When Lindsay Willey was just beginning her career as assistant sommelier at Cinghiale, she had to fake it till she made it. With some 350 bottles and 40 glasses on the Harbor East restaurant’s wine list when it first opened in 2007, it boasted one of the most extensive exclusively Italian wine programs in Maryland.

“A lot of times when a guest would ask about a particular bottle, I would literally run in the office to look something up,” admits Willey, who was 28 at the time. “I’m not good at lying, I’m not good at schmoozing—I needed to be able to be honest about it.”

Now, some 18 years later, she’s the wine director of Charleston—Cindy Wolf’s famed Low Country restaurant that’s just a stone’s throw from Cinghiale—where she has complete command of the restaurant’s 7,000-strong inventory, one that includes a diverse range of important growing regions across the world, from the Southern Rhône Valley to Burgundy and Champagne.

In addition, she oversees the wine programs for the newly formed Tony Foreman+Co., whose properties include Cinghiale, The Milton Inn, Petit Louis Bistro, Johnny’s, and The Duchess. In total, she’s responsible for handling a staggering 20,000-plus bottles among the six cellars. She’s a bona fide expert now, but the 46-year-old veteran has maintained the same refreshing humility as the day she started.

As she gives a tour of Charleston’s 55-degree wine cellar—really just a tightly crowded room off the restaurant’s kitchen with wine organized numerically—her deep cellar knowledge about vintners, their prized products, and potential pairings is impressive. She pulls a random bottle—bin 2127—off the shelf and rattles off the tasting notes.

“This is a 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape,” she says, cradling the bottle in both hands. “It’s a current release from Clos des Pape; we had a great visit there last March. It leans more red fruit, but with a lot of floral and herbaceous notes.”

She’s just getting started. “It’s not uncommon to have lavender and rosemary and sage growing near the vineyards, so it can pick up some of those aromatics in the wine,” she continues. “That’s why it’s perfect for this time of year when chef does things with eggplant and tomatoes and herbs and black olives. It marries nicely with those Mediterranean flavors.”

Charleston has long been both a local and national dining darling, thanks to its peerless owner-chef Cindy Wolf, the well-curated wine list, and hospitality that comes from the heart. And there are awards galore to prove it—in a small, alley-like room behind the bar, and out of public view, an entire section is wallpapered with awards and nods that have poured in ever since Wolf and her then-business partner, Tony Foreman, opened the restaurant in 1997. (Wolf became the sole owner in Dec. 2024.) And yet, there is one award that has been elusive.

While Wolf has been nominated for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic nine times (the restaurant has garnered 24 nods in total), she has never won—earning her the nickname of the “Susan Lucci of chefs.” Lucci, famously, was nominated for 19 Daytime Emmys before she won on her 20th try. Wolf and Charleston didn’t have to wait quite that long to get culinary gold. In June, Charleston won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages.

The medallion, slung on a simple satin ribbon and framed in silver leaf, hangs proudly inside the restaurant’s foyer. It’s very much a shared award: Willey shaped the cellar—and sommeliers and staff moved the bottles from cellar to table. But it’s Wolf’s daily changing seasonal menu, complete with 20 different pairings for each dish, that’s the inspiration behind Willey’s work.

When the restaurant was named a semi-finalist for its wine program last January, Willey was quietly excited. By April, when Charleston was named a finalist, her anticipation grew. “I was definitely hoping,” she admits, “but I was cautious, because I thought, ‘There’s no way.’ And then chef was like, ‘We’re going to the awards ceremony in Chicago!’” recalls Willey, sounding like a little kid. “And I got excited.”

WOLF’S DAILY CHANGING MENU IS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND WILLEY’S WORK.

Once seated at the awards ceremony, Willey’s partner, Patrick Weber, who used to work in event production, tried reading the tea leaves. The trio was seated on the end of a row, something he saw as a good sign.

“When we sat down, Patrick was like, ‘This is interesting,’” she recalls. “He said, ‘All the speakers are usually seated on the aisle because that way they don’t have to go through other people,’ But even then, I was like, ‘It’s probably just a coincidence.’”

It was not. When the restaurant’s name was called, Wolf and Willey—who says she let out a Beavis and Butt-Head laugh—stood up and embraced, then headed toward the stage at the Lyric Opera, where, at long last, they accepted the award, known as the Oscars of the food world.

At the podium, Wolf portrayed their partnership. “It is a joy to have a som who knows your cooking, understands your cooking, and knows how to pair—it’s the best thing you can ask for as a chef,” Wolf recalls saying to the crowds.

Willey never set out to be a certified sommelier. Growing up in a ramshackle 1800s home in Garrett County on some 30 acres, there were plenty of places for her, along with three siblings and various farm animals, to roam. It was a happy childhood, filled with family and good food. Her parents primed her palate. “My dad, Morris, was a really good cook; my mom, Pam, was a wonderful baker,” she says, “and we were always making jam in the summer.”

Her father’s signature dish was roast chicken with cippolini onions. He kept a vegetable garden. Her mother made strawberry-rhubarb pie. Wine was something that appeared on the table at special occasions. “At Christmas, if we had tenderloin, my mom would have a Cab or something like that out, but there wasn’t a big emphasis on wine.”

In her teen years, Willey wasn’t yet sure of her future. She earned a scholarship to attend college at North Carolina State to be a pulp and paper engineer, because it was the path of least resistance. “There was a big paper mill in Western Maryland,” she says, “and they liked to promote people to have careers in math and science. But after one semester I was like, ‘I cannot be a pulp and paper person.’ It was going to be a really dirty job. I love paper. I was like, ‘I want to be on the happy side of paper!’”

From there, she headed back to Maryland to Frostburg State, her parents’ alma mater, majoring in graphic design. And she worked at an Italian restaurant part-time, where she did wine tastings for the first time. “I loved food, and I loved the restaurant business,” she recalls. “I loved learning about things and talking with the guests. It helped me learn to talk to people as an adult, because I was always a little bit introverted, but I didn’t think I could make a career of it. I always thought, ‘I’ll be a server, I’ll make some money, and then I have to get my grown-up job.’”

At 22, after graduation in 2001, she moved to Mount Vernon for her “adult job,” working for Agora Publishing on newsletter design—and then came the light-bulb moment. “After six years, I needed to hit the reset button,” she says. “My dad had terminal cancer in 2007, and he passed away in 2008. It was eye-opening. Not to be corny, but life is short—so, I took that leap. I thought, ‘He was only 56 when he died—I want to find something that makes me happy.’”

On a lark, in 2007, she interviewed for a part-time job at Foreman’s Harbor East wine shop, Bin 604 Wine Sellers. But during the interview, Foreman saw something special in her and decided she was destined for bigger things.

