At the private Flame Room at Azumi in Harbor East, chefs work one of five teppanyaki tables, as customers gather ’round, six to a table, for dinner and a show at one of the hottest, and we mean that literally, tables in town.

With its photographs of Japan from famed photographer Peter Lik and dramatic mood lighting, this is not the Benihana steakhouse of yesteryear. Here, chefs crack the occasional corny joke, and dazzle with their surgically precise knife skills, as flames flare, but don’t expect to catch a flying shrimp in your mouth—this space has a more fine-dining pedigree, inspired by a 2018 trip Azumi owners Alex and Eric Smith took to Japan with several team members.

“We ate at four teppanyaki restaurants in Toyko and Kyoto and taste-tested our way through,” recalls Joe Sweeney, director of public relations for Atlas.

At The Flame Room, the focus is on preparing high-end ingredients—a two- and-a-half pound Maine lobster, rare Skull Island Australian shrimp, A5 Miyazaki beef sourced from Japan—across a “teppanyaki” grill, a practice believed to have started in Japan some 200 years ago when families gathered to cook dinner around a grill. (“Teppan” translates to iron plate, “yaki” means pan-fried or grilled.)

“Our chefs trained for years to work the teppanyaki table,” says Alisher Yallaev, Azumi’s culinary director of Asian cuisine. “We have three chefs with a combined experience of 50 years.” And that includes El Salvador-born chef German Canales, (pictured).

“People love it,” he says. “Their eyes are wide when they watch me cook—it’s a lot of pressure.”

NEWS

Water for Chocolate: Last week, chef Sean Guy unveiled the newly renovated and expanded version of his beloved brunch spot in Upper Fells Point. After two months of upgrades, the space now features a warmer feel with additional seating, wooden accents, modern backsplashes, and interior greenery. “We want to provide a better dining experience that’s on par with the food that we serve,” Guy said in a video announcing the changes back in May. Though the interior has gotten a fresh look, diners can still count on Guy’s tried-and-true dishes such as barbecue shrimp and grits, raisin bread French toast, and stuffed breakfast burritos.

Azumi: This Japanese steakhouse in Harbor East is taking teppanyaki to a whole other level. Come October, the Atlas restaurant will debut a brand new room for chefs to prepare meals in front of guests at two scheduled seatings per night. Equipped with six tables that can accommodate 36 diners, the room will feature a special menu with options such as king crab, lobster, scallops, Miyazaki wagyu, and kobe beef. Along with the addition to the space, Azumi has also brought on chef Anthony Micari as its director of Asian cuisine. Micari—who previously headed up the kitchen at Makoto in Miami—will work alongside executive chef Andy Gaynor at Azumi, while also helping to develop a future Atlas concept. Stay tuned for more details.

Doug Atwell Announces New Bar in Fells Point: We’ve been following Doug Atwell’s career since his days behind the bar at Rye (back when it was at its old location on South Broadway). Since then, the veteran bartender has gone on to head up the celebrated programs at Blue Pit BBQ and Dylan’s Oyster Cellar. Now, he’s getting ready to open a spot of his own. The Baltimore Business Journal reported earlier this week that Atwell is in the process of converting the former home of Santa Clara Bar & Restaurant in Fells Point into a new cocktail bar with a classic vibe. The spot will highlight killer Manhattans and Old Fashioneds, as well as interior touches like tin ceilings and a jukebox.

OPEN

With Love Company: The Parkville dining scene recently welcomed this healthful hangout on Harford Road—whose mission is summarized in a hand-painted wall mural that reads: “Everything begins and ends with love.” The eatery incorporates its plant-based and gluten-conscious philosophies into dishes such as lentil burgers, raw veggie lasagna, and sweet potato salads. To complement all of the eats, the menu also lists holistic juices and smoothies in varieties like pineapple-mango and peach-banana.

