1. The local Vaad is Star-K. If you don’t hold by Halav yisrael, there are a few extra places under supervision. There are a wide variety of restaurants, all concentrated in a single neighborhood (Upper Park Heights-Pikesville). There is only one small cafe outside the frum area.
2. There are plenty of shuls of all types (okay, there is no Yiddish-speaking Misnagdid shul, no Teimani minyan).
3. Remember that Baltimore-Washington is equivalent to Brooklyn-Manhattan. Washington has a separate Vaad, with some overlap.
4. Baltimore is only fair for shopping. For a streimel, one needs to go to New York. It does have a large kosher supermarket.