“When we met, I recall that she had this curiosity about wine,” says Foreman. “I thought, ‘This is a person I want to teach.’ She had a lovely spirit, and I was impressed by her—we just vibed immediately.”

Willey started as a server at Cinghiale, Foreman’s recently opened Italian enoteca/osteria. But within a few months, she graduated from server to assistant dining room manager and assistant som. “She was exceptionally organized, a good taster, and paid attention,” says Foreman.

The massive wine list was daunting, but Willey was a dedicated student. “I committed myself to wholeheartedly learning that list so I could talk intelligently about the wine,” she says. “I kept this big file and would add tasting notes. I have a good way of connecting my senses to memory—I was like a sponge.”

Her strong sense of smell also helped sharpen her palate, the key, she says, to being a som. “I’ve always noticed smells and have often been transported by them—like some fruity perfume of a lip balm as a kid or picking berries in the summer,” she says. “I have a sensory curiosity that makes wine tasting engaging and challenging. If you aren’t interested in tuning in to smell and taste, then wine tasting is hard.”

The first time she really grew to appreciate wine was during the tasting of a 1997 Barolo in 2007. “I remember seeing the color of it—it almost looked like iced tea,” she says. “I didn’t even know that wine could taste like this, look like this, age like this—I was captivated.”

The following year, a wine trip with Foreman and other staffers to Northern Italy furthered her education and fueled her newfound passion—and there have been many trips since to Italy and other wine-growing regions, including ones to France and Spain.

“Seeing the vineyards, and meeting the people and understanding the processes and all the variables that go into it, was amazing,” she says. “The fact that you could make something that was somewhat consistent from year to year and the dedication to it boggled my mind.”

“I’VE ALWAYS NOTICED SMELLS AND HAVE OFTEN BEEN TRANSPORTED BY THEM—IF YOU AREN’T INTERESTED IN TUNING INTO SMELL AND TASTE, THEN WINE TASTING IS HARD.”

As a young woman in a mostly male-dominated field, she occasionally encounters sexism and ageism, though overall, she says, “I haven’t found it to be too frustrating.”

Still, there’ve been times when she’s been tested. “There was a guest who came in regularly to Cinghiale,” she says. “He either hated me or he had a crush on me. He would say things like, ‘Would you describe this wine as herbal or floral?’ And I’d be like, ‘Well, I don’t really think either.’ He’d be like, ‘Oh, okay, good. Because I read  about it and it’s neither’—he would try to trick me.”

Of course, as a female chef, Wolf can relate. “I’m a woman in a male-dominated field and she is, too,” says Wolf. “But it doesn’t matter if she’s a woman or a man, she’s just really good at what she does.”

On a late summer day, Willey, who lives in Medfield with her partner, Patrick, and a rescue cat named Momo, meets the morning wearing a white cotton top and bright green pants. Green, which she wore to the Beards, is officially her lucky color. It’s also the color of her eyes, which stand out next to a mane of dark hair that settles just past her shoulders.

The work starts early at Charleston and Tony Foreman+Co. As wine director, Willey handles all the details and logistics of the restaurants, working with vendors, tracking inventory, ensuring wine gets delivered, updating and printing the wine lists (the happy side of paper, after all), working wine dinners, and spending time with staff to demystify wine. She even teaches them the intricacies and the art of opening a bottle at the table, everything from keeping the cork quiet by easing it out of the bottle slowly to always keeping the label facing the customer to decanting along the side of the decanter so “it doesn’t look like a science experiment,” she says. “It contributes to the overall feeling of being in the restaurant.”

Willey also decides what makes its way onto any one list, always considering if the wine presents properly. “I ask, ‘Is this what the wine is supposed to taste like?’” she says. “For example, if it’s 100-percent Nebbiolo, I’m looking for certain characteristics—usually some sort of rose, floral quality, usually cooler, darker fruit with some sort of anise, tarry taste, not incredibly heavy on the tannins, very aromatic—it might be really tasty but not what I’m looking for. And then I ask myself if the price is fair.”

Her responsibilities at Charleston, where she eventually started working part-time in 2010, are particularly daunting given Wolf’s daily rotating menu—with each menu item accompanied by suggested pairings. It’s those pairings—curated to complement the menu—she believes, that clinched the award.

“I don’t know what put us over the top,” says Willey, “but I think that maybe this award was focused on the pairings. What consistently sets Charleston apart is the number of options you have when you dine here. We have 20-some wines that are going to be paired with any offering on a given day. I have never seen a restaurant offer the number of choices and flexibility that we have. I don’t know if somebody noticed that this particular year, but I definitely think that makes it very special.”

As she stands near the entrance of the restaurant showing off the Beard, she beams. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she says. “I had it with me for three days—I put it next to my pillow and slept with it. But it really belongs to the restaurant. I wanted the staff to look at it every day and be reminded of the great work they’re doing.”

Still, the down-to-earth wine director is proud of her part.“I’ll never forget my place in this,” she says. “That’s etched in my brain—I had my time with him.”

Deep inside the recesses of Magdalena, pastry chef Emily Heleba stands at the restaurant’s kitchen counter pouring chocolate glaze over disks of frozen chocolate mousse. Once enrobed, the desserts, which sit atop layers of crispy cocoa dacquoise, will be decorated with filaments of gold leaf before they’re served to diners at the fine-dining restaurant at the heart of The Ivy Hotel, a circa-1890s Mt. Vernon mansion.

A Molteni stove—a black-enameled, brass-fitted behemoth made in France to Magdalena’s specifications—fills the center of the kitchen, a vat of stock bubbling away on a corner burner. Across from that stove, Heleba has an entire station at her disposal, as well as a designated refrigerator. That set-up is unusual in today’s restaurant kitchens, many of which don’t have a pastry chef, much less a dedicated pastry station.

A pastry chef, or pâtissier, is an integral part of a classic French kitchen brigade, responsible for all desserts as well as breads and baked goods, plus many batters, fillings, and doughs. But increasingly, due to financial constraints, restaurants have done away with many traditional kitchen positions, consolidating them or outsourcing the work.

When money is tight, the pastry chef is often the first to go, as it is a labor-intensive position that doesn’t bring in a lot of money (people often skip desserts). And high-quality desserts can be purchased from bakeries or private kitchens, as can breads and sweets. These days, pastry chefs are often as much of a luxury as the desserts themselves.

THESE DAYS, PASTRY CHEFS ARE OFTEN AS MUCH OF A LUXURY AS THE DESSERTS THEMSELVES.

The restaurants that can afford pastry chefs tend to be those that use them for more than just the desserts of one kitchen. That includes corporate restaurants that have one pastry chef who bakes desserts for a few restaurants out of one central kitchen or larger restaurants that have private dining rooms for events, such as weddings, birthday parties, and business meetings.

