![]() It's been serving up pizzas for half a century - "one of those local places that actually deserves all the accolades," in Lippman's opinion. Matthew's is cozy, too - a dozen oilcloth-covered tables, speckled linoleum floor, a jukebox and a few gold-painted cherubs for class. "And here, the caretaker has added such a personal touch." She means the cinderblock wishing well in the front yard, the little lamb statues, the metal glider. "I do like Baltimore cemeteries," Lippman muses. He's got this huge piece of land for just him and his wife." "He had almost $1 billion when he died," Lippman says, "and this is where he chose to be buried. ![]() Harry was a grammar school dropout and self-made man who bought land. Lippman wants to point out the final resting spot of Baltimore benefactors Harry and Jeanette Weinberg, whose names adorn buildings all over the city. It's a very Baltimore way to talk: 'Go by where Haussner's used to be on Clinton Street.' "īut first, a detour: the Hebrew Friendship Cemetery, next to Lord Baltimore Uniforms on East Baltimore Street. "No tour of Baltimore is complete," Lippman observes, "without driving past something that used to be there. For more than 70 years the place had a special place in the hearts of Baltimoreans, who came not only for the unpretentious food and kitschy decor but to ogle the four-foot, 850-pound monument to thrift that the owners had collected over the years. On the way, we pass the old Haussner's restaurant, of Giant Ball of String fame. Lunch will be at Matthew's Pizzaria, a much-loved neighborhood joint in Highlandtown. Lippman, who's nothing if not organized, has typed up a two-page list of her favorite haunts. With their ripped-from-the-headlines plots, delicious relationship subtexts and riffs on everything from the ideal turkey sub to indie rock bands to long hair on women over 30, it's easy to see why the books have won the hearts of both readers and critics. Tess, her delightfully cranky heroine, is the very model of a postmodern private investigator. Lippman, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun who turned to crime fiction in 1997, writes about the city with a clear-eyed, unsentimental affection. lacks: colorful neighborhoods, working-class roots, ethnic food, corner bars, character. It is gorgeous here, with the sun glinting off the water, and the tableau of tugboats and warehouses reminding the visitor that this is a city that works for its living.īaltimore has always had a special appeal for Washingtonians, possessing as it does everything that D.C. Now we're walking around the sea wall, past huge container ships and marine terminals. They are startlingly good, ruining you forever for vending machine chips. We've already stopped at the old-timey Cross Street Market to stock up on hot, fresh Utz potato chips, made on the premises. ![]() On this brisk November morning, she's agreed to show me some of her favorite spots in the city. Lippman set her seven best-selling Tess Monaghan books in Baltimore (the eighth is due out this summer), and she clearly adores the place. "The fact that there's a fort here is almost incidental." She's wearing jeans and a black leather jacket and looks at least a decade younger than her 44 years. ![]() "It's just a gorgeous place to walk around," she says as we head down toward the water. Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan series of crime novels, thinks it's the best view in the city. That would be Orpheus, a 24-foot statue on the grounds of Fort McHenry, overlooking the real Baltimore Harbor. More about the string and the village later. An immaculately preserved 19th-century mill village. And then there's Laura Lippman's Baltimore, which contains all of the above, plus a few things you may not have heard about. There's quirky Baltimore: bouffant waitresses, John Waters, window-screen art. There's classic Baltimore: crab cakes, white marble stoops, the Orioles.
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