Ah, Berlin.

Disclaimer: The following blogpost is mushy as HECK! 

The love levels are high, read with caution!

I don't know if you know this, but the town of Berlin is absolutely lovely. It looks charming, which is nice, but it's also full of genuinely welcoming and kind people.

About a month ago, a few friends and I were hanging out and not being particularly quiet in the apartment above the Maryland Wine Bar. Right across the street, Victorian Charm was having an anniversary celebration and sale event. We had the windows wide open, and we heard the owners attempting to speak to us from across the street. We immediately fell silent, sure they were going to tell us to quiet down - an instinctual, "dad's yelling down the stairs for us to put a sock in it" kind of effect. 

Lo and behold, the owners of Victorian Charm saw that we were having our own celebration, and were offering us the leftover food from their event. Pieces of smoked salmon on cucumbers, tiny chicken salad sandwiches, the works. It was a total windfall, and we were awestruck. We spent the rest of our evening talking about how that kind of stuff just doesn't happen everywhere. It's not just a perk of living in a small town, it's a perk of living in a small town of nice people. 

I love that Jason and Peggy at Berlin Coffee Shop know which kind of bagel I like the most, I love that I can strike up conversation with just about anyone in town, I love that when I went around Berlin hanging posters for the Food Drive every shop owner lent me some window space, and I love that I see new faces in town all the time. It's even more exciting to see someone else fall in love with Berlin, like I recently realized I have. I love reading those comment cards people leave behind at The Globe that say things like "Can't believe we've missed out on Berlin until now!" and "Everyone is so nice!"

And it gets better all the time! New restaurants to try, new local musicians to hear, new emerging artists,  new faces at The Globe... I can't wait to see what Berlin will be like in a year. This year's been something special, and it's only half over.

Featured Artist June 2014 - Eric Budd

Check out the amazing creations of our June Featured Artist, Eric Budd Decoys and Taxidermy! His work will be on display in the Balcony Art Gallery & Lounge throughout the entire month of June.

 

More information here!

Music at the Globe

It is a delightful thing to walk into the Globe and hear live music playing from the stage. We're lucky to have a variety of very talented musicians play just about every Friday and Saturday night, which makes dinner time on the weekends a really special event. We have bands that play for us almost every month during the summer - like the classy and very popular Dark Gold Jazz and the upbeat and truly fun Poole Brothers. But then we also have some wild cards - last summer we had a ticketed show featuring a John Denver impersonator. He was fantastic; he looked, sounded, and dressed exactly like the real thing and had apparently been adopted from John Denver's home town. And then there's Bryan Clark, who puts every woman in the building to swooning and every one else to dancing. Even if his voice wasn't so dang great he puts on one of the best shows I've ever seen. For New Year's Eve we had Hot Sauce Sandwich, some younger local guys who put a funky spin on the Mumford & Sons sound. The list goes on and on.

But on July 17th we've got something really special! Deanna Bogart, a versatile and truly gifted musician will be playing at 8pm for your listening pleasure. This woman can boogie. She sings, she plays piano, she plays a mean saxophone, and is generally a lot of fun. Give us a call with your questions about tickets or if you just want to know more about her (410.641.0784)! Also here is her website. 

Look. Look she's playing piano and looking soulfully at someone. I'll pretend it's me.

So soulful! Luckily, she probably isn't playing Careless Whisper.

Food Drive Time!

     When you're part of a community as wonderful as Berlin, you can't help but want to give back. We participate in clothing drives, charity auctions - and we're glad to do it. The Globe was a drop off point for a clothing drive for victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and it really made everyone's heart a little lighter to fill up the entire Gallery with shoes, socks, and sweaters that the lovely people of Berlin brought to us. We loaded up an entire truck and it really felt good.

     So, we are hosting a food drive! We are collaborating with Maryland Foodbank and Burley Oak to collect food for families in need all over the Eastern Shore. The main event will be at Burley Oak at 6pm on Monday, June 16th (as part of Burley Oak's fantastic Monday charity series), but The Globe will be taking food donations all week starting on June 10th. Dig that canned food out of your cabinet and leave it with us!

    In order to coordinate the food drive, I (Front Desk Becky) met up with Ralph Hickman, one of the Directing Managers at the Maryland Foodbank in Salisbury. He was kind enough to give me a tour of their warehouse and speak a little bit about what they do. The Foodbank provides to families all over Maryland and even has after-school programs for children who are "food-insecure," meaning they're not sure where their next meal is coming from. Mr. Hickman told me that while it used to be 1 in 4, now 1 in every 5 kids in the area the Foodbank serves is food insecure, and while I'm glad for the improvement it's still very heartbreaking. Hungry kids have evident trouble paying attention in school, maintaining their energy levels, and controlling their behavior.