And then there are hotel restaurants like Magdalena, where the pastry chef is also responsible for events such as tea service and hotel breakfasts and gatherings.

“I feel very lucky to have found a place that wants a pastry chef,” says Heleba as she slices strawberries and adds them to profiteroles filled with diplomat cream (a mixture of pastry cream and whipped cream), which will join bite-size scones and tiny tea sandwiches presented on a two-tiered tea tray.

“When I was doing my job search out of school, pretty much every job listing was line cook, line cook,” she says. A graduate of Johnson & Wales, a preeminent culinary school in Rhode Island, she grew up in Ellicott City. “A lot of my chefs at school were very clear that it was going to be a struggle for us to find places where we’re needed and that we would most likely have to pick up savory skills as well along the way.”

At Magdalena, she’s part of an eight-member kitchen staff who serve the 65-seat restaurant, as well as doing events, serving high tea to hotel guests in the well-appointed (hand-painted walls, stained glass windows) lounge on the hotel’s second floor, and, as of this spring, outside diners as well.

Many of the teachers at Johnson & Wales, Heleba says, advised looking at hotels for work. “You’re doing bread, you’re doing desserts, you’re doing breakfast in some cases. There’s a need.”

But that advice applied mainly to big chain hotels like the Four Seasons, so she’s especially grateful to have found a position at a boutique hotel, where she can be part of a small kitchen and do more personalized work. “I feel like it’s so much more meaningful,” says Heleba.

Gunther & Co. in Brewers Hill doesn’t have a hotel to help finance the restaurant’s pastry program, but it does have private dining rooms as well as a huge main dining room in the space, the century-old boiler room of the Gunther Brewing Company.

Longtime pastry chef Jessica Banner has been at Gunther for seven and a half of the nine years it’s been operating, and her pastry program encompasses not only desserts, but breads—including the popular Parker House rolls—and hamburger buns, as well as much of the weekend brunch menu and integral parts of the event menus that fuel Gunther’s engines.

“I like the combination of science and comfort,” says Banner, who credits her grandmother, who worked as a dairy farmer in England, as part of the reason she felt drawn to pastry. A musical theater major in college, she went to the French Culinary Institute and trained in restaurants, including Wylie Dufresne’s legendary wd-50 in New York City.

Like Heleba, Banner feels lucky to have found her current position. When her last job ended after the restaurant closed, “I was like, ‘Oh gosh, what’s next?’” she says. “Because there are so few places that employ just a pastry chef.”

In Gunther’s large open kitchen, Banner whips meringue in a lime-green KitchenAid, then pipes it onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper for the Pavlovas she’ll serve that evening—gorgeous architectural desserts built of meringue, passion fruit coulis, coconut-milk cream, and roasted pineapple compote, crowned with golden disks of dehydrated pineapple.

“You’ll have small restaurants that don’t want to employ pastry chefs,” she continues. “They put some cook on the team in charge of, like crème brûlée or a chocolate thing and call it a day. Sure, you can make that work. But [dessert] is so important, it’s what you remember; you can really round out people’s experiences.”

Banner’s point underscores the difficulty of consolidating desserts and baking into the job of a restaurant staff without a pastry chef.

“They’re really two different animals, right? To be a chef and to be a pastry chef,” she says. “I don’t pretend for a minute that I can hop behind that line and break out the things that those people do. It’s really a science. You need the space and you need the hours.”

Pastry programs not only require specifically trained pastry cooks, but they also require, as Banner points out, space and time. Pastry chefs need prep time and oven space for baked goods, which is often at odds with what happens in the rest of the kitchen. Working with chocolate and other dessert ingredients can require cooler temperatures—the reason why bakeries often have specific colder rooms and marble countertops—while ovens need higher heat or convection settings for breads and pastries. Flour can migrate, which can be a concern for gluten-free guests.

And then there is the cost—not only of the pastry chef’s salary, but of ingredients like chocolate, butter, and eggs, not to mention gold leaf and high-quality fruit.

“IF YOU WANT TO BE A TOP RESTAURANT, YOU NEED HOMEMADE DESSERTS, YOU NEED A PASTRY CHEF.”

“The art of pastry is dying,” says Gunther co-owner Nancy Hart Trice, a former chef herself. She says when she moved back to Baltimore 20 years ago, many restaurants weren’t able to afford to keep pastry chefs. This has only gotten worse with the pandemic and inflation. “It was very important to Jerry [Trice, her husband and co-owner] and me that we figure out how to make it work, like making the bread and ice cream. We wanted everything to be from scratch, like having a brunch program that has homemade doughnuts. I think people can taste that,” Trice continues. “If you want to be a top restaurant, you need homemade desserts, you need a pastry chef.”

Spike Gjerde, the only Baltimore chef to have won the James Beard Foundation’s award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic, has always had a designated pastry chef at Woodberry Tavern, where he’s both chef and owner. Gjerde, in fact, started his career as a pastry chef; his first job was at Baltimore’s Pâtisserie Poupon.

“Pastry was always part of our mix,” says Gjerde. “For me, it wasn’t a question of whether we should have a pastry chef. Where it really makes sense for me, is if you have baking kind of baked into the kitchen approach.”

For Gjerde’s pastry chefs, this is feasible because they also bake for Artifact, the coffee shop down the road from Woodberry, which has a stellar menu that includes English muffins and biscuits as well as an elaborate breakfast and lunch menu. The pastry team contributes to Woodberry’s events, and is an integral part of the restaurant’s menu, not only for the desserts, like a spectacular baked Alaska (ginger cake, apricot ice cream, flamed at table), and a popular brunch, but elements of the savory side like the smoked oyster pie.

“I think that has a lot to do with me coming up in the pastry kitchen,” says Gjerde. “It’s definitely the scale that helps. If it was just one [restaurant], it would be a real stretch to have a pastry chef. What it comes down to with pastry is that it’s skilled labor that’s costly, as it should be, and so it’s hard to make it work.”

Getting creative is part of the program. At Foraged in Station North, that creativity is on display with pastry chef Josi Stewart’s desserts, but also with her hours: To go full-time, she also works the front of the house. Stewart, who is self-taught, bakes the bread as well as making desserts to pair with chef Chris Amendola’s seasonal menu, but she knew from the start that the restaurant wasn’t big enough to justify a full time pastry chef. She’d worked front-of-house before, though, and enjoys that aspect of the job, which allows her to speak with guests—some- times even about her desserts.

“Getting that one-on-one contact with the guests when they’re actually having the [dessert] is huge. A lot of people want to talk about it.”

Foraged makes its own ice creams and also has a prix-fixe menu that always includes a dessert, as well as a cocktail menu that can include small dessert items, like pairing prosecco with sorbet.

“Because of how seasonal things are and how often the menu changes, there would be no other way to do it,” Stewart says about having an in-house pastry chef, noting Amendola’s emphasis on hyper-seasonal and foraged ingredients.