Pure Raw Juice: Speaking of juice, this local detox destination recently debuted its newest location at The Rotunda in Hampden. The new spot adds to the health-conscious community in the mixed-use development, neighboring other tenants like MOM’s Organic Market, Brick Bodies, and Corepower Yoga. For those in need of a post-workout pick-me-up, Pure Raw offers its signature smoothies, juice blends, and açai bowls like the “Electric Pink” filled with dragon fruit and granola.

Chilango’s Tequila Bar & Grill: Earlier this summer, we told you about this new Mexican destination taking over the former home of Modern Cook Shop in Fells Point. Now, owner Carlos Cruz has officially unveiled the restaurant—which is a sister spot to his Highlandtown haunt Carlos O’Charlies. Stop by to sample the strong margaritas paired with Cruz’s house recipes ranging from baked tilapia with tequila and garlic to a grilled flatiron steak in a spicy tomato chili sauce. The space itself has been completely transformed with classic cantina touches like wooden paneling and decorative sombreros.

COMING SOON

The Original Pancake House: Soon, Canton locals will be able to feast on flapjacks and fluffy omelets at this international breakfast favorite. Situated next to Outback Steakhouse in the Canton Can Company, the diner will mark the chain’s first Baltimore location. Be on the lookout for signature items including a lemon Dutch Baby, cherry crepes made with sweet Danish wine, and an apple pancake smothered in cinnamon sugar,

EPICUREAN EVENTS

8/13: Entré Amigos
Earlier this week, mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young signed an executive order directing city agencies to protect immigrants. Local restaurants Bar Vasquez, Alma Cocina Latina, and Puerto 511 are also coming together to support the cause by launching this new dinner series that will benefit Families Belong Together—an organization that works to permanently end family separation and detention. “Baltimore welcomes diverse and creative entrepreneurs,” says Bar Vasquez co-owner Tony Foreman, who will host the series at the restaurant. “We all serve the many good people of this city and are proud to do it.”

For the next three Tuesday nights, the teams from Alma Cocina Latina (August 13), Puerto 511 (August 20), and Clavel (August 27) will head to the Argentinian restaurant to prepare passed appetizers, welcome cocktails, small dishes, a meat course, and a collaborative dessert with Bar Vasquez chef Marion Caño Catalan. The menus will collectively reflect all of the restaurants’ distinct regions and styles. Highlights from the first meal next week will include risotto-style arroz con pollo and mango flan.

8/12-18: Stone’s Throw Hash Pop-Up at R. House
This sweet potato hash concept, which prides itself on sourcing ingredients from purveyors just a stone’s throw away, is setting up shop at the R. House’s rotating pop-up stall next week. Founder Ben James created Stone’s Throw eight years ago, when he discovered that he was allergic to wheat. Gluten and paleo-friendly bowls to to try include the “Bay Be Blue Crab” (Chesapeake blue crab, free range eggs, pickled carrots, and Old Bay), “Wakey Wakey Apple Bacy” (shredded apples, seasonal greens, and pastured bacon) and the vegan “Buddha Hash” with crispy tofu and organic beets.

Starving artists? Not so fast. For many chefs, cooking is already an art form—after all, it has been said that the first taste is with the eyes. But while their Insta-ready plates are something to behold, some area chefs take their artistry a step further. When they’re not working in their commercial kitchens, many chefs dabble in other forms of art (from woodworking to sketching). See for yourself—their talents make us wish we could frame them.

ENRIQUE LIMARDO
EXECUTIVE CHEF, ALMA COCINA LATINA

Enrique Limardo comes by his artistic skills honestly. His mother is a fashion designer back in Caracas, and his grandfather was a painter and sculptor. Growing up in Caracas, he says, “I was very restless, so my father put me in art classes, including painting.” Limardo studied architecture, and though cooking became his calling, he never lost his passion for painting. “I paint every day,” says Limardo, “but it takes a lot of time to do nice-sized canvases, so I started doing sketches with charcoal and pencil. I sketch people I admire, like Einstein, Dalí, and Carlos Santana.” Often working well past midnight, Limardo produces a finished piece every day. “I’ve discovered that this gives me more creativity to bring to the kitchen,” he says. “I always keep design in mind when I’m thinking about plating. I think about colors and textures and, most importantly, flavor, but if I can create it in my mind, I can put it on the plate. The plate is a canvas.”

