As a first-year college student, Vlado Petrovski, co-owner of Baltoz Bakery in the Towson neighborhood of Anneslie, was studying art and architecture in Rome when he fell in love with the local pizza.

“Pizza has been part of my life since I can remember,” says Petrovski. “I always made it at home, but when I went to Rome and had it there, it was next-level pizza—it blew my mind. They make a pizza rosa there that’s just a little tomato and bread and olive oil and little else. I remember eating that for a month and a half every day and went home and started making it myself.”

In 2012, the Macedonian-born artist traveled to America to study at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, where his grandparents lived. While still a student, he staged for the high-profile restaurant group Cameron Mitchell. In 2016, he came to Baltimore for graduate school to study painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, all the while working in his other favorite medium—the art of pizza-making.

While Petrovski has continued to pursue painting at his studio in Station North, he opened Baltoz in February, along with his life and business partner, Redeat Assefa.

“Opening my own place was partly impulsive, partly organized,” says Petrovski, “but it all came together like a crescendo.”

Is there a connection between painting and pizza-making?
When I started improvising and making the dough, I would get different results, and that still happens, depending on the conditions. If something isn’t working the way I want it to, I work until I get the results I want, which is a lot like painting. I can work on a surface sometimes for a month—or even years. Suddenly, you get this moment of, “Oh, that’s what I needed.” Sometimes it’s a simple mark, other times it’s like a whole picture is wiped out. You do it until you bring it to a natural conclusion.

What sets your pizza apart?
I want to use the best possible ingredients that are easy on the stomach and super digestible. Most of the things we make have two or three ingredients maximum. I want to share with people what I like to eat at home—that was one of the strong intentions that we had when we first opened the store, and we will never stop doing that.

What’s your favorite pizza on the menu?
I love spicy food, which is why there’s a spicy margherita pizza on the menu. I grew up vegan—I was never introduced to dairy until I was in college—so my favorite pizza is a tomato pie. The first time I ever tried cheese was on cheese pizza in New York City, which is how I fell in love with New York pizza. We don’t have a tomato pie, but you can order the margherita without the cheese.

What’s the story behind the name of your business?
The name Baltoz came from a book called Balto—Disney made a movie out of it. I added the “z” because I liked the way it sounded. It’s about a dog that delivered medicine [to save children with diphtheria] for an expedition across Alaska. It stuck with me. Balto is this underdog—and that’s how my journey started with this bakery.

Community has always been a key ingredient in the success of The Charmery—the celebrated ice cream shop that husband-and-wife owners David and Laura Alima opened on the Avenue in Hampden five years ago.

“Our dream with The Charmery has always been: ‘How do we make Baltimore a better place through ice cream?’” David recently told us. “It’s become a celebration spot for people who come to see us from all over the city and the state. To be able to expand that into another community is really amazing.”

This summer, the owners are widening their footprint to the Towson area with a new shop opening at 6807 York Road. In keeping with their local focus, the team is hosting a special “Community Scoop” event outside of the new storefront on Wednesday, April 18 from 5-7 p.m. (A rain date is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24.)

During the event, staffers will be serving free baby scoops to the public in an effort to get to know patrons in the surrounding area, and give the neighborhood a taste of what the shop will offer when it cuts the ribbon in the coming weeks.

“We’re really looking forward to meeting all of our neighbors,” David said. “One of the things I love most about our shop in Hampden is that it’s this neighborhood unifier. We want to be what the neighborhood wants us to be.”

Set in the former home of a convenience store, the renovated shop’s interior will mirror the whimsical aesthetic of its flagship, and offer David’s creative ice cream flavors including Old Bay Caramel, Maryland Mud, Mint Mountain, and Malty Vanilla Chip. The 2,057-square-foot digs will boast significantly more seating—both indoor and outdoor—than the Hampden shop.

“When we left the first walkthrough, it was just this visceral moment where it felt right,” Laura said. “It was just like, ‘That’s it. That’s the next Charmery.”

The Towson opening comes in the midst of a major expansion for the owners, who are currently in the process of moving all ice cream production to the new Union Collective warehouse in Medfield. Slated to open later this month, the ice cream factory will feature its own a retail space, as well as a large kitchen with dry storage, an oven for baked goods and sundae toppings, and a freezer that is about three times the size of the unit in Hampden.

“The real beauty of this space is that it allows us to think about our future in a way we really haven’t before,” David said during a hard-hat tour of Union Collective last month. “We have been making ice cream for the past five years in what amounts to a walk-in closet space. This is going to be our central hub, and it’s going to enable us to create enough ice cream for all three locations. It’s our dream come true.”