The recently opened third location of Kneads in Cross Keys offers a little something different alongside croissants and coffee: a glass of wine. But not just any glass of wine. The tipple is delivered in a custom acrylic glass through an almost elflike, arched wooden door.

Kneads co-owner Kira Paterakis Nissley experienced the wine window concept in Italy, where there are as many as 300 around the Tuscany region. “As soon as I came across this I thought, ‘I’d love to bring this back to the States,’” she says.

Buchette di vino, as they’re known in Florence and surrounding areas, emerged in the 1500s as an easy way for wine estate owners to fill empty bottles for the thirsty masses. But they became popularized when the region was hit by plague in the 1600s, taking 12 percent of Florence’s population with it.

The wine windows allowed consumers to get their wine—believed to have medicinal properties—with minimal contact. Nissley says she hasn’t been able to find reference to any wine windows in the U.S., much less in Maryland.

Since Kneads is new construction, the wine window was built directly into the brick exterior wall of the cafe. And, thanks to an allowance for the Cross Keys neighborhood that permits outdoor alcohol consumption, patrons can enjoy their beverage while strolling around the shopping district.

To get the vino, customers simply ring the bell, place their order, and pay as the drink is passed through the window to the outside. It’s all very charming and completely plague-free.

Kneads has long been evolving. It launched from Harbor East, where all its baking still takes place. What began with baked goods grew into a cafe with three locations—and more on the way, says Nissley.

It remains to be seen if new locales will have their own wine windows. But this is a trend we are more than happy to get behind.

For as long as he can remember, ZaVino Italian Marketplace owner Gino Kozera worked in hospitality, mostly waiting tables and bartending.

By the age of 25, he and Nancy Longo opened Maryland fare-focused Pierpoint in Fells Point. Then, years later, he opened Amber, a gastropub in Locust Point. Now with the new grab-and-go Italian market, pizzeria, deli, and wine shop in Cross Keys, Kozera is finally selling the food that’s in his DNA. After all, his grandparents hail from Riposto in Sicily.

And while Italian food and family meals with homemade pasta on Sundays were central to his upbringing, it took him time to realize that everyone loves Italian food—not just Italians.

“It’s just taken me longer to figure out that the number-one food people crave is Italian cuisine,” he says, laughing. “The story I’m telling now is about a love for pizza and wine.” His and ours.

What does the name mean?
It’s harder to name a restaurant than a kid. My 32-year-old daughter came up with that—she’s the creative type. “Za” is pizza and “vino” is wine. We married the two I wanted something that was simple and easy to say and something that rolls off the tongue, something that’s memorable and tells a story.

What inspired which gourmet goods you carry in the market?
The inspiration for us is Di Bruno Bros. in Philadelphia and Eataly. No one does it better than Eataly—it just sucks you in. I also grew up going to some of the places like Trinacria and Pastore’s. They are different than we are. We couldn’t create that old-world feel of the wood floors and tiles, so I went with the azure blue, the color of the Mediterranean and Naples. I put a modern spin on an Italian market and made it light and airy.

Tell me a little about your team.
Andrew Weinzirl [who made his mark on the scene with Maggie’s Farm in Lauraville] is running the kitchen and Andrew Isaac [the former sommelier at Magdalena in Mt. Vernon] is the wine director.

What did you want to do with the menu?
The first thing I wanted to do was create an incredible pizza. I wanted quality ingredients that are not too filling, with more of a Neapolitan crispy crust that travels well, like you can get in Naples. We have an eggplant gratin with roasted eggplant, which is a spin on what we did at Pierpoint 35 years ago. Nancy used to fry the eggplant and layer it with caramelized onions and marinara and put it in a springform pan and we’d serve it that way. Andrew did it with roasted eggplant, which is healthier and lighter. It’s flying off the shelves.

Tell me about the wine selection.
There isn’t a lot of focus on Italian wines in wine shops. It’s usually France, Spain, or California. We wanted to focus on Italian wine.

Why did you want to open here?
Seven or eight years ago, I really wanted to do something like this with more of a market and bottle shop—but it just didn’t happen. It has to be the right time and place—and this was both. I like the city-county feel of [Cross Keys]. It’s a village and it has openness and trees and grass and it’s a really good hub for community. It has parking and checks a lot of the boxes that places in the city don’t offer right now.

Petit Louis Bistro and Johnny’s aside, restaurants in Roland Park—the wealthy sylvan city enclave designed by Central Park’s famed landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.—have always been in short supply. Until now.

Thanks to the massive $30-million redevelopment of The Village of Cross Keys, six new eateries are in the works, the first of which is Cece’s of Roland Park, owned by The Cordish Companies.

