Lexington Market outranks San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace in one food writer’s book. And she even likes the fact you can buy squirrel there.

That scribe of discernment is Jane Stern, half of Gourmet magazine’s “Roadfood” duo. With her husband Michael Stern, she’s a regular guest on The Splendid Table, a national program broadcast locally on WYPR.

Last Saturday, Michael and host Lynne Rossetto Kasper were waxing rhapsodic about the Ferry Building, where, as Lynne noted, “all the best artisans, it seems, have shops or stands.”

Finally, Jane could keep quiet no longer.

Sure, she acknowledged, the Ferry is a “beautiful, beautiful piece of architecture” and an “endless cornucopia of the best of the West Coast.”

(Even through the scratchy reception, you could just hear the “but” coming.)

“However.” Jane said. “With that said, I’m putting a vote in here for the Lexington Market, in Baltimore, Maryland.”

While the Ferry is a “yuppie dream,” she said, “the Lexington Market has the greatest soul food and the greatest crab cakes and the greatest old-fashioned chocolate layer cakes… It’s funky and a little more my style.”

Michael Stern quickly jumped in, praising the chocolate and coconut cakes and proclaiming the jumbo lump crab cakes at Faidleys as “truly the best crab cakes anywhere.”

Jane, perhaps worrying that we missed the “funky” bit earlier, underscored the point:

JANE: I couldn’t help notice that the stand to the left was having a run on squirrel …

LYNNE: I beg your pardon?

JANE: …yup. Muskrat and squirrel. … It’s a people’s market. It’s definitely a people’s market.

MICHAEL: The term ‘artisan’ would never be applied to anything made or served in this market, OK?

JANE: On the other hand, the best crab cakes ever. Ever.

So, there you have it: Baltimore beats San Francisco. If you want to hear it for yourself, click here.

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If you shop at Giant Food, you may be in store for a pleasant surprise this weekend — more little red-and-yellow discount tags.

The grocer launched a new initiative Friday that it says will double the number of sale items available to shoppers who are members of the company’s loyalty program. Along with new shelf tags and in-store signage, Giant is launching a redesigned loyalty card. Customers can register their card online and create a personalized profile, view store services and track their savings and reward programs.

The additional savings come at a time when family budgets are strained from back-to-school spending. (Click here to read more about how Maryland stores are doing on back-to-school sales.)

Shoppers can also do their part for the schools through Giant’s A+ Bonus Bucks every time they use their card. Since 1989, A+ Bonus Bucks has raised more than $79 million to help local schools purchase equipment and materials.

So, in the last year, Giant has redesigned its logo, introduced self-scan shopping and is rolling out more discounts. While I’ve heard from some Safeway shoppers they prefer the quality of the Safeway product (especially in produce) over Giant, in this economy, price and convenience are taking top priority with more and more people.

At what point should Safeway be concerned that Giant is wooing away its shoppers for good? And who’s next? Wegmans? Trader Joe’s?

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I saw a television commercial for an anti-smoking prescription drug called Chantix that set me to wondering. After extolling the benefits of Chantix, the announcer proceeded to run through a litany of potential hazards of taking the pills, including the possibility of depression and thoughts of suicide. And I wondered: Why would the Food and Drug Administration approve a drug that could cause people to consider killing themselves, especially when there are other, presumably safer, anti-smoking remedies available?

According to an Associated Press story from last year:

“Government regulators said the connection between Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug Chantix and serious psychiatric problems is ‘increasingly likely.’

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The Food and Drug Administration began in November [2007] investigating reports of depression, agitation and suicidal behavior in patients taking the popular twice-daily pill.
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The agency’s announcement comes two weeks after Pfizer added stronger warnings to the drug. In doing so, the company stressed that a direct link between Chantix and the reported psychiatric problems has not been established, but could not be ruled out.”

I am an ex-smoker who stopped smoking a pack of cigarettes a day more than 20 years ago. Personally, I found two methods to stop the habit. One was to stop cold turkey when I had a heavy cold. When you’re suffering from coughing, sneezing, sore throat, etc., the urge to smoke drops sharply. With cold and flu season approaching, this might be something to keep in mind.

The other method, and the one that I used successfully, was to stop smoking when I entered a hospital for surgery. During the one week in the hospital and three weeks of recuperation, I had no access to cigarettes, and after a month, I no longer had the urge to smoke — and I haven’t ever since.

So you ex-smokers out there, I’m curious: What method do you recommend for quitting the smoking habit?