CARLOS RABA
CHEF/CO-OWNER, CLAVEL

For as long as he can remember, Carlos Raba has been a doodler. “The doodles started because I’m a visual guy,” says Raba. “The doodling helps me focus on one element—and that element is the plate.” In fact, Raba often doodles dishes when coming up with new menu concepts for the Remington taqueria. “Drawing is different than writing,” says Raba, who draws mini-masterpieces with his finger on his iPhone. “If I write down the words ‘spice’ and ‘salt,’ it’s not the same as putting black sparkles on the plate. Drawing helps me envision what will go on the plate and how I will decorate it. Do I need some green color with cilantro? Do I need a slice of something or a drizzle? A painter sees it with paint—I see it with food. Anything you present and have a passion for is art, because you are creating your idea, your vision, and your passion.”

ANDY GAYNOR
EXECUTIVE CHEF, AZUMI

With a mother who was a landscape architect and a grandfather who built boats on the Eastern Shore, Andy Gaynor was steeped in the arts at an early age. “As a kid, I was always tinkering with things, and I made knives out of scissors,” says Gaynor, who studied business at Salisbury State. These days, the chef works in multiple mediums—from metalworking to woodworking to painting. He has made the family dining-room farm table, a coffee table in the living room, and even contributed to the design for the logo of the Harbor East sushi hotspot. A recent project was crafting a saya, or knife sheath, for the sword he brought back from a recent trip to Japan that will go on display in the open kitchen at Azumi. “I like using my hands and having a finished product,” explains Gaynor. “Once you get marinated in it, so to speak, you kind of lose yourself in it and lose track of time. I love that art allows you to use the other half of your brain.”

JOSH HERSHKOVITZ

CHEF/CO-OWNER, HERSH’S

Long before going into the food industry, Josh Hershkovitz majored in fine art and philosophy in his undergraduate years at the University of Chicago. While in school, Hershkovitz particularly enjoyed sculpting with construction materials. “I felt the weight of those objects made it seem more real,” he says. “You see a Brancusi sculpture, and it’s polished brass and silver, but it’s behind a rope and you can’t interact with it. I enjoyed working with concrete, metal, and wood and something as proletarian as concrete.” After moving to Baltimore, Hershkovitz did decorative painting and gilding for high-end furniture finishers such as McLain Weisand, as well as cabinetmaking for Artisan Interiors. By 2011, he and his sister, Stephanie, opened Hersh’s. And while he no longer works as an artist, he still tinkers at home, where he has built a library and an entertainment center. And at Hersh’s, where he built the bar—he makes pizza with his hands. “If you’re not working with your hands, you’re not doing it right,” he says.

Atlas Restaurant Group’s Azumi staffers took an eight-day, mid-March field trip to the Motherland.

With Google Translator in hand, the group (including Atlas owner-brothers Alex and Eric Smith, general manager Josh Gray, Azumi executive chef Andy Gaynor, and bar manager Kyamran Aliyev) made their way on a bullet train from Toyko to Kyoto and back again.

The world travelers report that they consumed as much as they could, from blowfish liver and wasabi flower to green tea cocktails and sake slushies—all in the name, of work—aka research and development, of course for the upscale Harbor East Japanese restaurant.   

“We ate like Hobbits,” says Gray.  “It was breakfast, lunch, supper, dinner—anytime we’d see something walking around the markets at one of the stands like scallops with a piece of uni or fresh tomago, we’d try that.”
 

Highlights of the trip included eating robatayaki grilled fare, meeting legendary Rocking Chair bar owner Kenji Tsuborkura (and winner of Japan’s Cocktail of the Year), as well as touring a sake brewery and visiting the famed Sagano Bamboo Forest, complete with wild monkeys.  

Azumi fans will soon get a taste of the trip. As a result of the research and development, there will be tweaks on the menu with a wider variety of seasonal fish, one-bite appetizers, the addition of robata and teppanaki grill to an even wider sake selection and unique cocktails.  