With its spiffy dining room tricked out in luxe leather and tony tweed, tables alight with Rosenthal china, a glamorous racetrack oval bar, and a wall of windows that open onto a lush, landscaped, fire-pitted patio ringed by splashy shops, the 366-seat restaurant has been drawing patrons since opening in June.

The milieu is a fitting one for upper-crust Roland Park, one of America’s first “garden suburbs” and for Cross Keys itself, originally developed as a mixed use community by visionary James Rouse in 1965, though in recent years, the center had fallen on hard times.

Nearly 60 years later, if you rebuild it, they will come. As well-heeled diners stream in, everyone is seemingly a someone, a veritable who’s who of Baltimore. (On multiple visits, we spotted Ray Mitchner and his husband, Brian Comes, who owns fashion emporium Ruth Shaw. And Cece’s Instagram shows Maryland Gov. Wes Moore standing in the dining room with chef—and Frederick native—Nick Sharpe.)

Sharpe, who earned a Michelin star while working at Michael Mina Bellagio in Las Vegas, has designed a Mediterranean menu that leans into local and seasonal ingredients, while aiming to appeal to a diversity of diners and create, in his words, “an all-inclusive dining experience.”

The menu does, in fact, have something for everyone, with an approachable lineup of appetizers, pizza and pasta, steaks and seafood, as well as more composed plates.

“I don’t want stuff on the menu where you have to google the ingredients,” says Sharpe. “We want this to be a place where you can get food you feel comfortable eating every day of the week.”

And while we appreciate the simplicity of the menu, it can be a bit too minimalist, especially when it comes to descriptions of the dishes. On my first two trips, the dishes that arrived at the table were not quite what I was expecting—and servers did little to fill in the gaps.

An arugula salad with “peppers, Parmesan, and pine nuts” in lemon-oregano vinaigrette, for example, did not specify that the peppers were hot peppers, thus not only overwhelming the otherwise delicate salad but effectively obliterating it. I was told the linguini with “clams, parsley, Espelette,” was in a white sauce—a classic presentation—but was not warned that it was finished heavily with cream. Though tasty, it was way richer than I wanted. I left it virtually uneaten and when the server cleared, she whisked it away and said nothing. (Note to servers: Always ask if there was an issue so you can rectify it.)

Missteps aside, across my visits, I did enjoy many of the starters, including the warm carrot appetizer presented on a gorgeous gold ruffled plate with a drizzle of Greek yogurt and crumbled pistachios. The sweetness of the caramelized carrots roasted in the wood-burning oven combined well with spicy harissa and the tangy yogurt, flecked with herbs and spiced with cumin and coriander. The ‘nduja and chickpea spread (think hummus with a heat inducing Andouille sausage) served with rustic housemade pita was another standout and paired well with cocktails.

The pizzas coming out of that wood-burning oven are a welcome addition to the high-priced menu, and one of the more affordable options. They arrive nicely charred with a crisp Neapolitan-style crust. The classic cheese version with mozzarella, San Marzano tomato sauce, and swirls of basil purée was particularly pretty (and tasty) and the crust had a proper puff and was nicely charred. A pesto play on a Caesar with basil, avocado, and Parmesan on Little Gem lettuce was bright, bold, and satisfying enough to make a meal—I ordered it on every visit.

I also loved the simple bowl of mezze rigatoni spiked with Calabrian chile and coated in vodka sauce. The noodles had a pleasant chew and the tangy tomato sauce offered just the right punch of heat. A broiled branzino dish (sitting on a bed of fregola and tomatoes on my first visit and on a layer of heirloom tomatoes, crispy chickpeas, and Castelvetrano olives on another) was also flavorful, generously portioned, and perfectly cooked on two different visits. And the chicken Milanese—a thin, ultra crispy bone-in breast that’s brined, breaded, bathed in butter, and topped with lemon, cherry peppers, and tomatoes—was simple and sublime. A total standout.

Both the outdoor and indoor bars offer a convivial alternative to the formal dining room. On one visit, I enjoyed a negroni and appreciated the big ice monogrammed with “C” for Cece, named for one of the Cordishes’ grandchildren. On another trip, the Barr Hill martini was crisp and tasted of juniper, though sticker shock ensued when we got the bill—it was a whopping $30. When we inquired with our server, she said it was because we had ordered a top-shelf gin. But on a subsequent visit, when we inquired again, a manager told us there was a glitch in the system. It happens, though it’s notable that we actually believed the martini was $30 given the other menu prices.

Cece’s shows plenty of promise. With just a little more attention to detail, it can knock it, well, out of the park and become a true dining destination for Roland Park.

When Village Square Café in Cross Keys closed in 2021, loyal diners mourned the loss of a beloved neighborhood spot, turning to social media to share memories of good will and good food. Now, with a charming redo and a creative American breakfast, brunch, and lunch menu, Easy Like Sunday is hoping to re-create that sense of bonhomie.

