Opening a new restaurant in a once-beloved space can be a tall task—after all, comparisons to the former spot are inevitable. Such could have been the case with chef Matthew Oetting’s Marta, a 62-seat boîte set inside the old Salt Tavern, once a neighborhood mainstay with its duck fat fries and Wagyu burgers crowned with foie gras.

But that hasn’t happened. In fact, on a late fall night, as patrons poured into the place, the memory of Salt, which closed in 2018, has worked in Marta’s favor.

“People have so many great memories of Salt,” says Oetting. “The neighborhood was salivating at the idea of something opening back up in the space and being an anchor for that community again—it was a huge help.”

Gone are the lime-green globe lights that were the hallmark of Salt. In their place are trendy table lights, a gleaming new bar, and granny-chic, floral wallpaper chosen by Oetting’s wife Martha, the restaurant’s namesake (translated into Italian to reflect the menu mission).

“Being a chef is hard,” says Oetting. “Being a chef’s wife is much harder. It was important to me to show her how much I appreciate her support.”

After more than two decades in hospitality, Oetting’s career has taken him all over the Big Apple, from Danny Meyer’s famed Union Square Café to Scarpetta, where he learned the intricate art of pasta-making. Before arriving in Baltimore in 2015 to open Loch Bar as executive chef (and later The Bygone), he ran the back of the house at Stephen Starr’s martini bar, The Continental, in Miami. After such varied experiences, the peripatetic chef was ready to be his own boss.

“It was time for me to finally do something of my own,” he says.

Marta has provided him a place to pursue his passion for taking classic dishes and transforming them with his own sophisticated spin, which includes employing luxury ingredients. To wit: a cacciatore dish substitutes the chicken for lobster and onion dip is jazzed up with caviar.

Beyond the food, Oetting envisioned, in his words, “a neighborhood eatery that has a warm glow even before you walk in. I wanted a place that the community would cherish.”

(While it does aim to serve as a neighborhood place, the chef’s reliance on luxury, albeit authentic, Italian ingredients can make eating here a pricey proposition.) That said, there are many ways to enjoy a night at Marta.

As you enter the circa-1904 building, turn to the left if you’re looking for a space that feels intimate and a world away from the city streets. Go right and snag a barstool or a table in the bar for a more boisterous vibe and a lovely view of the early 20th-century architecture and the twinkle of string lights hung between the rowhouses. Whatever experience you choose, there’s something to match the mood.

If you sit at the bar, consider one of five Negronis on offer or pick from an array of apéritifs. Pair your potion with the addictive truffle and Parmesan potato chips or an indulgent piece of grilled ciabatta smeared with ricotta and truffle honey.

If you go with a group and sit at a table in the bar, make a meal out of shareable starters and crudos. Favorites include the tuna cannoli—a fried shell encrusted in sesame seeds, pistachios, and garlic chips, and stuffed with yellowfin—and the prettily plated yellowtail with its thin pieces of sashimi and slivers of green apple scattered across the plate like a collage and doused with apple-hibiscus sauce.

An array of antipasti, including the chicken wings stacked like a modern sculpture, is also a nice way begin a meal. The wings were coated in a hot-honey glaze, then paired with pickled vegetables as a cooling counterpart. The roasted beet carpaccio drizzled with truffle vinaigrette, topped with whipped goat cheese, shaved fennel, and gooseberries, and capped with crushed hazelnuts was bright and beautiful and a great vegetarian option.

As for entrees, there’s an excellent Roseda Farm-sourced skirt steak served with dabs of an herbaceous olive salsa verde (think Italy’s version of chimichurri) and a must-order pan-seared scallop piccata dish, bathed in butter sauce and studded with capers and artichoke hearts.

But the real star of the menu is the house-made pasta section. Over several visits, everything we sampled was excellent, including a tangle of carbonara-coated spaghetti entwined with blue crab and miso egg yolk for added umami; the Sardinian-style gnocchi (made from pasta dough not potato) slicked with tangy tomato sauce; and an intensely earthy tagliatelle coated with truffle butter and shaved king trumpet mushrooms.

Plating is paramount here and most dishes are flecked with flowers or herbs or a handful of microgreens to add a pop of color and texture. This artistry was not lost on diners, as every dish seemed caught up in the social media klieg lights across various tables.