“It was all next level there,” says Gaynor, who will also display his maguro tuna sword souvenir behind the bar. “I’ve always wanted to go to Japan. Seeing how different cultures operate and how different people serve food was life-changing.”
 

Sums up Sweeney. “Josh said it best. “We are trying to create the perfect Japanese restaurant concept here, but there it’s not a concept—it’s life.’”

All photography by Joe Sweeney

Disclaimer: I am a huge Drake enthusiast and still recovering from the fact that he was down the street from our office and I did not get to meet him. Consider this a part of my recovery process. 

Mythical wingless angel Drake was spotted enjoying sushi and drinks at Azumi in Harbor East last night. While we are unsure as to why he is in town, the luckiest people in the universe received the dinner surprise of their lives. 

Candice Law was downtown celebrating a family member’s birthday, she said on Twitter, when she received the news that the Canadian rapper himself was at the sushi restaurant with some friends. 

The group went to Azumi in Harbor East around 11:55 p.m., requesting to sit outside on the patio, Joe Sweeney, spokesman for Atlas Restaurant Group, told The Sun. 

The 6 God requested to listen to Jay-Z’s brand new “4:44” album and we’re assuming that Azumi didn’t have Tidal (because who does?), which is the only streaming service it’s available on. So, Sweeney said, they “were able to accommodate him.”

Once Law arrived at the restaurant with her cousin, she was understandably hesitant to approach Champagne Papi, who was surrounded by a tight security team. But she got up the courage, shaky hands and all, to walk out to the patio to “give the speech” of her life.

Law, who described the former Degrassi star as “delicious,” said she is a huge fan and that she drove 10 hours up to Toronto for his annual OVO Fest. 

They also discussed venues that Drake could play in Baltimore, and he pointed across the water to Pier Six and said he’d want to play there. (“He’s too adorable, so I don’t think to tell him that he’s too big to play there,” she wrote.)

From Law’s account, Drake was nothing but the king we all already knew he was, offering to connect her with tickets to an upcoming show and not batting an eye when getting a picture with her. Though, she did admit that she was so flustered she forgot her phone passcode a couple of times. She is all of us. 

“I said thank you more times than I can count,” Law wrote. “The rest is history. Most epic moment of my life.”

While we don’t know if Drake is still in the area, I plan on starting my weekend off staring listlessly at the Four Seasons, contemplating picking up a shift at Azumi just in case he returns. 

Before becoming one of the top sake sommeliers in the United States, Tiffany Dawn Soto was not exactly a fan of the fermented, Japanese rice wine. “I didn’t think much of sake,” she says, while standing in the kitchen of her Ellicott City home. “I had the same associations everyone else did—hot battery acid, bad sushi at 3 in the morning, sake bombs—all those horrible terms that I now loathe and spend my life trying to undo.”

It was while studying advertising and philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2005 that Soto first discovered real sake. “I signed up for a wine class, so I could drink before my sorority meetings,” she cracks. “And there were a lot of Japanese students in the class, who were always asking about sake.” Her interest was piqued when she discovered that there were few resources for those seeking to learn more about the beverage that’s beloved in the Land of the Rising Sun. “There were all these Italian specialists and all these German specialists, so many French and Champagne specialists,” says Soto, 34, “but when I went into it, no one was specializing in sake.”

So she learned all she could about the fermented wine, eventually landing consulting gigs at Pabu and Azumi in the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore and developing sake training programs at hot spots such as Umi in Atlanta and Tao in New York City. On average, she racks up close to $1 million in sake sales annually in the United States.

“I had the same associations everyone did with sake. Hot battery acid, bad sushi, sake bombs.”

Soto not only enjoys drinking sake, but cooking with it, as well. “You can marinate anything in it,” she says, “and make it taste good.” This recipe for sake shrimp was inspired, in part, by Martha Stewart. “In 2007, right when I was coming up in the field, she had this recipe for sake butter to dip lobster into, and I use that in my recipe to make a drizzle over the veggies, shrimp, and rice,” she says.

