If J Shoes were a music group, they would be playing the small clubs and taking them by storm. They have an understated cool, a casual hip. For men, chocolate-colored embossed leather is the twenty-first century answer to loafers. For women, fun prints and casual shoes and kitten heels for dressier styles. Born in the UK six years ago, J Shoes made their debut in the States in 2002, first in New York and then through high-end boutiques such as Fred Seagal in L.A. Their main distribution and sales office for the U.S. is right in Baltimore and they now sell through Ma Petite Shoe in Hampden, where you can find styles for men and women. The spring collection hits the shelves this month. Ma Petite Shoe; 832 West 36th Street; 410-235-3442;  www.mapetiteshoe.com or www.jshoes.com.
—Kate Stevens


Food…

The inspiration for Pazo, the Charleston Group's latest culinary destination in Fells Point, came from chef Pete Livolsi's Sicilian heritage. The restaurant's hearty tapas menu, with small plates of grilled calamari in green apples and braised veal cheeks with pumpkin, was inspired by a recent trip to the Campania region of Italy. Livolsi and co-owner Tony Foreman traversed the countryside finding traditional recipes and spectacular wines, while Livolsi's own rendition of his grandmother's sauce brought tears to the eyes of distant relatives. (Be sure to ask them about the meal they enjoyed with winemaker Salvatore Molettieri at a farmhouse in Taurasi.) Dishes range from $3 to $12, wine is plentiful and affordable, and the best part: The kitchen stays open till 1 a.m. Pazo; 1425 Aliceanna Street; 410-534-7296  www.pazorestaurant.com.
—Elizabeth A. Evitts


Art…

Many times buildings throughout the city sit stagnant, waiting for rehabilitation. Last summer the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore offered a unique opportunity for local artists to use the fallow 30 South Calvert Street building as gallery and studio space. A group of fifteen visual artists were selected to take residence at the three-story building downtown, which is being offered rent-free for six months. Painters, T-shirt designers, and sculptural fashion artists will use the top two floors for studio space and the ground floor for exhibition and retail space where they will sell their work and wearable art (like Adam Pollard's T-shirts, pictured here). Current Gallery; 30 South Calvert Street; www.currentspace.com
—K.S.


Books…

On a Wednesday morning at Lauraville's new Red Canoe Children's Books & Coffee House, a father in a corner alcove reads to his son, who sits perched on his dad's knee. Walls are painted with a blue sky and a leafy-green forest design, and racks are piled with picture books, nursery rhymes, and classics by the Brothers Grimm and Shel Silverstein. Upstairs, two toddlers chase each other in circles in front of the shelves of young-adult titles by Gary Paulsen, Katherine Patterson, and Lemony Snicket. Downstairs, there is a small café with an old-fashioned checkered floor, where you can order home-baked carrot cake and sip Italian sodas or locally produced ginger pear tea. Nicole Selhorst, a former schoolteacher and one of the Red Canoe's owners, says her book shop is a resource for the community where parents can meet other parents and chat over a cup of coffee while their kids read, learn, and play. Selhorst publishes a Red Canoe newsletter, "for kids, by kids," and the shop hosts writers like Baltimore's own Jonathon Scott Fuqua. Selhorst says, "The idea is to build a community through literacy, critical thinking, tolerance, and invention." 4337 Harford Road; 410-444-4440; www.redcanoe.bz.
—Robbie Whelan