As the saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. In a city like Baltimore, with its loyal foodies who tend to fall back on their favorite hangouts, change isn’t always welcome. But nearly five years after Salt’s closing, Marta seems a worthy successor.

This feels like the beginning of a beautiful new relationship.

Baltimore has enjoyed a profusion of lavish new restaurant openings in recent months. If you are a devoted foodie with deep pockets and an appreciation for interior design, the city is your oyster. These days, the reputations of our town’s opulent eateries have extended far enough that Baltimore is considered an emerging dining destination in the Mid-Atlantic.

But even as the critics fawn, the influencers post, and the valets rush to park the next fancy ride, Baltimore is also experiencing a renaissance in thoughtful neighborhood spots that can be just as exciting. Lobo and 1157 Bar + Kitchen are two examples that have now fully matured into hot spots beyond their original aspirations, but they’re hardly alone. We have been hearing about Charm’d Kitchen for a few months now and it was time to find out if it is part of this exciting trend.

University of Maryland graduate and former Cincinnati Bengal Andrew Crummey and his partner, Lindsay Crummey, opened CK about a year ago with the aim of offering Butcher’s Hill a corner spot to grab some grub and say hello to their neighbors.

Based on our visits there, they have clearly succeeded. On one weekday morning we breakfasted at the bar, sunlight cheerily filling the compact space, as parents with strollers streamed in for a coffee to-go, young professionals fueled up on house-made waffles, and night-shift nurses rinsed off the strain of a tough night at Hopkins with a round of mimosas. The staff was uncommonly friendly and relaxed, offering menu help while greeting every local by name, a requirement if you’re going to call yourself a neighborhood place.

The waffles, listed on the menu as Da Waffle, were indeed delectable without being overly indulgent, and we applaud a breakfast that arrives with real maple syrup. Delectable, too, was the salmon and cream cheese bagel, always a risky order outside of New York City, but this version delivered. Our choice was an everything bagel, piled with seductively smoky salmon and a rich schmeer of cream cheese garnished with fresh tomato and red onion. We eagerly washed it all down with a cappuccino from Ceremony Coffee Roasters of Annapolis. Ceremony has their own uncompromising standards that must be met if they are to partner with a restaurant, so we were impressed and grateful that CK made that commitment.

The staff reprised their friendly and relaxed performance on our dinner visit as well. Our group was instantly at ease in CK’s comfy surroundings. This time, sun cascaded through the large windows, accenting the warm tones of exposed brick walls, brightening the bar’s subway-tiled workspace, and nourishing the potted plants. Works by local artists decorate the walls, too.

Happy Hour cocktails arrived swiftly, with a delightful strawberry-inflected riff on the Shirley Temple tagging along for the younglings in our group. There were wee ones at two other tables, belonging to young families all too relieved to let CK do the cooking. And cook they did.

A cup of cream of crab soup was rich and savory, offering up plenty of meat in a creamy broth. A trio of bruschetta featured steamed lobster meat, mushroom and truffle oil, and thinly shaved prosciutto.

Mains ran the gamut from a simply presented but juicy cheeseburger on a brioche bun to seared scallops resting on a purée of sweet corn. In the latter case, the scallops were seared too long to preserve their succulent essence. We were willing to forgive it, for the linguini and clams was a buttery, garlicky delight. We also appreciate that a restaurant of this size and demeanor put genuine effort into its beverage offerings. Interesting cocktails, tempting craft beers, and some adventurous wine choices comprise a compact but rich assortment of offerings. We opted for a crisp and slightly briny white wine from the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, and it was perfect with our seafood-themed meal.

The kids were hoping for desserts, and we were, too, but CK had not developed a dessert menu at the time of our visit. We understand that for a new place doing so many things well, there is still room to grow and improve, so we will happily return to check out the sweets in the future. If every ’hood in Charm City had a gathering place like Charm’d Kitchen, we would be lucky, indeed.

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CHARM’D KITCHEN 123 S. Chester St., 443-627-8369. HOURS: Sun. 8 a.m-2 p.m., 4 p.m.-midnight; Mon. 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 6 p.m.-midnight; Tues. 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; Wed.-Fri. 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 4 p.m.-midnight; Sat. 8 a.m.-2 p.m. PRICES: (Dinner only): soups, salads, starters: $7-18; entrees: $12-24. AMBIANCE: Upscale cafe.