Last month, the Sagamore Pendry Baltimore opened in Fells Point as one of the latest examples of Fells Point‘s transformation into an upscale neighborhood. I recently moved to the adjacent Upper Fells neighborhood from Laurel, so I haven’t seen the complete transformation, but its easy to see that its happening when you have places like Rye, the upscale craft cocktail lounge, replacing Leadbetter’s, a scrappy dive bar that has been a Fells Point staple for 60 years. You can also look at the massive hole where the Broadway Square used to be, and envision what $3 million is going to do there in the next 10 months to give the heart of Fells a makesover. Or you can look down the street and look at what is being refereed to as Harbor Point (Harbor East + Fells Point) and see the towers bringing all of the jobs and residences within spitting distance of Fells that will bring a much different clientele.

I am not saying this in a ‘get off my lawn’ kind of way. I am one of the many millennial, kid-free, car-free types that these developments are trying to attract from the suburbs. If you curse the changes in the city, and all of the bike lanes that are taking traffic lanes, you can curse people like me.

But as much as Fells is becoming a Baltimore landmark, it was not so long ago that large swaths of Fells were actually condemned by the city for destruction. According to one of the old timer Fells institutions, Bertha’s, Fells had its execution papers signed.

But Fells was able to come together as a community and stop the elevated expressway that was going to go through Fed Hill, to Fells Point, down Boston St and up the current I-95 route.

I bring up the history of Fells Point as a segue to the Waverly neighborhood.

Waverly is best known as the location where the old Memorial Stadium stood that hosted the Orioles and the Baltimore Colts. But did you know Waverly also had the Orioles previous homes? In fact, it had all five of the previous Orioles Parks.

I was not able to find a lot about what Waverly was like back in the days when it was home to the Orioles, but I have to assume it was like much of the rest of Baltimore: growing with rowhomes for most of the century, then dealing with some level of decay after 1968.

Driving up there along Greenmont Ave was a lot of depressed areas, but there were a few points where it was almost comical how different the two sides of the road were. It was especially true just north of Greenmont Cemetery in the Barclay neighborhood where we saw some beautiful new apartment buildings that are being offered to Johns Hopkins University employees. You can see a street view of the area from before it was finished, but it gives an idea of what is going on in the area.

Waverly is one of the nine Baltimore main streets, but there is a marked difference between Fells Point or Fed Hill (two of the main streets) and Waverly. But with Barclay starting to plant the seeds, and Johns Hopkins University just to the west, it does feel like the area is priming to transform from a slightly depressed area, to a much more vibrant one. Although, it could be similar to Pigtown, where the area is primed for a revitalization that has been coming for years, and may take many more years to come.

My visit to Waverly this week was timely for two, albeit unplanned reasons. The first is that the Orioles opening day was this week, so this was kind of the 25th anniversary of the Orioles leaving Waverly after spending the rest of the century growing in the area. The second was that Tupac was posthumously inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. Tupac spent his high school years in the Waverly area at 3955 Greenmount Ave, which was only six blocks north of the Waverly mainstreet.

We started at Peabody Heights Brewery, which is a couple blocks south of the Waverly main street (and the location to the Orioles fifth park that burned down in 1944. We got there at 730 during an Orioles/Yankees game, and assumed they would be open, but they had done last call about 15 minutes beforehand. In fact, it was surprising how fast Waverly main street closed down. As we walked from Peabody toward dinner, we noticed that almost everything was closed.

Fortunately, the Light City display was open. It was, by far, the most impressive neighborhood display of the eight neighborhoods, and it had events going on every night. It was a shipping container full of lights that you could walk through, and had a station where you could make your own light up magnets that you could use to add to the display, or take home. It would have been amazing last weekend with Peabody Brewing and Baltimore Bike Party if thunderstorms didn’t cancel the ride. I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the display.

The Waverly Thai restaraunt, descriptively named ‘Thai Restaurant’, was a real diamond in the rough. When going to a neighborhood that is a little rough around the edges, walking past a bunch of stores that are closed by 7:30pm on a Saturday, and visiting a restaurant that has a rather unimaginative name, I was mentally preparing to have to find another place to go to.

But they were amazing. The fresh spring rolls were just what we expected. Sometimes on weeknights, when we are looking for a nice take out evening, we will get Vietnamese spring rolls, which is a quick and healthy option. I was surprised at how similar Vietnamese spring rolls were to the Thai ones, until I looked at a map.

For the main course, I had the Veal masaman curry, which was completely new to me. I have had Indian curry, but this was the first time I have had Thai curry. There are different spice mixes from south Asia that are referred to as curry. The Indian curry is slightly different from the Thai version, but both are amazing in my opinion (but there are plenty of differences).

The veal was so tender and just fell apart. The carrots and potatoes were also great. But, honestly, it was the sauce that was freaking amazing. Normally, you eat the dish, and might just leave the leftover sauce, but I made sure to spoon all of that stuff up. When ordering, I got to specify how hot I wanted it on a scale from 1–3. When I asked for 3, he said that there was also a 4 if I wanted, but the sly look in the waiter’s eye told me that I had better be ready for it to be authentic hot at that level, so I backed down and stuck with my 3.

And it was a good thing because it was perfectly seasoned. Hot enough that you get a serious kick, but not so hot that you can’t taste the food. I really think that if they bottled that sauce, you could pretty much put it on anything and make it a lot better. I mean, I was spooning it up and eating it by itself by the end of the meal.

Maureen had the Pork Pad See Ew, which was a sweet and savory dish of meats, noodles, and vegetables. While not as good as the curry, it did well on its own, and worked well together. It was good, but couldn’t compare to the curry.

The Wrap

The whole outing was not one of the best we have had, especially since the brewery was closed, and Waverly is not quite as vibrant of an area as some of the other areas we have visited. But it represented itself well, and showed another side of Baltimore that will probably come around sooner than later. It probably won’t make a transformation like Fells did, but it does seem like the ingredients are all there. For the Thai restaurant, the food was amazing, and the Light City display showed some real creativity, and represented the neighborhood well.

Next Week

In the last few weeks, we have toured the southern edge of Asia by going from Lebanon to Uzbekistan to Thailand. Next week we will continue that by getting sushi in the park. The weather looks amazing, so we will get sushi from Shoyou Sushi and then swing down to Riverside Park in South Baltimore. This is the time of the year to take advantage of the nice weather now that the cold weather has (mostly) passed, and the humid weather is not here yet!