Like Gjerde, Ammoora’s chef Matthew Milani was originally a pastry chef. The Syrian restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Federal Hill, which was named to The New York Times’ 50 Best Restaurants list in 2024, has a strong pastry program that encompasses a large dessert menu as well as house-made pita bread that is an essential part of the Levantine menu. That Milani started in pastry—he has a degree in pastry from Le Cordon Bleu in Lyon, France—helps maintain both the quality and focus of the dessert menu.

And those desserts are like nothing else in Baltimore. The asha bil asal is “a play on a pastry cream mouselline,” describes Milani, crowned with rose petals, pistachios, and a stunning thatch of delicate Arabic cotton candy; and the ruz bil karaz is a dessert of coconut rice pudding, confit sour cherries, and a coconut-caramel tuile. Then there’s the pastry kitchen’s masterpiece, a version of the TikTok sensation Dubai chocolate bar, with toasted knafeh, pistachio-tahini batter, white chocolate cremeux, chocolate ganache, caramel espresso, and crushed pistachios.

“I love the position; I wish they got more recognition,” says Milani of pastry chefs, as he takes a break in the restaurant’s foyer one weekday mid-afternoon. He just finished Baltimore’s Restaurant Week, when he and his staff made hundreds of Dubai chocolate bars. “It was the greatest and worst decision ever. I think everybody got covered in pistachios at some point, just trying to keep up,” he says.

“It doesn’t have to be a 15-tier wedding cake,” he says of a restaurant’s dessert menu. “A plated dessert can really go a long way.”

Restaurateur Tony Foreman says he values investing in a pastry program because he appreciates “the care, the intentional ‘I’m going to treat you better’ ethos that there is in pastry.”

What allows Foreman to have executive pastry chef Maiya Lonesome on staff, plus a three-person team supporting her, is that they make desserts for all five of his restaurants and do it all from the huge Harbor East production kitchen at Cinghiale. Lonesome has been with Foreman for three and a half years, having graduated from Johnson & Wales in pastry and worked in D.C. hotels before coming to Baltimore.

“Every holiday is always insanity,” says Lonesome of her job. “Five restaurants, easily over 400 covers per restaurant, and everybody gets dessert,” at least during those holidays. Not only is the high cost of ingredients an issue, says Lonesome, but even finding people trained to work in pastry is difficult these days.

“The pastry kitchen is the first to get cut,” says Lonesome. “I have friends who got out of the industry. Their biggest thing was feeling like they weren’t getting paid enough. The hours are grueling. The work can be really hard on your body. It’s not conducive to having a family. So that left us with a big gap going into the pandemic, and then that happened, and then the gap just widened more.”

Another issue, she says, is the availability of outsourced desserts. “The introduction of a lot of convenience products dug a little bit of a grave for some of the pastry chefs out there,” says Lonesome. It’s a common concern.

“In a lot of restaurants, the desserts are coming from elsewhere,” says Woodberry’s Gjerde. “You can get it from Sysco, like everything else. Take it out of the freezer, and who’s gonna be the wiser?”

“THE HOURS ARE GRUELING. THE WORK CAN BE REALLY HARD ON YOUR BODY. IT’S NOT CONDUCIVE TO HAVING A FAMILY.”

In Cinghiale’s kitchen, Lonesome places a tray of 40 individual chocolate cakes filled with chocolate Bavarian cream in the freezer. Once frozen, they’ll get topped with chocolate mirror glaze, then driven to Sparks for The Milton Inn, where they’ll be decorated with white-and black sesame tuilles for the chocolate gâteaux.

Lonesome, who usually comes into the kitchen in the early morning to make her desserts long before the dinner team arrives, expertly spreads an Earl Grey sponge cake onto parchment-lined trays. Nearby are sheet racks of cherry crostatas for Cinghiale and cookies for Johnny’s, Foreman’s Roland Park restaurant; one tray is stacked with blocks of butter like an architect’s stash of bricks. Taped to the side of the freezer is a series of production schedules as well as photos of wedding cakes: Lonesome and her team also bake for weddings and events.

She first got interested in cooking in her eighth-grade home-ec class and decided to be a pastry chef while still in high school. “I wanted to do wedding cakes; I wanted to do chocolates and sugar.”

Back in Magdalena’s kitchen, Heleba turns her attention to a tray of banana slices, which she brûlées with a Home Depot-sized torch before tweezing them alongside rectangles of banana cake.

Under her expert touch, the cakes are outfitted with toffee ice cream, espresso crumbles, and shards of house-made toffee, then showered with Maldon salt for the finished banoffee desserts.

“I feel sad when I go to a restaurant and they have this beautiful menu with all these fresh ingredients and techniques, and then at the end there’s these same four desserts that you could get anywhere,” she says, spooning the ice cream into perfect oval-shaped quenelles. “I think you should end a meal with a reflection of what you’ve just enjoyed.”

Like all hospitality professionals, veteran restaurateurs Tony Foreman and Chef Cindy Wolf are grappling with the aftermath of the closing of their beloved restaurants during the pandemic.

While it’s been challenging, they have been making the best of the situation from their respective Roland Park homes. Foreman is reimagining the wine menu at Charleston and spending time with his family. Wolf is cooking up a storm in her state-of-the-art kitchen and doing ad-hoc cooking videos for her legions of fans.

Both are eagerly awaiting the day they can reopen Charleston, Cinghiale, and Bar Vasquez in Harbor East, as well as Petit Louis and Johnny’s in Roland Park.

“I believe that there will be restaurants that go out of business, and I feel sad about that,” says Wolf. “I have to do what I do, so somehow, some way, we will reopen. I don’t know if that’s pie in the sky, but I will not allow this to not happen—it has to happen.”

How are you?
Tony Foreman: There’s plenty of existential threat on the business and our livelihood as a family, but the sudden big chunk of family time and the chance to just prepare food for the people who are in my house and to just worry about homework, learning to ride the bike, do nature walks in a really wonderful neighborhood, and do stuff that we don’t ordinarily have time for has been really wonderful.

Cindy Wolf: I’m used to being alone, I’m just not used to being home alone for this many hours a day. I’m used to being at the restaurant 12 hours a day, so my home time is maybe an hour and then sleeping and going to work the next day. But thank goodness I have a beautiful home to live in and no one on our staff has gotten sick.

On the last night of service before the shutdown it just didn’t feel right. It was hushed—the laughter, the joy, the excitement, all of the good things about being in a restaurant were all sucked out of the room. —Cindy Wolf

What was that final night of service at the restaurants like?
TF: We had the very strong feeling the governor was going to shut us down. When he did, I was of two minds. The first thought was, ‘Let’s do something to generate income and at least keep some people working.’ We formulated a plan and immediately responded by having takeout for our guests on Monday and Tuesday.

