In Good Taste

The Emporiyum Heats Up in Harbor East

Don’t miss these five favorite vendors at the two-day foodie festival.

Something delicious is cooking up at the old brown H&S Bakery building in Harbor East, and it’s a feast that even the most fastidious of foodies will drool over. Back by popular demand,
The Emporiyum returns to Baltimore this weekend for its second annual celebration of all things appetizing. This year, it takes place in the bread maker’s former distribution center at the corner of Center and Fleet streets.

With more than 60 vendors hailing from Charm City to Charleston, New York to D.C., the two-day food market will feature sought-after snacks, sips, and shopping from the Mid-Atlantic’s very best. Don’t miss local favorites like Woodberry Kitchen and Le Garage; D.C. darlings like Toki Underground and District Doughnut; or Manhattan mainstays-turned-transplants like Luke’s Lobster and Shake Shack.

“Our entire team lives in Baltimore and we see a hunger and excitement for great food here every single day,” says Sue-Jean Chun, co-founder of The Emporiyum. “We can’t wait to bring all these wonderful people and their products together under one roof.” This weekend, meet the makers, grab some edible gifts, and graze your way through our region’s happening food scene, starting with these five, local favorites:

The Local Oyster & True Chesapeake Oyster Co.
If you’re looking for us at The Emporiyum, we’ll be hanging with these cool cats—The Local Oyster and True Chesapeake Oyster Co.—who are teaming up to shuck the hottest commodity on the Chesapeake Bay: the delicious and noble oyster. Whether you’ve hung at the traveling oyster bar on First Fridays in Hampden or slurped back some Skinny Dippers at Ryleigh’s or Thames Street, swing by and see them for some St. Mary’s County ‘sters. Grown in a tucked away creek in Ridge, MD, near the Potomac River, Skinny Dippers are plump, sweet, and just a little bit salty. This weekend, True Chesapeake will also be introducing the Huckleberry, a brand-new cocktail oyster that’s clean and petite, with a soft-salt taste. Both are perfect with a dollop of cocktail, or nothing but a Boh.

Mobtown Meat Snacks
We’ve never met a meat snack we didn’t like—especially when they’re made in our very own backyard.
Mobtown Meat Snacks is the city’s first boutique jerky company, started by Evan Siple of The City That Breeds. Siple keeps it local with all nine of his jerkies handmade at the century-old sausage maker, Ostrowski’s Famous Polish Sausage, in Upper Fells Point. He sells them there, too, as well as at local shops and nearby farmers’ markets. There’s a flavor for every taste, including black pepper, teriyaki, garlic, Sriracha, curry, and of course, to keep it extra local, Old Bay.

Charm City Meadworks
Move over craft beers and bespoke cocktails. The next big booze trend might be the stuff of honeybees. Like its ancient sister, cider, mead is gaining in popularity, thanks in large part to its lack of gluten, and while it might sound like the stuff of Renaissance festivals, it’s a rather simple, sweet, DIY brew, made from honey, water, and yeast. With the recent addition of
Charm City Meadworks, Baltimore now has its very own meadery, which offers tours, tastings, and seven products served as stills or drafts, including flavors like wildflower, rosemary, and cinnamon. After you enter, hang your first right and find them towards the end of the aisle for a sample of this new bee-charming booze.

Dooby’s
We could sit at Dooby’s Mt. Vernon cafe for hours with a cup of coffee, our favorite newspaper (or [cough] magazine…), and one of their homemade pop tarts in hand. In the afternoon, we find bliss in their avocado toast. And if you haven’t had the pork buns for dinner yet (with a side of Union Craft), well what’re you waiting for? Now that Dooby’s has set up shop at the Baltimore Farmers Market beneath the JFX, they’ll soon become part of our Sunday morning ritual. Still, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing—so swing by their stand at The Emporiyum for Korean fried chicken and make them your go-to, too.

Kinderhook
In Baltimore, it’s never been easier to quench your hanger or thirst, thanks to new food and booze delivery services like OrderUp, Eat24, and Drizly. Now, one of our favorite local purveyors has also joined the scene, with Kinderhook Snacks offering a new kind of office catering­. Be sure to tell your boss: Kinderhook now has a
subscription-based snack service for local businesses. Once or twice a month, they’ll bring your office a box full of snacks, such as salted chocolate chip cookies, coconut honey macaroons, and rosemary brown sugar walnuts. At The Emporiyum, they’ll be giving away a free three-month subscription, as well as selling their limited edition double-espresso chocolate cookies alongside a cup of Annapolis’s Ceremony Coffee.


Also, if you’re looking for something to sip on, enter the building, swing your first right, and head all the way down the corridor. There, in the left corner pocket, Salisbury’s Evolution Craft Brewing will be serving four drafts, with Birroteca right next to them, mixing up specialty craft cocktails.