Growing up with dozens of foster children in her home, Soto learned to cook for the crew at an early age. “My mom can cook in the most we-ate-like-the-Duggars-way,” she says. “But we also lived with my grandmother, and she was an amazing cook.” When her grandmother was hospitalized after a heart attack, Soto recalls, “My grandfather said to me, ‘If anything ever happens to your grandmother, no one is going to take care of the family—as the oldest, you’re going to learn how to cook.’”

Clearly, she has. As she whirls around her kitchen, chopping vegetables and sautéing shrimp, Soto triples the portion, so that when she’s on the road for work, her attorney husband Ryan Cianci and two daughters will still be well-fed. “It’s ridiculous how much Tupperware I have,” she says. “At any given moment, there are probably 20 meals in my kitchen freezer and 40 in the basement freezers right now. I make a lot of pasta, rice dishes, and curries. It helps me be okay with not being here all the time. Basically, I’m still cooking like the Duggars.”

Recipe: Sake-Steamed Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups good-quality sake
• 1 pound jumbo shrimp
• 4 cups fresh vegetables (haricots verts, julienned carrots, snap peas, broccoli)
• Kosher salt
• Coarse black pepper
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups Nishiki brand
• rice, cooked
• Sesame seeds

For Martha Stewart’s Sake Butter:

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into large pieces
• 2 tablespoons peeled julienned ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced shallots
• ½ cup plus 1 teaspoon good-quality sake
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon fresh lime juice
• Coarse salt

Directions:
Pour 1 cup of sake over the shrimp in a medium bowl. Refrigerate. Allow to absorb for 1 hour. Add vegetables to a wok over medium-high heat. Pour in ½ cup of sake and ½ cup of water. Cover. Steam until vegetables are tender. Drain. Set aside.While vegetables are steaming, drain shrimp and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper. Once vegetables have been set aside, increase heat of wok to high, and add canola oil. Add shrimp and garlic and cook until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Place rice on plate. Top with vegetables and shrimp. Drizzle with sake butter. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serves 4.

For Martha Stewart’s Sake Butter:
Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add ginger and shallots. Stir 2 minutes. Add ½ cup sake and bring to a boil; cook until reduced by ⅔, about 3 minutes. Add heavy cream, bring to a boil; cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining butter in batches, whisking constantly. Once mixture is thick, remove from heat. Whisk in remaining teaspoon of sake and lime juice; season with salt.

Buh-bye boring, baggy black-pants-and-white-shirt combos. Local restaurants are getting as creative with their staff wardrobes as they are with their menus. Here are some of our favorite fashion finds from area kitchens.

Bandanas at Charleston: After losing her locks to breast cancer, chef Cindy Wolf started wearing colorful bandanas to protect her pate, and the kitchen staff showed solidarity by wearing them, too. Eighteen years later, the tradition continues.

Aprons and plaid shirts at Woodberry Kitchen: Vintage aprons (for the women on the waitstaff) and plaid shirts (for the gents) help carry through the farm-to-table focus and homegrown feel.

Under Armour kicks at Azumi: At this Japanese hot spot, red high-tops show hometown pride for the billion-dollar, Baltimore-based brand; also, red is a sacred color in the Land of the Rising Sun.

True blue at Ouzo Bay: The blue ties worn by the waitstaff and bartenders reflect the cerulean coastal waters of the Aegean.

Desert duds at Clavel: Lane Harlan encourages her staff to be playful with the dress code, hence her bartender’s cactus shirt.

Feel the burn at La Cuchara: These bold red aprons invoke the red flag of the Basque Country; the red-and-charcoal-gray palette, including the server’s shirts, were also picked to mimic the colors inside the restaurant’s wood-burning grill.

Tug on the samurai sword door pull as you enter Azumi, move beyond the bar with Japanese characters laser-cut into a steel sheet, then pick your path: a faux eel-skin banquette in the lounge, the raw-fish bar gleaming with live sea urchin, or a booth with breathtaking views of the harbor.

