LAUNCHING THIS WEEKEND
Sacré Sucré Introduces Dinner Service: Owners Manuel Sanchez and Dane Thibodeaux are expanding their Fells Point bakery’s menu and hours this week to include casual dinner service, centered around sourdough pizzas, Thursday through Sunday from 6-10 p.m.
“It will be personal pizzas that resemble more of a Neapolitan pizza, but we are not calling it classic Neapolitan,” says Sanchez. “We were going to go for more Detroit-style or deep dish, but we wanted to use the ovens that we have for the bakery.”
The new dinner offerings will feature five pizzas—including a French pizza with anchovies, olives, and caramelized onions—in addition to a roster of Spanish, Italian, and French appetizers. Think: charcuterie, patatas bravas, Gildas (thin green peppers, olives, and anchovies threaded on a skewer), and burrata and pesto. Desserts will include the pastry shop’s signature macarons and soft serve.
The inspiration behind serving pizza came, in part, from the fact that the basement of the building had a disassembled pizza oven from a previous owner. “This building was Lucky Buns before we took over,” says Sanchez. “But before Lucky Buns, it was fully built out to be a pizza place—and then COVID hit. When we moved in and purchased the building, we got all the equipment and had a pizza oven sitting on our floor.”
After obtaining a liquor license in February, Sanchez and Thibodeaux knew they needed to provide food to go with their menu of natural wines and beers.
“I was like, ‘We have this oven,’ and I started thinking about getting it working,” says Sanchez. Eventually, the couple contacted the manufacturer to get the oven back in working order. “We figured we had all these parts, so we were either going to try to sell them or they were just going to stay here forever taking up space.”
Tacos Matahambre Pops Up for Breakfast at Toki Underground: Typically, the Greenmount Avenue ramen restaurant doesn’t open its doors until dinner service. But a new breakfast pop-up will begin activating the space on weekends from 8-11:30 a.m. beginning this Saturday, June 28. Dubbed Tacos Matahambre, the morning concept will offer $4 tortillas filled with combos of beans, smoked bacon, braised shiitake, eggs, potatoes, and cheese. Add-ons will include sides of beans and pico, plus iced coffees, frescas, and Micheladas.
NEWS
Cocina Luchadoras Rolls Up to Waverly Brewing: Since the shuttering of her brick and mortar taco shop in Upper Fells Point due to rental costs, owner Rosalyn Vera has been figuring out what’s next for the city’s beloved Cocina Luchadores. After a short residency with newly minted Meander, which took over the former Bar 1801 in Upper Fells, Vera has more permanent operations on the horizon—this time in a vintage Volkswagen bus.
“I was born in the ’70s and keep trying to bring [the era] back,” Vera says. “The Volkswagen just brings so many memories, and we have the OG.”
After five years of owning her VW bus, it was after a fateful dream that Vera decided to fix it up and operate her taqueria once more in a mobile format. After debuting last Friday at Waverly Brewing Company, Vera will now serve up tacos at the Hampden brewery every Friday throughout July from 5-9 p.m.
Vera has also been doing pop-ups with Club Sonora, a Latinx mobile music club, at Mt. Vernon’s Stem and Vine in the last few weeks. She’s added tamales and paletas (locals might remember Vera’s Corazon Helado) to her menu, and has hopes for a breakfast service collab with other Hampden businesses like Good Neighbor. With the help of community funding, Vera is working to wrap the bus to showcase her iconic Luchadores brand, with pops of vibrant colors that will “come to a barrio near you.”
“I went through a low after the closing of the store,” Vera says. “It’s hard to see the place, but I have to keep on going and keep giving to Baltimore.”
Ekiben Drops Night Market Vendors: Now that the vendor list is out, this is your sign to buy your ticket for Ekiben’s Night Market on August 23—ASAP. The returning food fest, which will be held in Fells Point this year, will offer artists, makers, and a roster of more than 40 restaurants curated by the Ekiben owners—who obviously know good food. Among the local spots participating are Clavel, Rooted Rotisserie, Café Dear Leon, Arepi, Ejji, Heady Juice Co., Mexican on the Run, La Cuchara, The Urban Oyster, Soul Smoked Hospitality, Barkada Breads, and Beye Beignets. But ticketholders will also be able to get their hands on treats from visiting spots like Reverie and Rose Avenue Bakery in D.C.
Charleston Finally Brings Home the Beard: ICYMI: Harbor East’s Charleston, the famed restaurant that Julia Child once dined at on a visit to Charm City, has finally won a James Beard Award. After 26 nods in a variety of categories dating back to 2006—including Chef Cindy Wolf for Best Chef: Mid Atlantic a total of 13 times—the restaurant was presented with the medal for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program at the acclaimed ceremony in Chicago last week.