I had a long conversation with [Petit Louis executive chef] Chris Scanga the day before. He was concerned about being the guy who would go to work and take the virus home to his family—that hit home with me. I slept on it and thought, ‘In good conscience, can I ask these people to come to work when this thing is still ramping up?’ We don’t know what it is or how bad it’s going to be. Are we contributing to it just by doing a to-go business in the name of keeping people employed? I called Cindy and she agreed.

What was the last night of service at Charleston like specifically?
CW: When I saw my waiters in the dining room wearing gloves and my runners wearing gloves and [maître d’] Peter [Keck] walking around—he wasn’t doing anything but sanitizing doorknobs—I was like, ‘This is just not right. This is a restaurant.’ Of course, it should be sanitary, but this is heartbreaking for me to see my waiters walking around with gloves and being scared to walk to tables. I was like, ‘What are we doing? Why are we open? This is not how you operate a restaurant.’ From my kitchen, I can see into the dining room and it just didn’t feel right. It was hushed—the laughter, the joy, the excitement, all of the good things about being in a restaurant were all sucked out of the room.

My ability to fry things in whatever cast iron is lying around has been rehomed from my great grandmother Annie Ross’s kitchen—she was Miss North Carolina 1910. —Tony Foreman

What kinds of things have you been cooking at home?
TF: [My 6-year-old daughter], Del, loves fish and so does my wife, Katie. Two nights a week we have some kind of fish. We got really beautiful yellowfin tuna through work and a nice Scottish salmon. When asparagus are around it’s easy—it’s salmon and asparagus. I also made a fried chicken sandwich for Del. It was super tasty with sprouts and crunchy veggies piled on it. My ability to fry things in whatever cast iron is lying around has been rehomed from my great grandmother Annie Ross’s kitchen—she was Miss North Carolina 1910.

Chef Wolf, from the looks of Instagram, it seems like you’re making a lot of great meals at home.
CW: I love food, even if I’m just cooking for myself. If I have leftovers, I give them to someone who works for me. It makes me happy. When we had a sense that something bad was about to happen, I bought chicken and we broke it down and put it on our freezer in small packages at Charleston. I went to the grocery store and, for the first time in my life, I bought frozen vegetables.

What I have dictates what I cook. My farm in Ohio is just starting out. The salesperson sent me an email saying, ‘We want to send you a box as a gift.’ It was filled with radishes, potatoes, microgreens, and baby parsnips. That really improved my home cooking. In the beginning of this, I ate a lot of chicken. I had some Brabander, it’s an incredible piece of cheese. I brought home a duck breast from Charleston and made magret and ate that for three days. I also got a delivery from Eddie’s. I told them I wanted rack of lamb but didn’t want them to French [cut] it. The meat between the bones on the rack, when left on and roasted properly, is the best part of the rack meat. Between the bones can be so tender and has so much fat surrounding it.

You’ve been posting lots of cooking videos. Why did you decide to make them?
CW: I want to share. I want to teach. I teach every day at work. I’ve always wanted to have my own cooking show.

Any cooking tips for those of us staring blankly into our pantry wondering what’s for dinner?
CW: Reach into the past. All cultures have peasant cooking—all of these old rice and bean dishes. Make things with flour like empanadas—which are made with flour, fat, and water—or pasta. Learn how to make pasta if you can get your hands on flour. Get an inexpensive hand-rolling pasta machine on Amazon. Or boil a potato, mash it, and add ground beef and any spices you like—saffron, chili powder, cayenne, salt, pepper—and add an egg. It’s as good cold as it is hot. Look for old world recipes from French cooking, Mexican cooking, American food, Spanish, and Middle Eastern. Many of those dishes slow cook on the back of stove all day long and make the house smell great.

What will be on the menu at Charleston when you return?
CW: Every day I write things down for the menu, but it’s so seasonal. I have almost an entire notebook filled with either a piece of an idea or something that inspired me. I’ve been hanging out a lot with chef [Paul] Bocuse, I have a lot of his cookbooks, and Anne Willan. I just keep writing, but I don’t know when we are opening. It makes me happy to be with the cookbooks and at least have the ideas. One or two days before we open, when I bring food product in is when we will make the final decisions. I also know people will want the lobster soup and fried oysters—it won’t be a 100-percent new menu because I am here to make people happy.

Will you make changes to any of the other menus?
TF: We are working on a very different presentation and interpretation of the wine list in the cellar at Charleston—now is a chance to do it. We’re going to think about the different restaurants—each one has a pretty pure truth that it’s chasing. I want to make sure that we are as true to those things as we can be. We have the percolation time and I’m going to use it.

What do you miss about being in the restaurants?
TF: The way that our guests rely on the solidity and the care of our team from back door to front door—whether they know that or not. I like that, not just being dependable but being a dependably good piece of people’s lives in a complicated and stressful world. To know that you can go somewhere and you’re going to feel cared for.

Smaller very hand-crafted, curated, and cultivated experiences will be less and less and the attraction to creating those things is going to be less and less—there’s just too much risk. —Tony Foreman

Will restaurants survive?
TF: They are going to be changed. Things will continue to tilt in favor of chains and larger scale places. Smaller very hand-crafted, curated, and cultivated experiences will be less and less and the attraction to creating those things is going to be less and less—there’s just too much risk.

What are you looking forward to when you reopen?
TF: I’m looking forward to that first family meal with our staff. I’ve already told them I will make them a nice supper before we open and I will bring them wine from my cellar, and we will have a nice time.

I walk into that empty restaurant and it’s hard. I miss my guys. [Daytime prep cook] Hubaldo has worked for me since we’ve had Savannah—that’s 23 years. I will not walk into Charleston again until I can start to operate that restaurant again. It’s my life. —Cindy Wolf

Chef Wolf, I’ve seen from Instagram that you’ve been back to Charleston a few times.
CW: In the beginning, I went a few times. I did a bit of repair work—someone who works for us had an opportunity to make a little bit of money, so I went down there. Prior to that, I went in a few times in the first few weeks because I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Also, in those first few weeks, we still had some food left. I went four or five times when we were distributing the food. We did a huge distribution to staff the day we closed.

After being in the restaurant just yesterday, my question was, ‘When do we move forward and how do we move forward?’ It’s killing me. I will not walk into Charleston ever again until I can start to operate that restaurant again. It’s my life. I’ve wanted to do this since I was a kid. All I do is think about food. I’m at work many hours a day. When I’m not there, I’m thinking about food. When I go on vacation, I go to eat food. I eat in some of the best restaurants in France and have a glass or two of Champagne at lunch. A walk at lunch and then back to dinner—I live for that. Getting to immerse myself is so inspiring to me.

