Annapolis Restaurant Week     Come for … Annapolis Restaurant week returns, February 25 through March 3, for its fifth year, with 39 participating restaurants. Prices remain the same as last year: $15.95 for breakfast and lunch; $32.95 for dinner. The two-course breakfasts and lunches and three-course dinners make the lingering days of February the perfect time to visit favorite restaurants or try something new. Acme Bar & Grill Azure Buddy’s Crab & Ribs...

Neil Simon’s 1963 romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park was a box office smash on stage and screen, not merely because it starred dreamy Robert Redford but because it’s packed with hilarious moments. What’s not to get about newlyweds learning the hard lessons of why opposites not only attract but also repel? The story, as old as matrimony, roused braying guffaws of recognition from Compass Rose Studio Theater’s mature audience on opening night.     Free-...

While Americans bask in the afterglow of a diverted dive off the fiscal cliff, the restaurant business faces its toughest quarter of the year from January through March. It’s always a challenge to lure diners out in the cold winter months. Adding to the disincentives are smaller paychecks thanks the elimination of the two percent payroll tax, post-holiday malaise and three months with only one food-centered holiday (Valentine’s Day, the second-most popular restaurant holiday behind...

For Michelina Scotto of Stevensville, the easy part is raising the $10,000 qualification fee for joining the Super Plunge Team of the 17th Annual MSP Polar Bear Plunge benefitting Special Olympics Maryland.     So what if fundraising — including a Fire and Ice Party January 19 — cost the restaurateur, co-owner of Luna Blu in Annapolis and Rustico in Stevensville, more than she expects to raise? Raising money is what Scotto knows.     Cold is what she...