Boasting 1,300 global wines, Charleston stands out with its versatile and flexible prix-fixe wine pairings, offering 25 menu items with 25 pairings every single day. Fittingly, celebrations for Charleston’s wine director Lindsay Willey were held at Petit Louis and Fadensonnen over the weekend. Read our Q&A with Willey, here.
COMING SOON
Café Dear Leon: Good news for anyone who has ever braved the wait times at Café Dear Leon—the beloved Canton bakery that sees lines around the block most days of the week. The French-inspired patisserie recently announced that it’s expanding to take over the former JBGB’s in Remington, with an expected opening in the fall.
Founded by Korean Americans Cheolsoo Lee, Sungae Lee, and Min Kim, Café Dear Leon has a cult following, which spread even further when its crab dip bagel went viral. (Read more about the rich, savory treat that has attracted the interests of SZA and some big-deal content creators in our July crab cover story, on newsstands now.)
“The opportunity to open a location in Remington has been on our radar for a number of years—and when we saw this space, we felt it was perfect to expand our operations in a thriving community,” said Cheolsoo Lee, in a statement.
Clocking in at close to 5,000-square-feet, the Howard Street eatery will still follow a similar “drop” schedule (with menu items baked from scratch daily), but finally allow for the team to offer a true cafe seating experience. Since the closing of JBGB’s in January 2024, the space has been a rotating door, of sorts, temporarily hosting Doppio Pasticceria (now on the corner of W. 29th and Remington Avenue) and currently Equitea, a hand-crafted matcha spot, which will relocate to 311 W. 28th Street in the neighborhood in the coming months.
The Daily Grind and Eggspectation Debuting at Baltimore Peninsula: The revitalization of the Baltimore Peninsula, the former Port Covington in South Baltimore, is still seeing massive investment. This Friday, June 27, Fells Point-born coffee institution The Daily Grind will cut the ribbon at its new 2,000-square-foot cafe in the area—marking its ninth in Baltimore. News also recently broke that global brunch brand, Eggspectation, is set to open at the ROOST hotel in 2026, joining the likes of Pinky Cole’s Slutty Vegan and Bar Vegan, Rye Street Tavern, and Baltimore’s first Ben & Jerry’s in the development.
EPICUREAN EVENTS
7/2-3: “Let’s Drain the Bar” at Cafe Campli
In April, owners Paul and Sam Mincarelli announced that their Abruzzo-focused homey Italian spot in Hamilton-Lauraville would be closing in preparation for an upcoming move to Italy, though they didn’t know exactly when last call would be. Now patrons can “say goodbye for real,” with a final “cin cin” at the bar on July 2 and 3 from 4-7 p.m., as the team tries to move final inventory items after officially closing on Sunday, June 29.
7/4-7/5: Fourth of July Hot Dog-Eating Contests
Per Jennifer Coolidge, nothing screams the Fourth of July like a hot dog. With the famed Joey Chestnut returning to Coney Island this year, it seems hot dog eating competitions are a part of the zeitgeist again. If you’ve always wanted to see how many you can house, Baltimore has its own iterations of the Nathan’s tradition. Locally, Cross Street Market is hosting its annual Fourth of July bash, with $1,000 in it for the contest winner this year. At Huck’s in Canton on July 5, contestants will try to eat 10 hot dogs in 10 minutes. (Last year’s winner ate seven and a half in the allotted time.)
7/6: Reggae Derrière at Le Comptoir du Vin
Sometimes the back bar of the nationally acclaimed Le Comptoir du Vin in Station North transforms into one of the coolest music venues in the city. On Sunday, July 6 from 2-7 p.m., DJs Brady Rall, Black Grealish, and Nosho will be serving up “daytime sonic explorations through lovers of rock, reggae, dub, and dancehall music.” This is a free event, but space is limited. Expect a unique bar menu and be ready to beat the heat with cool tunes.
SHUT
San Pablo Tacos: The Mount Vernon street taco spot, which opened in 2020 and survived the pandemic, is no more—much to the frenzied laments of patrons on social media. The spot was perhaps best known for its massive burritos and Capri Sun-esque juice pouches filled with margaritas. No news yet on whether the team plans to open anything else anytime soon.
Rize + Rest: Despite the “business and liquor license sale signs,” in March, chef-owner Randall Matthews assured regulars that Patterson Park’s Rize + Rest wasn’t going anywhere. Sadly, since then, the brick-and-mortar has closed, though Matthews says he will be back “serving deliciousness in no time.” So, what’s going into the old location on East Baltimore Street? While the new establishment isn’t quite ready for a public reveal, Matthews teases, “it’s another cafe…that has a few locations already, and they’re launching a new concept here.” Stay tuned as we follow this transition.