I walk into that empty restaurant and it’s hard, and I miss my guys. Hubaldo has worked for me since we’ve had Savannah—that’s 23 years. He’s my daytime prep cook. I am thankful every single day for what I do. I look at him and say, ‘Can you believe what we do?’

Why do we need restaurants?
CW: We need restaurants like Petit Louis and all the little neighborhood restaurants. We need places like Charleston so we can dress up and celebrate our anniversary, even if people need to save their coins to go to those restaurants once in a lifetime. I’m certain that whenever we reopen, our waiters will have to wear masks and gloves, which I can’t stand, but if that’s what it takes to open so be it. We can’t live without restaurants.

Walk through the doors of pretty much any restaurant these days and you’re sure to spot menu items in sweeping curlicues and block-like shading on chalkboards behind the bar. Or perhaps folding chalkboards greet you on the sidewalk as you come in, hoping to titillate your taste buds with the specials of the day.

Woodberry Kitchen server Serina Hoff takes the art form a step further. For nearly five years, she has transformed chalkboards into menu masterpieces. Working mostly on slate and using chalkboard paint and acrylics that yield a thick, painterly stroke, she has created Monet-style sunsets, likenesses of Parisian cafes, even a graphic show of support for France after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack.

Though she has always loved art, and was especially drawn to lettering during her childhood in California, the self-trained Hoff didn’t realize her talents until she was working as a server at Petit Louis Bistro, following a move to Baltimore after college.

“I remember the day we got the chalkboards,” Hoff says. “I knew I could be ornate and really give life to those boards, and one day, they needed to be changed and I was around—that’s when it started.”

At first, Hoff simply wrote the menu, but soon branched out to explore themes culturally related to France, using as inspiration iconic French artworks and old-fashioned advertisements depicting scenes of Victorian cafe life. Her works—which could take up to five hours to complete—took on a painterly quality that had patrons raving. “One customer used to show me his phone and the background was one of my boards,” she says. “They became like pieces of art.”

Hoff moved on from Louis to serving stints at Sticky Rice, where she continued to script and paint menu boards, and Cinghiale. And, these days, while Woodberry does not need her slate services (their menus are strictly printed on paper), she’s currently beautifying the boards at Hampden’s Blue Pit BBQ & Whiskey Bar, one of her favorite places to visit when she’s not on the clock.

Ironically, one of the best parts of chalk painting, Hoff says, is knowing that her work won’t last. “I usually erase it myself, because I absolutely love the impermanence,” she says. “I think that’s when you’re allowed to do your best work. When you know that something is impermanent, you’re letting go.”

COMING SOON

Abbey Burger Bistro: Husband-and-wife owners Russ and Marigot Miller—along with their business partner Jason Zink of Smaltimore—have already graced Federal Hill, Fells Point, and Ocean City with their mouthwatering burgers and tots. This fall, they’re expanding yet again with another Abbey spinoff in the former home of The Nickel Taphouse in Mt. Washington. This time around, the team is partnering with chef Patrick Morrow to add to Abbey’s sports bar vibe with seafood steamers like shrimp and clams. “We want to use the Abbey concept and keep some of the exotic meats, but also add some things to broaden it up a little bit,” Russ says.

A renovation will yield new floors and revamped bars that will emphasize local and Belgian craft drafts. Of course, in keeping with Abbey tradition, the plan is for the bar to be a hub for European soccer matches. Having grown up in the area, Russ adds that he’s excited to enhance the dining scene in North Baltimore. “Our food scene in Baltimore is continuing to grow and get better and better,” he says. “It’s exciting that we’re stepping up our food game and it’s being recognized from all over.” 1604 Kelly Ave.

On Top Hot Dogs + Burgers: Chef Federico Tischler is shifting his focus from Venezuelan street food to all-American classics at his stall inside R. House in Remington. This Friday, the former White Envelope concept will transform into On Top Hot Dogs + Burgers, Tischler’s new brainchild inspired by his grandmother’s ability to whip up meals using whatever she could find in the refrigerator. “You learn how to cook using recipes, but at the same time, using associations and the ingredients available to you,” he says in a statement. In keeping with that mentality, Tischler will highlight hot dogs topped with mish-mashed ingredients. (The signature “Bullet on the Blue Sky” dog comes dressed with bacon, cheddar cheese, red cabbage, and ground crispy plantains.) Additionally, the menu features classic burgers with DIY toppings including everything from fried egg to confit cherry tomatoes and 12 different sauces. 301 W. 29th St.

Papi’s Tacos: It’s an exciting month for this Fells Point taqueria best known for its Mexican street vibe and killer margaritas. Not only is the Aliceanna Street staple celebrating its fifth birthday this week, but a second Papi’s is expected to debut any day now in the former home of Dimitri’s Tavern in Hampden. Opening across the street from its sister-restaurant Wicked Sisters on Falls Road, the new location will mimic the style of the flagship with its signature antojitos (small snacks) and build-your-own street tacos in a space decorated with interior greenery and lots of sugar skulls. While patiently awaiting the new opening, fans of the restaurant are invited to celebrate Papi’s big birthday at the Fells Point location tonight. Swing by for specials including $5 house margaritas and house wines, $4 sangria, $3 draft beers, and $3 shots of tequila. 1703 Aliceanna St. 410-299-8480

NEWS

Yelp Names Baltimore a Top Foodie City: On the heels of last week’s James Beard Award semifinalists announcement, the national acclaim keeps rolling in for the local dining scene. This week, Yelp ranked Baltimore among its top 10 foodie cities throughout the country. In compiling the list, Yelp’s data science team examined factors such as ratings, reviews, cuisine diversity, and percentage of food photos to determine where users love to eat right now. Coming in at No. 9, Baltimore’s write-up gives nods to our casual pubs, award-winning chefs, and food halls—specifically mentioning spots such as Water for Chocolate and Annabel Lee Tavern. We’re in the company of famous foodie hubs including St. Louis, Houston, San Diego, Honolulu, and San Francisco.

Grand Central Sold to Landmark Partners: It’s the end of an era for this decades-old dance club in Mt. Vernon, a landmark in the LGBTQ community, which was put on the market by longtime owner Don Davis more than a year ago. “My heart has always been there,” Davis told us after making the decision in 2017. “I’ve met so many wonderful people in the past couple of decades. I’ll miss it, but it’s just time.” Last week, it was announced that the club had finally sold to local developers Landmark Partners—the firm behind the City House coworking space located just a few blocks away from Grand Central on Eager Street. For now, the bar remains open under new management, but in the coming months the new owners plan to transform the space into an office building with two retail storefronts on the street level. Stay tuned for more updates. 1001 N. Charles St. 410-752-7133

Sandlot Sets Spring Reopening Date: The current frigid temperatures might make it difficult to envision sipping frozen cocktails at Sandlot in Harbor Point, but the waterfront hangout will be back up and running before we know it. The Woodberry Kitchen sister-spot will officially reopen for the season on May 3. Throughout the past two summers, we’ve gotten to know the beach-themed peninsula as a social spot for enjoying lawn games, live music, and eats on a stick. This time around, expect all of the same attractions with a slew of new events including silent disco parties, plant workshops with B. Willow, wine tastings with Old Westminster Winery, and sunset cruises on board the Baltimore Water Taxis. 1000 Wills St.

