The Joys and Challenges of Living Above Your Restaurant

When Robbie Tutlewski and his wife, Kaleigh Schwalbe, were looking for a place to live after a move from Washington, D.C., they were instantly enchanted with Upper Fells Point.

“There were Christmas lights and people had their flowerpots out,” says Tutlewski. “We walked around the area, but I never thought anything would open up.”

But in 2021, something did. That something was the building that housed the iconic Henninger’s Tavern, including a five-room residence upstairs. Schwalbe saw potential, while Tutlewski saw a lot of work.

After all, the three-story brick building at 1812 Bank Street was built circa 1850 and tending to it seemed like a job all its own. In addition to being a family home, at one time, the historic building had housed a medicinal liquor store and sold ice cream. Tutlewski knew he wanted to open a restaurant. It just never occurred to him that he’d live over it.

“I didn’t know anything about how to get a restaurant started—how to hire staff, where to get produce, so to add on another layer of things to go into a space that had a lot of needs wasn’t what I was looking for,” says Tutlewski. “I was just looking to survive.”

But he relented. The couple moved into the home in 2021 and, by June 2022, their charming restaurant—with its menu of Polish specialties and tavern-style pizzas, and granny-chic vibe—was open for business. By September of the following year, Little Donna’s was named one of the 50 Best Restaurants in America by The New York Times.

Four years (and two babies) later, the gifted chef enjoys feeding some 140 or so patrons who arrive for dinner on a busy night.

“A lot of people coming into the restaurant say, ‘Wow, it feels like were in somebody’s house,’” says Tutlewski. “I always love to tell them, ‘You are in someone’s house—you’re in my house!’”

Did you have concerns about living and working in the same place?
One hundred percent, but I thought, if this sucks and the restaurant fails, at least we have a place to stay—we’ll figure out what to do with the downstairs.

Your commute appears to be exactly 12 steps. What’s it like to have such a short trip to the restaurant?
That’s probably the one thing I really miss—the commute. I miss that transition time just being able to space out. But if we lived somewhere else, the restaurant would not be as successful as it is. I wouldn’t have been able to make the commute and have a baby.

How do you balance being a dad with being a chef?
There’s a lot of back and forth. We start turning the lights on, firing up the stove, making the dough, and making pierogies at 7 a.m. I have to finish at five to pick up one of the kids [as the restaurant is open- ing]—and around 7 p.m., I head upstairs to help put the kids to bed.

Is it hard to have boundaries for yourself in both your personal and professional life?
It’s really challenging. The biggest one was having to step away from the focus of food since having our first son, Jesse. There are still things that I want to do here but they have to be on the backburner for now.

Does your staff come upstairs into your home?
Staff is always allowed to come upstairs and three of the people on staff help with childcare—some of them have extra jobs, so I’m only going to ask when I really need it. They will watch the baby monitor or bathe them. It’s not a card I pull often but sometimes I’ll be like, “Hey, can you watch the kids tonight?”

How do you decompress?
I try to get away. In the past, I couldn’t leave because I had to drain the boiler every day during the winter. I couldn’t put that much responsibility on everyone here. I couldn’t put on their prep task, “Cut onions, marinate fish, drain the boiler, this door fell off the hinge.” We’re slowly getting to the point of getting rid of those issues so people can just cook. Sometimes I feel like I’m spending more time working on this stuff than managing and running a restaurant, but it’s gotten better.

What does your almost-three-year-old, Jesse, think about the restaurant?
He knows what’s going on, that Daddy is at work. He comes in and says his hellos, says his holas to everyone, every single day. He has known the staff since day one. He loves looking at [patrons] and seeing what they’re eating. He walked up to somebody one time and goes, “Oh, nice pizza”—and he really meant it.