Best of Chestertown: Coffeehouse

Play it Again Sam
108 South Cross Street

While Chestertown does have a number of places to have a good cup of coffee, including an excellent blend at Village Bakery and one that includes the country home feel of Ellen’s, Play it Again Sam is in a league of its own.  It’s a community center, a debating society, a perfect lunch spot and sophisticated wine store all under one roof. Owner Pete Brocker plays host to the early morning coffee clutches, mid-morning non-profit summits, salad-loving lunch crowds, and mid-afternoon caffeine addicts lining up for Sam’s signature frozen coffee drink, the Alaskan. Equally impressive are the the early evening hours, where Pete and his team pour some of the best wine in town.

Best of Chestertown: Dr. Maria Boria

Almost every Thursday evening, Dr. Maria Boria, who turns 80 this year, drives herself to and from a Marydel clinic to provide essential health care to women in the growing Latino community, most of whom have no health insurance.  While she took this particular project on only five years ago, Dr. Boria has spent a lifetime working with women in need.  After her medical training in England, she moved to India in 1958, and started a hospital that now has 2,000 employees.  From there, she started training programs in Latin America and Africa, while also marrying her husband Jim Berna, raising two children, and building her ob/gyn practice in Chestertown.

While Maria is not alone in the area of good deeds, her lifetime commitment to women’s health in some of the most challenging places in the world should make us all the more humble that she calls our community home.

Maria Boria’s 80th Birthday will be celebrated at the Prince as part of the Women Helping Women annual concert on March 10, 2010 at 7:00 PM.  For more information go to the Prince Theatre website by clicking here.

Best of Chestertown: Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company

When the Spy’s late fortnightly editor was running the Berkeley Beacon in 1882, he stated in an editorial that the newspaper would not support any political candidate, regardless of party, who was not a member of the local volunteer fire company.  In his mind, when a fire could and did wipe out an entire town within hours, it was the best test on who really cared about the future of their community.

In contemporary times, there are many other ways to provide service to one’s community, but the fact remains that our local firefighers voluntarily put their life on the line for Chestertown every day of the year.  When the alarm goes out, executives, teachers, farmers, and shop owners, drop whatever they are doing to answer the call.  It remains still today one of the noblest acts a citizen can perform.

For one hundred years, The Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company has been fighting the good fight.  They represented the best of Chestertown in 1909 and they remain the very best of Chestertown today.

Best of Chestertown: Beer Selection

Pips Liquor Store
711 Washington Ave #14

Buying beer can be a challenge if you care about variety.  First, where do you go?  There are at least six establishments in Chestertown that sell beer, and most carry a standard selection of domestics, imports and a couple regional micro-brew selections.  For the widest choice, however, go to Pips Liquor store next to the Acme.

The Best of Chestertown: Pepperoni Pizza

Roma Pizza
6346 Church Hill Road

If you’re feeling intrepid, travel out about two miles on Rt 213 South to Roma’s Pizza, located amid the jumble of abandoned car dealerships and our beloved local bowling alley along Church Hill Road. That’s where you’ll find Brooklyn-born Joseph, dressed in comfortable shoes and his flour-dusted t-shirt, making thin pies the same way he’s been doing it for more than almost two decades at Centreville’s Colosseum Pizza.  For those looking for excellent New York style pizza without going to Big Apple, the search is over.  Roma offers a wafer-crisp crust that’s soft around the edges and not too wet in the middle, with a lacing of extra-virgin olive oil through the sweet tomato sauce, and administered in slow, deliberate, old-world style by a master. Who would have thought it.

The Best of Chestertown: Health Club

AquaFit
818 High Street, Chestertown

The Kent Athletic Club and Washington College’s Fitness Center offer more exercise equipment then AquaFit, but the Spy was won over by the center’s members. While most health clubs are filled with the seriously fit and toned, many of Aquafit’s patrons are in some form of physical rehabilitation.  On any given day, one can see some very courageous and strong-willed people, young and old, rebuilding themselves from sports injuries, accidents, illness, and aging itself. The fact that Aquafit is located next to the town cemetery also sends the message, better than any personal trainer can, to “use it or lose it.”

The Best of Chestertown: Garnett’s Playground

320 Calvert St, Chestertown

There are playgrounds, and then there are some big time playgrounds. Chestertown, thanks to a remarkable community effort a few years ago, has one of the best.  Designed by innovative designer Robert Leathers,  as a “community built” park, this collection of planks, tires, and classic swings provide endless potential for children (who helped design it) and more than a few minutes of relief for parents.  Somewhat hidden behind Garnett Elementary School, this special place should be on every Chestertown family’s list for a nice break during the day.  While it is showing its age a bit, it remains a gem for the town and its kids.

The Best of Chestertown: Country Store

Pomona General Store
6746 Quaker Neck Road Chestertown

While there are a number of good, oldtime country stores outside Chestertown, a real standout is the Pomona Store.  Located eight miles out of town (go to the end of Cross Street, then out Quaker Neck Road), the Pomona store offers its customers very good fresh-made sandwiches, some of the best cuts of meat available anywhere in the county, along with locally grown seasonal vegetables, a tiny but helpful wine selection, and delightful British accents.   And if they like you, they’ll even open up a house account for you.

The Best of Chestertown: The Classic Bourbon Old-Fashioned

The Imperial Hotel Bar
208 High Street Chestertown

No one muddles a bourbon Old Fashioned better than Paul at the Imperial Hotel Bar. While he is known as a gifted craftsman of signature martinis, the Spy noticed immediately the soul of a man who gives this classic American drink the time and dignity it deserves. While Paul’s bartending tools might be considered industrial (his muddler could double for a sedgehammer), the finished product shows the certain elegance of the artist at work.