EPICUREAN EVENTS

3/8: International Women’s Day at Topside
Gather your favorite boss babes and head up to Topside on the 14th floor of Hotel Revival for this Women’s Day celebration benefiting My Sister’s Place—a local resource center serving women and children experiencing homelessness in the city. The bar will be offering $5 wine specials for all of the ladies, and from 5-9 p.m., a percentage of all purchases will be donated to the cause. Aside from the wine, the bar team will feature a special cocktail dubbed the “Friday Evening”—a nod to Baltimore suffragist and philanthropist Mary Elizabeth Garrett and her friends. 101 W. Monument St. 410-727-7101

3/11: Moccagatta Wine Dinner at Cinghiale
Next week, Cinghiale in Harbor East is welcoming master vintner Martina Minuto all the way from the Barbaresco in Piedmont region of Italy. The wine-making expert works on her family’s estate in Barbaresco, which has roots dating back to the 1800s, and will pair several of their wines with a special menu by executive chef James Lewandowski. Dishes on deck will include roasted forest mushroom bruschetta, beef tenderloin with smoked potato puree, and a hazelnut cake with dark chocolate cherry sauce. 822 Lancaster St. 410-547-8282. $129

SHUT

Lupa: Foreman Wolf Restaurant Group served the last meal at its Roman trattoria in Columbia last weekend. After transitioning from Petit Louis in January of 2018, Lupa quickly became a neighborhood spot for housemade pasta, focaccia pizzas, and some of the best gelato this side of the pond. “We love Lupa and will miss Howard County and all of our regular guests,” Foreman Wolf co-owner Tony Foreman said in a statement. Foreman went on to explain that the restaurant’s investors were no longer interested in funding the spot. “We’re proud and grateful for our time here.” 10215 Wincopin Cir, Columbia

Trinacria Cafe: Stationed on West Centre Street across from Mount Vernon Marketplace, this neighborhood cafe is a go-to for glasses of wine paired with Italian pastas and subs. (Not to mention the lively drag brunches.) But, for the time being, regulars are going to have to visit Trinacria’s decades-old flagship market on West Paca Street to quell cravings. Owner Vince Fava posted a handwritten note to the cafe’s front door last week, which announced that the spot will be closed “until further notice.” Luckily, the downtown deli is open for business to hold everyone over until the Mt. Vernon location—hopefully—reopens in the coming weeks. 111 W. Centre St.

OPEN

Fornicolli’s: There’s a new spot to grab late-night slices after last call on weekends in Federal Hill. The team behind Das Bier Haus on Light Street has transformed the space next door into a traditional Italian eatery and carry-out. Helmed by chef Mark Dunaway—formerly of now-closed Regi’s American Bistro up the street—the menu features staples like pizza, a classic Caesar salad, chicken parmesan, baked ziti, and an Italian cold cut sub, as well as snacks like Buffalo cauliflower and fried cheese steak eggrolls. The shop is open for dinner service weekly and extends its hours until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. 1538 Light St., 443-439-5137

Checkerspot Brewing: Husband-and-wife brewers Rob and Judy Neff (who has her Ph.D in microbiology), and their business partner Steve Marsh—who founded the cask program at Heavy Seas Beer a decade ago—will finally open their South Baltimore taproom to the public on Saturday, June 30 at 12 p.m. Complete with driftwood, hanging plants, and old farm pulleys, the brewery aims to bring the outside in. “We really wanted to celebrate where beer ingredients come from,” Neff says. “We’re trying to bring nature and the city together all in one place.” Checkerspot’s beers make use of ingredients from local farms like Baugher’s in Reisterstown. There’s also a cask-conditioned Keeper’s Stout, which is fortified with crab shells from J.M. Clayton Seafood Company. Other drafts to look out for throughout opening weekend include the Juniperus juniper IPA, Southside pale ale, and Saison de Fleur. 1399 S. Sharp St.

18-8 Sushi: On the heels of The Local Fry’s grand opening, The Rotunda in Hampden also welcomed this new sushi spot last week. Diversifying the dining options in the mixed-use development, 18-8 offers bento boxes, various protein entrees, and a lengthy list of colorful rolls ranging from a classic California to a “Red Diamond” with crab, salmon, tuna, and avocado in a pink soy wrapper with mango sauce. 727 W. 40th St, Ste. 138. 410-889-1888

Button: Scott Plank’s luxe pool bar opened to the public earlier this summer, and now, the team is unveiling the pool’s accompanying restaurant. Opening on July 2, the neighborhood cafe and bar on the waterfront will feature a menu from chef Allysa Storms with salads and grain bowls, wood-fired pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, and heartier entrees like Cajun Chesapeake rockfish. The laid-back spot highlights harborside seating, as well as an elevated dining deck overlooking the marina at Lighthouse Point. 2760 Lighthouse Point, 410-675-8888

The Charmery: The new Union Collective makerspace in Medfield has been gradually introduced to the public over the past few weeks. Earth Treks’ bouldering gym opened in early June and Union’s taproom debuted soon after. Now, The Charmery is ready to unveil its third retail location in the space—which also houses an expanded production kitchen that will make ice cream for all three of the shop’s locations. Officially opening on Monday, July 2, the new space is as whimsical as The Charmery’s ice cream flavors (think egg custard and the cereal-infused “Saturday Morning Cartoons”), boasting a coin-activated ice cream cone ride, giant Rube Goldberg crank-operated machine, and ice cream truck seating booth—all created by local artists and designers. 1700 W. 41st St.

The Pizza Trust: Belvedere Square Market’s newest pizza purveyor opened to rave reviews from neighborhood locals last week. The stall owned by James Clark—who also operates Clark Burger inside the Senator Theatre up the street—offers wings, fries, salads, and quick-fired pizzas in signature varieties like the “Double Double” (red sauce, double cheese and pepperoni), “Dirty Bird” (white sauce, herbed chicken, bacon bits, and bleu cheese), and the “Funcle,” topped with truffled white sauce, wild mushrooms, caramelized shallots, and shaved parmesan. 529 E. Belvedere Ave., 443-961-8111

COMING SOON

Nori: Hampden locals might have noticed a new sign towering over the former Corner Charcuterie Bar while strolling on The Avenue recently. The space will soon debut as Nori Sushi Bar, a spinoff from the former owners of Ruby 8 Noodles and Sushi at McHenry Row in Locust Point. According to reports by Baltimore Fishbowl, the spot is aiming for a grand opening next month, complete with sushi, rice dishes, noodles, and traditional Korean rice bowls. 850 W. 36th St.

