"Burritofication" and Downed Palms

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If you haven't been by this week, you may not have seen the new restaurant sign.

But it's there, and Patch has called into the Chipotle Corporate Office in Denver to get some details. Back here in Pikesville, not much is going on inside. It's just a gutted storefront with bare wood walls and floors so far. But the lights are on.

Anyone who has eaten at Chipotle knows their popular made-to-order burritos are large.  The Chipotle website offers the following description: "It's not just a burrito. It's a foil-wrapped, hand-crafted, local-farm-supporting, food-culture-changing cylinder of deliciousness."

The website also mentions its burrito-ordering iPhone app, and a place to order online.

I've had their burritos in Morgantown, WV, and was impressed with all the choices of burrito veggies you can order.

Head out to one of the nearby restaurants, several within about seven miles or less of Pikesville, to test what the fuss is all about. Click here to find the addresses in Timonium, downtown and Towson, among others.

The Pikesville restaurant will be between the store and

Timber!

The palms that highlight and shade the impressive, unique-to-downtown-Pikesville garden at are now gone—cut down to mere stumps.

But the feature isn't gone forever, said bartender Maggie Purtell. "They take them out every year, because they die in the winter," and replace them during warmer temperatures.

Pikesville's long-timers probably know this already. But as a newcomer I have wondered how they keep them going, ever since I saw their fronds whipping around in harsh November winds.

Still, how they keep those lush, tropical, flowering plants looking so beautiful during the summer isn't such a well-known fact: They, too, are removed and replaced with new ones each year.

Staples to move

 is moving its business from the corner of Reisterstown and Old Court Roads to Pikesville Shopping Center, a little bit south, at 1340 Reisterstown Road.

The move happens by the second week in March, and makes way for a new Walgreens to be built at its current location.

As far as moving deals go, today at its current location, there were only a few display VCfurniture deals left, including a few, small file cabinets at discounted prices. Head toward the back see what you can still get.

It's still well-stocked with its regular items, although it seems as if they're boxing up the extras from the very top shelves.