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One of my favorite scenes from the hit NBC sitcom “30 Rock” involves an exchange between exec Jack Donaghy and main character Liz Lemon, when Jack is discussing his role as keynote speaker at an upcoming Six Sigma management retreat.

Liz: “… I hate those corporate things; a bunch of drunk people talking about Synergy.”
Jack: “First of all, never badmouth Synergy.”

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We all have murderous thoughts about workplace terms, and Accountemps has attempted to quantify the most overused office buzzwords.

Executives were asked, “What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword in the workplace today?” Their responses included:

* Leverage: As in, “We intend to leverage our investment in IT infrastructure across multiple business units to drive profits.”
* It is what it is: As in, “The server is down today, and clients are irate. It is what it is.”
* Viral: As in, “Our video has gone viral.”
* Game changer: As in, “Transitioning from products to solutions was a game changer for our company.”
* Value-add: As in, “We have to evaluate the value-add of this activity before we spend more on it.”
* Circle back: As in, “I’m heading out of the office now, but I will circle back with you later.”
* Interface: As in, “My job requires me to interface with all levels of the organization.”

What are your personal pet peeves when it comes to office buzzwords? And don’t say social media!

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Just noticed that the latest issue of Bon Appetit magazine has a list of the 10 best new restaurants of 2009, and it features Baltimore restaurateurs Spike and Amy Gjerde’s Woodberry Kitchen.

This is a tad weird, because if you go by the earliest reviews, the restaurant has been open since at least January 2008, so I wouldn’t necessarily call it “new” — but whatever, let’s not split hairs over good publicity for a city business.

Woodberry Kitchen is a great restaurant, no doubt about that. I’m a huge fan of oysters, and last time I was there, they had an amazing selection of bivalves, with some particularly delicious ones from the Pacific Northwest.

But the rest of it — the faddish focus on seasonal produce, the overly hearty meat entrees — is, it seems to me, just a bit overhyped and overpriced. IMHO, for a meal at Woodberry, you’re mostly paying for the experience of dining in a breathtakingly beautiful architectural interior. The dining room is in an old foundry space that is part of developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse’s Clipper Mill development, which has also won multiple awards for design (from the Urban Land Institute, from Baltimore Magazine, from AIA-Baltimore). The whole thing just smacks of a good publicity machine at work.

And since we here at Baltimore’s finest business-and-legal newspaper blog love to point out when the city gets attention from the national press,  how ’bout some international press?

This week’s issue of The Economist features Maryland in its “Statewatch” feature, and it, predictably, acquaints its readers across the world with Baltimore the best way anyone knows how: by starting the article with a reference to HBO’s The Wire.  The next section, however, jumps right in with both feet to address Johns Hopkins’ East Baltimore initiative, and includes this excellent description:

The area just outside the development can feel like a film set, with all the elements of urban life—houses, traffic lights, streets, a few cars—in place, except for the people.

The article is worth a read, even if it boils down all of the economics of Maryland to its dependence on and proximity to Washington, and makes Baltimore sound like it has no problems, just because unemployment here is relatively low.

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Stifel Nicolaus is downgrading the value of LendingTree, the online service that puts people in touch with a network of lenders, because of potential competition from Google. Within the next few weeks, Google plans to launch a service that will compete directly with Tree.com’s LendingTree Exchange business.

The competition could seriously impact LendingTree’s earnings, Stifel said.

“We project that the Exchanges segment of LendingTree will represent about one-third of Tree.com’s total revenue in 2009 and a higher percentage of gross profit,” the report by analyst George I. Askew’s team said. “If Google launches a competing product, we believe LendingTree may face a decline in consumer loan requests, fewer lenders in its Exchange, higher marketing costs and lower lead pricing.”

LendingTree has also filed a law suit this week against Mortech Inc., claiming the mortgage technology provider violated its contract with LendingTree by partnering with Google in the endeavor.

Shares of Tree.com fell more than 8 percent by mid-morning.

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On my long commute home to Bethesda last night, I heard a radio advertisement that caught my attention: the Greenbrier resort is offering a new collection of vacation packages on their Web site.

Curiosity arose, and I visited the site this morning to scope out the “deals.”

A signature spa package runs $2,232 for a two nights’ stay, swedish massage, body masks and polish and a “signature” treatment (based on double occupancy).

If you’re a golf lover, a “play in the leaves” package (August through October) includes a two-night stay, unlimited tennis and two rounds of golf for $1,330 (weekend) or $1,230 (weekday).

As a relatively inexperienced traveler, these deals seem vastly overpriced. But, I’ve never stayed at the Greenbrier; maybe it’s a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience worth the splurge.