    The Foodbank gets food donations from all kinds of places - they buy food from grocery stores at discounted rates, take food which is just past the shelf-date but still USDA-approved from bulk-sale stores like Sam's Club and Costco, they collect food from government donations, and they even obtain food from local farms. But the number one source of food is donations from food drives. So let's do it! Bring in those canned peas you were going to make casserole with but ordered pizza instead! Drop them off at the Globe between June 10th and June 16th or (even better) come to our event at Burley Oak at 6pm on June 16th! Bonus: For every pound of food donated, the Globe will donate 50 cents! We'll be glad to see you :)

Donate at: The Globe June 10th-June 16th & Burley Oak @ 6pm on June 16th
Food Drive Finale Event @ Burley Oak 6pm June 16th - 10% of all Bar Sales and All Tips from Burley Oak go to Maryland Food Bank! The Globe will match food donations 50 cents to the pound!

Check that out! Thousands of pounds of food!

I didn't ask if I could drive the forklift because I am a grownup. *Sigh*

That guy right there is helping his community AND knew all the words to "Happy" by Pharrell. I know, I saw him.

The Time Has Come for Sunday Brunch!

"The time has come for Brunch" she said,
"To enjoy many things:
Of eggs--and bacon--and sweet pancakes--
Of cream of crab soup--and wings--
And why not have a $2 Mimosa or Mary,
And savor the Sunday morning of kings."

   

Chesapeake Women's Network (An Inside Peek)

Working at the front desk is an unusual experience at times. The host desk's focus is directed entirely at the front door; we cannot see anything going on anywhere else in the restaurant unless we leave the desk. So, over the course of my shift, I hear lots of things that go unexplained. I'll be standing at the desk and overhear the bartender say something like, "So I'm there, pants around my ankles-" and I'll dart over in attempt to hear more when the phone rings and it's too late. On a Murder Mystery night I might be going over the reservation book and overhear a staged gunshot, or an actor shout something like, "not MY husband!" and be dying to get upstairs to investigate but unable to leave the stand. At times it is heartbreaking - there's always something fun or interesting going on somewhere in the Globe.

So when I was finally invited to attend a CWN meeting, I jumped at the chance. CWN, or Chesapeake Women's Network, meets on the second Tuesday of every month at about 6pm in the Balcony Art Gallery (the source of many mysterious goings on in the host universe). CWN is a group of intelligent, active, and very social women whom I will admit I was a little intimidated by, but who also turned out to be quite welcoming. We all gathered upstairs to mingle for about a half hour before sitting down to hear a speaker on the topic "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I had never read Dale Carnegie's book, but from what I had heard its message is an important and timeless one, so I was excited to hear more.

We sat down and enjoyed some quality Globe food, grilled chicken and sauteed vegetables. The speaker introduced herself and her topic, and suddenly I was no longer at work. It is usually impossible for me to be in the building without worrying about something - fixing a wobbly table, answering the phone, etc. - but that vanished in the midst of the crackly energy exuded by this speaker and the women she was addressing. The speaker, Tammy, shared with us the importance of navigating conflict gracefully, making coworkers and peers feel valued, and learning to understand the differences in others as differences, rather than flaws or shortcomings. I was enraptured and determined to put these new lessons to work as soon as I could. Women around the room were generous enough to share their experiences and stories, and the group I was dining with became more interesting by the minute. I met one woman that night who has decided, while living on the Eastern Shore, to take up dogsledding (like, full-on Iditarod/Balto mushing). She is 63, writes her own blog about nutrition and health, owns 5 huskies of her own, and has been dogsledding for 3 years. All I could think while talking to her is that I want to be her when I grow u

I left CWN gratified to know that the goings on at the Globe deserve all the curiosity I'd been harboring, and delighted that I'd finally gotten a peek at what goes on beyond the front desk. I'm grateful for the experience and would recommend it to any woman in the area who is looking for something to do on the second Tuesday of every month. 

Weddings at the Globe

     A lot of special things happen at the Globe, little ones and big ones. A grandmother has traveled down from Boston to see her daughter and meet her granddaughter for the first time and the family joins us for dinner. The couple at table 2, quietly watching the derby on TV while she tries a bite of his soup, reveals that 62 years ago today they were married at the Kentucky Derby. The trivia host on a Wednesday dares a young couple on their first date to share their first kiss and to everyone's surprise they do. The beautiful thing about restaurants is that people celebrate over meals; they come together, take a break from their busy lives, and take the time to really enjoy each other's company and the good food in front of them - whether it's a big family dinner or a quick lunch before heading back to work.

     So lucky for us working here, we get to share a lot of the special moments that happen at the Globe. Every once in a while, we get to witness perhaps the most special event of them all: a wedding.

     A wedding is a magical thing, and every wedding at the Globe is as unique as the building it takes place in. I've seen a quiet, classic wedding in the Balcony Art Gallery with just two dozen guests and joined the other front desk staff in strategically watching but not staring at the bride make her way up the stairs, her gown trailing behind her like in a movie. We've also had weddings that take place throughout our whole building - the ceremony in the theater, the reception upstairs, or vice versa. The Gofreddis shared their special day with us in May of 2010 and the whole building was one big party. Lisa and Jon were married on our stage as their family and friends watched from below, something I think about sometimes when I'm seating tables there - this is where the Gofreddis got hitched! A lot of magical things happen on that stage, but that is a whole other blog post.

