Hashgachos: Virtually everything Yeshivish in Baltimore is connected to the Star-K and Ner Yisroel. Pretty much every kosher restaurant has a Star-K with the exception of Accents/Coacochinos (fleishig/milchig restaurants next to each other) which has an OU for cost purposes (they still retained the same mashgiach). There are also a few places that serve Cholov Stam under other hasgochos, such as the Maggie Moos Ice Cream by Quarry Lake and Dunkin Donuts by Fallstaff and Reisterstown.
Food:
- Dougies. Same as New York. Great steakhouse.
- Three pizza shops, Tov Pizza, Mama Leahs and Carmels. Mama Leahs is my personal favorite, but Tov is a little more open and nicer. Carmels makes good “extra” stuff along with their pizza.
- Knish Shop: A small deli that has the best sandwiches and subs since they get their meat from Wassermen and Lemburgers which is unquestionably the best butcher on the East Coast.
- Two Asian restaurants, David Chus and Umami. Umami is a litter fancier and more expensive, but they have better food.
- Three fleishig restaurants, Kosher Bite, Accents and Royal. They are all pretty comparable to each other, but Kosher Bite has the best service and selection.
- One bagel store, Goldbergs, which makes great food.
- Coacachinos is a small coffee and sandwich shop (Cholov Yisroel only upon request)
- Van Gogh Cafe. Not cholov yisroel coffee shop. Located downtown, outside of the frum community. They get their food from Goldbergs.
Minyanim (everything is Ashkenaz unless specified):
- Aguda of Park Heights (Rav Heineman): Call 410-764-3333 for minyan times. They have the most frequent minyanim. Bit of a mixed crowd, more older people. Park Heights and Pinkney
- Kehal Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek AKA Feldmans (Rav Dovid Heber). Somewhat yeshivish crowd of various ages. Park Heights and Seven Mile Lane
- B’nei Jacob Shaarei Zion (Rav Moshe Hauer). More modern crowd. Many Ba’alei Teshuva prefer this minyan. Across from Feldmans
- Rabbi Aryehs Shul. Persian. Unless you’re also Persian, you’ll probably feel left out. Park Heights and Seven Mile Lane
- Bais Edmund Safra (Rav Goldfeiz). Sephardi, but mostly Persian crowd. Seven Mile, between Park Heights and Reisterstown
- Shomrei Emunah (Rav Marwick). Modern Orthodox, but has a sizeable Yeshivish crowd. Many minyanim through out the day. Greenspring rd
- Agudah of Greenspring. Yeshivish minyan, next to Shomrei
- Kehal Arugas HaBosem (Rav Taub and his brother, Rav Taub). Chassidish, but the crowd is mostly misnagdim that daven Nussach Sfard. Fallstaff and Park Heights
- Sternhills (Rav Kostelitz). Very similar to Taubs. Near the Agudah. Nussach Sfard.
- Goldbergs (nobody knows the real name of the shul). “Beginner” style minyan geared towards Ba’alei Teshuvas and others who didn’t have a good frum education. Sfard. Across from the Aguda
- Kol Torah/Rav Bergers. The unofficial Ner Yisroel shul. Slow davening. Located on Fallstaff between Willow Glen and Clarks. Slow davening, younger yeshiva crowd.
- Weis’s/Orach Chaim. Younger, mixed yeshivish/modern crowd mixed in with an older more modern crowd. Lots of weekday minyanim. Down the block from Bergers
- Darchei Tzedek (Rav Horowitz). Middle age crowd, not very yeshivish but not “modern”. Shelburne and Seven Mile.
- Ner Yisroel. They Yeshiva. It’s very out of the way, and not at all walking distance, but the davening is nice and yeshivish.
Attractions:
There are a lot of things to do around Baltimore, but for some you may have to drive a bit. First off is the Inner Harbor. Without traffic it’s a 15 minute drive from the frum community. The main attractions there are the aquarium (call ahead and buy tickets, it gets crowded and the limit the amount of people coming in) and the Science Center, but there are also boat rides, a childrens museum (Port Discovery) and it’s generally a nice place to walk around.
If you like outdoors, you can check out Gunpowder State Park, which is a great place for hiking. Piney Run park is a great place for picnics, and they also have rowboat/canoe/kayak rentals.
For the little kids, there’s a place called Annies Playground about an hour before you reach Baltimore coming from New York. It’s a huge outdoor playground.
The Baltimore Zoo is decent, but there are definitely better zoos out there.
Washington DC is only an hour drive away and there’s plenty more to do there, such as the zoo, the Washington Mall and the Smithsonian Museums. White House and Capital tours take all day, most of it spent waiting.
I’ll post more stuff when I think about it.