based at Broadway Pier, the Baltimore Water Taxi is hibernating for the most part. However, Harbor Connector 1 offers a free ride across to Locust Point, from which Harbor Connector 2 goes to Canton Park, though only on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dates for ticketed, 60-minute harbor cruises: Saturday, Nov. 22; Sunday, Nov. 23; and Friday, Dec. 5.
In season, boaters motor up to Fells, dock at Henderson’s Wharf Marina and check into the Inn at Henderson’s Wharf, a 38-room property in the 1897 B&O Tobacco Warehouse, converted to residences in 1990. But the inn, which meets the harbor at the end of quiet Fell Street, is also a convenient and picturesque off-season option for those arriving by land.
The William Fell hotel. Photo by Richard Selden.
Continental breakfast is provided in a lounge-like extension of the lobby, where guests are invited to mingle at a manager’s social, Monday to Thursday at 5 p.m. Black Friday Sale: Part of Choice Hotels’ Ascend Collection, the inn is offering 20 percent off and a destination fee waiver on bookings between Nov. 26 and Dec. 2 for stays between Nov. 26 and April 6, 2026.
Past patisserie Sacré Sucré, Fell Street intersects Thames and S. Ann on a slant, with Pitango Bakery and Café at the point of the triangle. Around the corner on S. Ann is V-No Wine Bar and Shop. Both are included in special Inn at Henderson’s Wharf packages.
Across Thames Street at 812 S. Ann St. is Baltimore’s oldest standing residence, the Robert Long House, built in the 1760s, a few years before the city annexed Fells Point. Owned by the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill & Fell’s Point (note the apostrophe), the house is tourable by appointment.
A corner of Fell Street. Photo by Richard Selden.
Another site from the period, tucked into Shakespeare Street on the far side of Broadway Square, is a burying ground that may or may not still contain the remains of Edward Fell, who landed in 1726; his brother William, who arrived four years later; William’s son Edward, who died in 1763 at age 30; and his widow Ann Bond Fell. The younger Edward and Ann were the developers of Fells Point, laying out its street grid and selling house plots.
Nearby, on the square at 888 S. Broadway, is a lodging choice in the thick of things: the newly remodeled and rebranded William Fell Hotel, formerly the Admiral Fell Inn. Though its décor features nautical touches and framed vintage photos, the 80-room hotel has been given a contemporary makeover. From S. Broadway, you can step into the hotel’s white-walled, light-filled tavern or head down the stairs to a basement speakeasy, the Anchor Bar.
Now part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection, the William Fell is, you might say, a tapestry of Baltimore history. Its assembled buildings have been a ship chandlery, boarding houses, a Seaman’s YMCA and a vinegar bottler (no odor is evident). Hauntedrooms.com calls it “one of the most haunted hotels in Maryland,” invitingly adding: “It is no wonder since many patrons have died in the hotel between the sick sailors and possible mob victims.” Several companies — but not the hotel — offer Fells Point ghost tours.
Lobby lounge at the Inn at Henderson’s Wharf. Photo by Richard Selden.
Truth be told, not much remains of the neighborhood’s checkered past, Two of the saltiest watering holes, Leadbetter’s and Bertha’s Mussels, shuttered in 2016 and 2023, respectively. The Leadbetter’s space is a cocktail bar called Rye and the Bertha’s buildings were sold at auction (for the second time) last May. But simply walking the intact 18th-century streets and alleys is an undiminished Fells Point pleasure. Among the brick row houses typical of Baltimore — each with a narrow, round-topped “sally port,” providing quick access to the rear yard — wood dwellings occasionally pop up.
Two of the neighborhood’s notable former residents are honored at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park Museum at 1417 Thames St., open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (the outdoor part of the campus is always accessible). Douglass worked in Baltimore as an enslaved boy and young man before escaping to New York in 1838. More than 50 years later, he had five still-standing row houses constructed for Black renters on what is now called Douglass Place. Starting out as a maritime worker, Myers became a prominent Black businessman and labor activist after the Civil War.
The Inn at Henderson’s Wharf. Photo by Richard Selden.
Farther inland, Broadway Market, one of the city’s public markets, dating to 1786, has been updated as a food hall. On S. Broadway between Aliceanna and Fleet Streets, it stays open until 10 p.m. seven days a week.
Fells Point is also home to a pair of theater companies. About six blocks from Broadway Market, at 251 S. Ann St. in Upper Fells, is the Fells Point Corner Theatre, presenting “Trouble in Mind,” Alice Childress’s 1955 off-Broadway hit about a Black actress rehearsing an anti-lynching play. Directed by Christen Cromwell, remaining performances are Friday, Saturday and Sunday, this weekend and next. Near the William Fell at 806 S. Broadway is “America’s oldest continuously running little theatre,” Vagabond Players, now in its 110th season. The final (sold-out) performances of the 1967 rock musical “Hair,” are tonight through Sunday.
It being the holiday season, you may feel the need to take in “A Christmas Carol” or “The Nutcracker,” available in various forms elsewhere in Baltimore. Downtown at 7 S. Calvert St., Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is offering its Victorian Baltimore version of the Dickens tale from Friday, Nov. 28 (preview), to Thursday, Dec. 23. “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet” will be at the Hippodrome, on the other side of downtown at 12 N. Eutaw St., on Saturday, Dec. 6; The Creative Alliance, at 3134 Eastern Ave. in the Patterson Park neighborhood, will present “Bluegrass Nutcracker” on Sunday, Dec. 7; and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will accompany Los Angeles-based Troupe Vertigo’s “Cirque Nutcracker” in its Baltimore home, Meyerhoff Hall at 1212 Cathedral St., on Friday, Dec. 12, and Saturday, Dec. 13.
Other holiday shows in the Meyerhoff: Leslie Odom Jr.’s Christmas Tour on Saturday, Nov. 29 (not with the BSO); and “Elf in Concert,” Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 5, 6 and 7 (with the BSO). On Wednesday, Nov. 26, “Santa Claus Is Comin’” will open at Baltimore Center Stage, located at 700 N. Calvert St. in Mount Vernon. This world-premiere Motown Christmas revue runs through Sunday, Jan. 4.