    So as we look forward to another wedding this very Saturday, we say thank you to our guests. Thank you for sharing some truly special moments with us, big and small. It's what makes us do the work we do.

"There was one thing we heard over and over from our guests; that they had never been to a wedding as unique and fun as this one!"  - Lisa and Jon Gofreddi

How Far We've Come

We seem to have achieved both 4000 Facebook Likes & A Coastal Style Magazine Best of 2014 Nomination in one day.

But it has taken days, weeks and years to attract a customer base like you. Your loyalty thrills us; your support raises us up. Your quirky ways, enthusiasm and honest feedback have helped us grow leaps and bounds in what feels like minutes.

Thank you. Thank you for your business, your friendship and your inspiration. We never could have done it without you, and can't wait to keep doing it with you 

If inclined, we would love your support ->http://bit.ly/CSVoteNow

2nd Friday with Patti Backer

  The second Friday of every month in Berlin is always exciting for us at the Globe. We see a lot of new faces in town, we participate in the always lovely 2nd Friday Art Stroll, and we get brand new artwork for a whole month! This past Friday we welcomed back Patti Backer, one of our delightful local artists, with her show Lighter Than Air. 

   Patti's work is always a big hit. She has described her style as "lowbrow and folk, cute and sinister," and it's a perfect tagline. Her paintings tend to include creatures who have turned one disarmingly sentient yet benign eye towards you as they carry on with however they seem to be entertaining themselves. Titled as simply as "Slowpokes" or as elaborately as "The Octopus and Albino Blackbird Made For An Unlikely Pair," her work is inviting and colorful, in both senses of the word. 

   I won a few moments of her time just before the opening of Lighter Than Air in the Art Gallery and asked her about a few paintings in particular. In "Anteater Loves a Thunderstorm," an anteater wearing a jaunty little hat has lassoed an ant with his tongue, and I thought at first glance that he was blissfully unaware of the ongoing storm just behind him. I asked, concerned, and Patti said, "He'll be fine. He knows what's going on. They all kinda know what's going on, I think." And she's right. This anteater is having a ball. I inquired how the turtle in "Slowpokes" felt about the snail and bird sitting on his back and she replied, "I think they adore each other. There's some love between everybody [in the paintings]. I have a lot of fun playing with human emotions on animal faces."

   An avid gardener, Patti shared that she draws inspiration from watching the birds interact outside her home in Berlin. "I just watch the birds, sometimes for hours. My neighbors probably think I'm a weirdo." Neighbors aside, the world Patti's captured with her paintings is a magical one, and if I can find a classy enough hat I might just sit outside in the next thunderstorm. No ants though, thank you. 

Pictured from top to bottom: "The Beautiful Flounder," "Anteater Loves a Thunderstorm," and "Slowpokes," all by Patti Backer

Mother's Day Thoughts

With Mother’s Day right around the corner on May 11^th, we at the Globe took a break from gearing up for what will certainly be a busy Mother’s Day Sunday Brunch and took a moment to think about our own moms. I asked everyone I came across if they could spare a moment to tell me their favorite thing about their mom, and of course they all could.

Karen, a waitress here at the Globe, smiled a huge smile and said, “My mom is my absolute best friend in the world. She’s my rock.”

Molly, also a waitress, shifted an enormous tray of drinks on her shoulder and cracked an equally huge smile. “I talk to my mom every day, even though she lives 500 miles from me.”

Jeff, an always upbeat kitchen cook who makes a killer chicken pesto sub said, “My mom’s very imaginative. She’s always been so creative.”

Aveon, another cook, said, “My mom has super powers.” I work with Aveon, and he always makes me smile but I would have to agree that whoever raised him would need those.

Claire, our tech and social media wizard let out a few thoughtful “ohs,” and hopped from foot to foot before saying, “I have so many favorite things! Her free spirit, her confidence, and her awesome sharp wit.”

Greg, our bar manager and the creator of George’s Bloody Mary Mix, had a little more time to tell me about his mother, Bunny. Greg was sitting at his office – a bar table that he periodically claims by covering it in notebooks – but put aside his work to say, “I really enjoy spending time with her. She’s always been fun. I was the youngest of five, and I always felt comfortable talking to her about anything. I was lucky to have that, looking back. On Friday nights, she and my Aunt Dot would make pizza for all of us. Dot had 10 kids; her kitchen table was the size of the bar (the Coppertop Bar, which dwarfs most kitchen tables) and they had a Vulcan range stove. We could all bring a friend, and all my friends wanted my mom’s pizza, so there would be 30, 60 kids ages 8 to 25 eating pizza. Mom made the sauce, Dot made the dough. That sauce…it was phenomenal.”         

So here’s to moms; witty moms, creative moms, loving moms, pizza chef moms, moms who inspire us and moms who are always there with advice and a big hug.  Thank you for so much, and we wish you the best Mother’s Day.