At 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday this month, flaggers take over a stretch of Central Avenue between Camp Letts Road and Beverley Avenue. The State Highway Administration began milling, patching, and resurfacing that section of MD 214 on the night of Wednesday, September 30. Crews guide traffic from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., weather permitting, and the project page lists no finish date.
Look at Edgewater's October calendar and most of it ends before the crews start. The accordion sets finish at five. London Town closes its gates at four. The newest Italian counter on Route 2 locks up at eight, and at seven on Sundays. Plan the month around afternoons and you'll catch nearly all of it without meeting a flagger.
Sunday afternoons belong to the biergarten
Karl and Ursula Selinger, German immigrants, opened Old Stein Inn on Central Avenue East in 1983. Their son Mike now runs it with his wife, Beth, and the restaurant's own history still describes it as family-owned. This June, readers in What's Up? Media's 2026 Best of Annapolis named it the winner for German restaurant.
Oktoberfest at the inn opened Saturday, September 19, with the Oktoberfest menu, German beer on tap, and service in the biergarten. Three Sunday afternoons are left on the October music schedule, and each one runs 2 to 5 p.m.:
- October 11: Don Bitterlich on accordion
- October 18: The Prost Polka Partei Band
- October 25: Elena on accordion
That's three hours of polka that wrap up well before Sunday's overnight work begins on MD 214. The weekday events reach later. Trivia in the biergarten starts at 7 p.m. every Wednesday, hosted by Autumn, and runs until 9. Thursday is the $10 Über Burger and frites night, from 4 to 9 p.m. Friday nights fall outside the flagging schedule entirely. On October 16, Jordan Sokal of Pressing Strings plays a solo set in the biergarten from 7 to 10 p.m.
Looking past the season, the inn has a Black Friday Vendor Market on its calendar for November 27, from 4 to 8 p.m.
London Town keeps the same hours as the colonial day
Historic London Town & Gardens is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and parking is free. Here's what a fall visit costs at the regular rate:
| Visitor | Admission |
|---|---|
| Adults | $11 |
| Seniors 62+ | $10 |
| Ages 4 to 17 | $5 |
| Ages 3 and under | Free |
| Members | Free |
On Saturday, October 17, the site holds Living History: Turnips and Tales from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be spooky stories by a fire and turnip-carving demonstrations, along with an explanation of the Scottish immigrant customs behind Halloween. The program is included with regular admission, and walk-ins are welcome. Children who carve jack-o'-lanterns from grocery-store pumpkins get to see where the tradition started, with a root vegetable.
The one evening on London Town's October calendar is a fundraiser, and it ends exactly when MD 214's flaggers clock in. A Toast to History runs Thursday, October 8, from 5 to 8 p.m. General admission is $150. The evening includes tours of the historic site and gardens, talks on colonial cocktails and history, live colonial music, costumed interpreters, heavy hors d'oeuvres, and a cash bar with a wine pull. The $250 VIP ticket adds early entry at 4 p.m., access to the William Brown House Tavern, a preview of the 14 Presidents' Collection, complimentary drinks, and upgraded food.
November keeps the daytime pattern. Living History: First Maryland Regiment Occupies London Town is on the calendar for November 7 at 10 a.m.
Some of the site will change before next fall. On January 8, 2026, the Maryland Society of Colonial Wars approved a grant for two conversions: a recreated tobacco warehouse with an exhibition gallery, and a South River Ferry exhibit in the Tavern's River Room. The grant amount wasn't published. For anyone who lives along the South River, a ferry exhibit is a reminder that people were crossing this water long before the bridges and Route 2.
Saturday the 17th is the busiest day of the month
Turnips and Tales lands on the same Saturday as the 36th annual Art @ the Park at Quiet Waters Park, just up the road. Both run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Art @ the Park continues on Sunday, October 18, with art, music, demonstrations, and food trucks, and admission is $8 per vehicle.
That sets up a full weekend without leaving the South River area. On Saturday, do London Town's fire and turnips in the morning and Quiet Waters in the afternoon. On Sunday, go back to Quiet Waters before the Prost Polka Partei starts at Old Stein at 2 p.m. Everything wraps up by 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The Saturday before has a shorter option for families. The Edgewater Library calendar lists a Community Safety Festival on October 10, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with emergency vehicles, K-9s, and family activities.
The new tables on Route 2 and Central Avenue
Basilwood Kitchen opened August 21 at 3059 Solomons Island Road, Suite F1. It's an Italian market and pizza counter, and founder Ginna Maznick described its standard to Naptown Scoop:
"If we don't cook it, bake it, or prepare it ourselves, we don't serve it."
Pasta is extruded daily through bronze dies, and pizza dough is slow-fermented with 00 flour. A window into the kitchen lets you watch the pasta being made. The menu has deli subs, six pizzas, and eight pastas, with cannoli, zeppole, and panna cotta for dessert. The market side sells raw pasta, dough, sauces, meatballs, and cutlets with cooking instructions so you can finish them at home.
Basilwood's hours fit the daylight pattern too. It's open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. On a weeknight, a take-home tray of cutlets and fresh pasta covers dinner without another trip out.
On the morning side, Nico's Bagels & Brunch opened its second location on July 9 at 100 Central Avenue in the South River Colony Center, serving New York-style bagels and brunch. A bagel at Nico's before a 10 a.m. start at London Town or Quiet Waters on the 17th is an easy add.
What's changing on the roads after the resurfacing
The overnight work is a stopgap. SHA calls the Camp Letts-to-Beverley resurfacing an "interim roadway surface improvement" while it keeps designing a larger safety project. That project covers almost a mile of MD 214 between MD 468, which is Muddy Creek Road, and Camp Letts Road. The proposed plan includes:
- A roundabout at MD 214 and Loch Haven Road
- A shared-use trail for pedestrians and bicyclists
- Storm drains and stormwater management along the corridor
- Relocating a section of Glebe Branch that runs along MD 214
- Moving overhead utility poles affected by the widening
Design is expected to be finished in mid-2029, and a construction start date hasn't been set. SHA and the county plan the next public open house for spring 2027. In the meantime, the December 2023 preliminary design map is kept at the Edgewater branch library, and staff can help you find it.
You'll notice one change sooner. This fall, SHA plans to give westbound MD 214 at MD 468 a dedicated green left-turn arrow. After the arrow, drivers on a solid green can still turn left once oncoming traffic clears.
On Route 2, the county's adaptive reuse of the Edgewater Community Center at 3130 Solomons Island Road is under construction. Exterior demolition and new construction were scheduled to start in August 2026, and the building is expected to be finished in July 2027. It's on the same stretch of Solomons Island Road as Basilwood Kitchen, which opened at number 3059 this summer.
If you're keeping an eye on how projects like the MD 214 redesign or the new community center may affect your street and your home, Colleen Smith is glad to go over the details with you over a bagel at Nico's or a Sunday afternoon at Old Stein. Let's Connect.