The world-famous resort, as you know, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, after years of losses and expensive renovations drove up debts to previous owner CSX Corporation. After an initial $130M deal with Bethesda-based hotel operator Marriott International, local businessman Jim Justice swooped in to purchase the property in early May.

The Greenbrier has lost $90 million in the past five years (including $38 million in 2008 alone), according to the March bankruptcy filing.

The resort received some good news last month when the PGA Tour announced that it would host a PGA tournament at one of its three courses.

Work has already gotten underway to bring casino gambling to the Greenbrier with the hope that it will reverse its financial woes.

Will it be enough to save the historic resort?

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Inc. magazine’s recently published annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America put 19 Maryland companies on the Inc. 500 list. In addition, another 132 companies made it to the Inc. 5000 list. Here are the Maryland firms on the top 500 list, in terms of their rate of revenue growth over the period from 2005 to 2008. The companies are in the order that they appear on the Inc. list.

31. FedStore, Rockville, 3,748 percent

59. Hardwire, Pocomoke City, 2,235.1 percent

65. LifeMatters, Bethesda, 2,051.1 percent

78. High Street Partners, Annapolis, 1,872.9 percent

121. Solvern Innovations, Baltimore, 1,415.5 percent

128. ERT, Annapolis Junction, 1,354.6 percent

191. DMS International, Silver Spring, 1,025.7 percent

216. Lurn, Gaithersburg, 950.8 percent

222. The Knowland Group, Salisbury, 933.6 percent

224. Carchex, Hunt Valley, 932.5 percent

287. Corporate Brokers, Annapolis, 806.3 percent

292.Canyon Construction, Frederick, 798.8 percent

301. BoxTone, Columbia, 789.6 percent

303. Array Information Technology, Greenbelt, 781.4 percent

330. Angarai, Largo, 735.0 percent

361. Sage Management, Hanover, 691.8 percent

399. SEF Stainless Steel, Baltimore, 638.9 percent

455. Battle Resource Management, Clarksville, 586.9 percent

459. Cardinal Technologies, Bethesda, 565.0 percent

To see the entire Maryland list, including companies on the Inc. 5000 list, go here.

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On Sunday, NBA big man Shaquille O’Neal faced off with Baltimore’s Olympian Michael Phelps in a swim-off for ABC’s new reality show, “Shaq Vs.”

Phelps, an eight-time gold medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Shaq, a perennial All Star with a playful personality, squared off before a crowd of about 600 at the Loyola College of Maryland.

“Shaq Vs.” debuted last Tuesday, but didn’t make much of a ratings splash among the big four networks; it barely edged out Fox’s “More to Love” (4 million viewers) with a total 4.3 million viewers. That’s less than half of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” (11.6 million) and CBS’s “Big Brother” (8.1 million).

Last week’s episode featured Shaq battling it out with Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. I imagine they’re hoping for more of a ratings spike with Phelps, whose reputation (good or bad) is more widely known outside of the sports world.

ABC previously partnered with O’Neal on the 2007 summer reality series “Shaq’s Big Challenge,” in which he coached overweight kids on how to develop a healthier lifestyle. After disappointing ratings, however, the show didn’t return for a second season.

I’m not sure if the problem is Shaq or the crowded field of competitors. “America’s Got Talent” and “Big Brother” are some pretty stiff competition to go up against. I expect Phelps’ appearance in this week’s episode should give the show a ratings boost — if not, Shaq could have another dud on his hands.

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The World Health Organization isn’t joking around when it comes to the H1N1 influenza, known to you and me as swine flu.

Friday morning, WHO predicted an “explosion” of the flu this coming fall.

“Many countries could see swine flu cases double every three to four days for several months until peak transmission is reached, once cold weather returns to the northern hemisphere,” WHO’s Western Pacific director, Shin Young-soo, told health officials and experts in China at a symposium.

“At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers,” he said. “It is certain there will be more cases and more deaths.”

The people over at the newly-formed Pandemic Prevention Council believe that a massive outbreak of the flu could derail the work of some businesses or organizations (see the CDC’s recommendations for businesses).

They’ve created a survey to be completed by heads of businesses and organizations to evaluate just how well they have planned for an explosive outbreak compared to their counterparts. I’m guessing you get points if your company has a continuity plan and probably lose some if that plan doesn’t include a swine flu contingency.

You can check back with the PPC once the survey’s results have been tallied and analyzed to see where on the preparedness continuum your firm falls.

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