Welcome to The Land of the Rising Sun by way of The Land of Pleasant Living.

When we heard that Alex Smith and his partner George Aligeorgas of the Atlas Restaurant Group (known for the Harbor East hotspot Ouzo Bay) decided to stick with the concept of Japanese fine-dining when Pabu closed on the same site last year, the comparisons from Pabu’s dedicated fan base—present company included—seemed inevitable.

Wisely, Smith and Aligeorgas kept what worked at the former izakaya (Japanese for pub), going so far as to rehire master sake sommelier Tiffany Dawn Soto to preside as a consultant over the beverage program, which boasts the best sake selection in the city. And they changed what didn’t—broadening the menu to encompass not only authentic Far East imports (live black tiger shrimp and baby octopus from the famed Tsukiji Market in Japan), but also more approachable fare such as cooked sushi rolls, rock shrimp, and even roasted free-range chicken for the inevitable finicky eater.

While Pabu was pretty, designer Patrick Sutton has slicked up the space for Azumi (think: Nobu, Morimoto, and other internationally known fish emporiums) and created a more fluid flow, while even the front door was hard to find at the former iteration.

When my dining companion and I arrived early on a Saturday night, the trendy house music was already in full force, and grown-up versions of the cool kids were holding court at the buzzy bar. Though our waitress was sweet, her understanding of the menu seemed mostly memorized, so, as was our habit at Pabu, we summoned Soto (who actually helped recruit chef Eiji Takase and lived in Japan for several years).

Our dining neighbor offered that the fish was as good as any he’d had while on a recent trip to Tokyo.

While Soto can wax rhapsodic over the sake selection, she is equally excited about helping design your dinner from a menu comprised of starters, sushi, entrees, niku (meat) and sides, as well as an omakase chef’s choice tasting menu. The tab can get high here in no time, so plan properly and take Soto’s unerring advice on the best way to move through your meal.

Since its opening in December, I’ve visited Azumi numerous times and have taken every tack, from sampling the bold (bite-sized Sawagani crabs flash-fried with sea salt and lime) to trying the more banal—though no less delicious—
age dashi tofu, which was crisp and impossibly soft and resting in a soy dashi broth.

On this visit, we ordered from almost every section of the menu, though it’s the fish dishes—served hot, cold, cooked, or raw—that rate. Our favorite appetizers included an exquisitely plated kanpachi amberjack glistening with black-truffle oil and a tangy yuzu juice served on a crisp yucca chip, and the exceptionally fresh blue-fin toro sashimi (flown in daily from Japan). We ordered ours nigiri-style, with the buttery belly meat blanketing a ball of rice, and served properly with a dab of wasabi tucked between the layers, so that no additional sauce was needed. As we savored each bite, our dining neighbor offered that the fish was as good as any he’d had while on a recent trip to Tokyo.

On the sushi side of the menu, we chose from among a list of more than a dozen unique rolls. Having found fish bliss with the miso-marinated black cod entrée on a previous visit, we were eager to try the black cod roll fortified with spicy miso, crispy satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato), and a kick of shiso ginger. It was as pleasing to the eyes as it was to the taste buds. A plate of delicate Scottish salmon crudo garnished with beet threads and flower petals also astonished.

To go with our surf, we included some turf—in this case a Wagyu New York strip steak. Expectations ran high for the prized piece of rarified A5-grade beef served with three house-made, soy-based dipping sauces. While full-flavored, the intensely marbled meat was difficult to chew and made me wonder: Why $58? On an earlier visit, the Wagyu skirt steak—way more fairly priced at $29—was preferable to my palate (and my pocketbook).

The desserts are artful and elaborate, adorned with hand-spun sugar sculptures and 23-karat gold flakes, though the simplest one, a selection of house-made mochi ice creams (mango, green tea, yuzu), is the standout. Sad as I was to say sayonara to Pabu, there are, in fact, other fish in the sea. Or at least along the Patapsco.