Patterson Public House: The Patterson Park community was at a loss when longtime neighborhood spot BistroRx closed its doors in the spring. But now, locals Tanya Gralto and Scott Lanphear are reopening the space as Patterson Public House—a tavern serving bar classics and locally sourced seasonal fare. Though the spot isn’t expected to debut until mid-July, the team is hosting a pop-up at R. House in Remington this week to give locals a sneak peek of what’s to come. Swing by the stall from now until July 8 to taste burgers, fries, and classic half-smokes from the restaurant’s new chefs Scott Bacon—formerly of the Brewer’s Art—and Cai Lindeman, who cut his chops at The Dabney in Washington, D.C. 301 W. 29th St.

NEWS

Gather Baltimore: This local organization that distributes its signature blue bags of surplus produce to city residents in need has officially moved from its original location on Sisson Street in Remington to 4800 Harford Road—which is also the site of Hamilton-Lauraville’s Tuesday-evening farmers’ market. Gather Baltimore founder Arthur Morgan encourages locals to follow the organization’s Facebook page for information about when to retrieve the bags, which contain everything from asparagus and potatoes to peppers and pineapple this summer. 4800 Harford Rd.

Ekiben Fried Chicken Gets Nod from Southern Living: The national praise keeps on coming for Ekiben in Fells Point, whose signature steamed buns and rice bowls have recently been lauded by the likes of The Food Network and Eater. The acclaim continued earlier this week when the Korean-fusion shop was named on Southern Living’s list of the best fried chicken in every state. “If Southern Living says we have the best fried chicken in Maryland, we know we’ve got something special,” the owners posted to Instagram. “Thanks for the love y’all.” 1622 Eastern Ave., 410-558-1914

EPICUREAN EVENTS

7/1: Crustacean Invasion at Mt. Washington Tavern
Mt. Washington’s neighborhood haunt is welcoming the summer in style by introducing a special menu of crab-inspired dishes that will run throughout the month of July. Be on the lookout for crab puffs, soft shell crab sandwiches, crab quiche, jumbo lump crab and parmesan rockfish filet, and a classic chicken Chesapeake. The menu will also be offered at the restaurant’s top-floor Skybar. 5700 Newbury St., 410-367-6903.

7/5: Tiki Thursdays at The Bluebird Cocktail Room
On Thursday evenings throughout the summer, this literary-themed cocktail bar in Hampden will be completely transformed into an island oasis. In addition, Bluebird’s regular offerings—its new summer menu features everything from a frozen absinthe frappe to a Midori sour over cotton candy—patrons can expect a special menu of tiki drinks, island music, and possibly a few Hawaiian shirts thrown in in for good measure. 3600 Hickory Ave., 667-303-3263

7/6: Sardegna Wine Dinner at Cinghiale
The team at this Northern Italian outpost in Harbor East is celebrating the island of Sardegna with a four-course wine dinner next week. Menu highlights will include grilled marinated mussels with capers and fennel, baked eggplant with ricotta and tomato, and traditional ricotta cake with honey pignoli gelato. Each course will be accompanied by a different pour inspired by the evening’s theme. 822 Lancaster St., 410-547-8282. 7 p.m. $89

Goodbye rainbow, hello black. From charcoal-activated brownies to squid-ink stained pasta and blood sausage, inky-toned fare is the latest trend to hit area restaurants.

“The black food trend started because of earthy umami flavors that have been reintegrated into the current culinary scene,” says La Cuchara executive chef/co-owner Ben Lefenfeld. “Think truffles, nori, fermented garlic, squid ink, charcoal, boudin noir [blood sausage]—all are ancient flavors representative of artisan small-batch production and preservation of different food products.” Of course, the color black (or, if you want to get technical, the lack of color) also offers dramatic visual appeal. “It looks really cool in high-resolution photography,” says Lefenfeld.

Here’s a peek at some of the area’s hottest dark-hued edibles.

Perhaps one of the most striking details that hits when you first walk into Cinghiale in Harbor East is the array of decorative wine bottles that line seemingly every spare inch of the enoteca’s shelves and windowsills. But, what most might not know about the collection of vino vessels, is that each one tells a story of a guest that has shared a meal at the restaurant throughout its 10-year run.

“I had the restaurant built so that it was loaded with shelves for these bottles that we would have our guests sign,” says co-owner Tony Foreman, who estimates that there are nearly 1,000 bottles on display. “It’s funny—it’s a tradition that we started the first week we were open, and even now whenever I’m in the restaurant I always look up at that original shelf and remember some of the first people who came in.”

The signed bottles—which are inscribed with messages ranging from “Happy Birthday” to “Best Drink of 2007” in metallic marker—are a small part of the vision that Foreman had for the Italian restaurant when he debuted it 10 years ago.

At the time, his restaurant group, which he co-owns with Chef Cindy Wolf, had already conceived of Charleston and Petit Louis. But Foreman was anxious to showcase Northern Italian food, a concept people weren’t yet familiar with, and go beyond just Americanized spaghetti and meatballs.

“During the first year or two, people struggled to understand it,” he explains. “Italian food is a very natural, one-ingredient driven style of cooking. It’s like the beauty of a sunrise. If you get a beautiful mushroom, you want to show the mushroom. You never want to cover it or fuse it with something else. For a while, we had to work to translate that to the audience.”

Eventually, the concept caught on, and the restaurant became a go-to for its handmade pastas, house-cured charcuterie, roasted meats (Cinghiale translates to “wild boar” in Italian), lengthy wine list boasting more than 600 labels, and commitment to local sourcing.

“Right around our second anniversary was like a switch flip,” says Foreman, who has since helped open Johnny’s and the recently rebranded Bar Vasquez. “Baltimore is so smart. People just have to try it enough to get a feel for it. You have to hear enough of a song to instinctively dance to it.”

To celebrate hitting the decade mark, Cinghiale will offer half-priced bottles on its official anniversary on Thursday, September 21, as well as complimentary glasses of prosecco for all diners the week of September 18-24.

Looking back on the restaurant’s run, Foreman says that some of his favorite memories include hosting regulars, as well as groups visiting from Northern Italian cities like Milan and Verona. He also notes that he has enjoyed watching the local dining scene, as well as the farm-to-table movement, thrive alongside the restaurant.

“Years ago, it never occurred to me that what we were doing was farm-to-table,” he says. “But I don’t know where else you get food. For Italians, it’s kind of a given. Just like how the sun comes up and it goes down. Farmers grow food, and you cook it.”