If recent visits are any indication, the family-owned restaurant—named to capture the vibe of laid-back meals with dear ones and friends—is a welcome addition to Baltimore’s breakfast scene. While sipping everything from espressos to morning cocktails, diners can sit back and relax inside or outside and sample eggs Benedict, stuffed French toast, crab melts, and more.

The cafe’s owners—Sean MacCuish, who is the chef; his wife, Anna MacCuish, who handles the social media and marketing; and Antonios Kokolis, Anna’s cousin and the front-of-house face—are no strangers to the hospitality business. They opened their Village of Cross Keys location in March after running a similarly named operation in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The couple was drawn to Baltimore because Anna grew up here. (Her parents, Andy and Alexia Farantos, operate the long-running G&A Restaurant, now in White Marsh.) And when she and Sean started having children (Kingston, 2 ½, and Alexia, 1), they realized they wanted to be closer to family, so why not bring their brunch concept to Maryland?

The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, and on sunny days, the umbrella-shaded tables on the patio are sought-after. But the serene, pale-pink-and-cream interior has its own pluses. One wall is covered with dried flower bouquets, and elsewhere in the space, baskets of ivy and a trellis of greenery create a verdant feel. A dazzling chandelier from a second-hand shop is a stately presence over the bar area. Sean, who is also an artist, fashioned the resin tables by hand.

If you’re not in a hurry and can take the Easy Like Sunday name to heart, start your meal with a mimosa flight—a bottle of sparkling wine presented with three purées: Hawaiian (a mix of guava, passion fruit, and orange juices), passion fruit, and peach-lavender. Each flavor has its own seductions, though if you decide to order only a single mimosa, choose the Hawaiian one for its refreshing tropical flair.

Sean, 38, who started working in kitchens as a dishwasher when he was around 18, learned his craft at various restaurants around the country. Since he and Anna often worked evenings, they enjoyed going out to brunch in their free time, eventually deciding to focus on daytime fare at Easy Like Sunday.

Their version has many high points. The succulent beef in the short-rib hash, which also showcases two eggs cooked however you want, pickled Fresno hot peppers, crème fraîche, and home fries, was so good, we couldn’t wait to try the short-rib grilled cheese. It was a mouthwatering sandwich, with the slow-braised beef tangling with cheddar and goat cheeses in the best way.

If you’re not into beef, at the other end of the menu spectrum, the vegan hash is quite satisfying, with sautéed vegetables, including mushroom, onion, zucchini, and spinach, over roasted red pepper potatoes and crowned with a tangy vegan cilantro-lime aioli and avocado wedges.

Another menu highlight is several eggs Benedicts, including a classic version with Canadian bacon. Baltimoreans will feel a visceral connection to the crab-cake Benedict on first bite. Two English muffin halves were lay ered with spinach, tomatoes, hefty crab cakes, and topped with poached eggs and a delicate hollandaise sauce. The Florentine Benedict, which had a nice amount of spinach and a touch of avocado, was lovely.

We didn’t expect to be so captivated by a hunk of ground beef, but we succumbed to the brunch burger like a convert to a new religion. The juicy patty wooed us with its cowboy bacon (strips cooked with maple syrup and sprinkled with red peppers flakes and brown sugar), over-easy egg, white cheddar cheese, and avocado chipotle slaw on a brioche bun.

There’s also a lovely twist on chicken and waffles. Here, it’s been reconfigured into buttermilk-fried chicken tenders and cornmeal pancakes. Peach-habanero jam, maple-cinnamon butter, and maple syrup give it a sweet-heat kick.

Not everything was up to par. The shrimp and grits was a soupy mess. The Cajun shrimp dish was overcooked, and the cheddar grits were drowning in sauce, though generous coins of andouille sausage were a saving grace. We had that dish on an afternoon when the restaurant was slammed, and it took almost 45 minutes for our food to arrive. We’re chalking it up to growing pains, because service on several other visits was seamless.

But even on the restaurant’s busiest days, the staff makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. Just like its name says.

EASY LIKE SUNDAY: 5102 Falls Road, Suite 66, courtyard, Village of Cross Keys, 410-701-9840. HOURS: Daily, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; reservations not accepted. PRICES: Breakfast: $6.95-18.95 (crabcake Benedict, market price); brunch, $9.95-28.95; lunch, $12.95-17.95 (crab melt, market price). AMBIANCE: Charming, relaxed indoor and outdoor seating.

After almost 45 years of serving the Baltimore community with the latest designer fashion, iconic women’s boutique Ruth Shaw will be saying goodbye to The Village of Cross Keys.

But not to fret—customers can still count on Ruth Shaw to supply the latest styles to hit the runway in their new space opening in The Shops at Kenilworth at the beginning of September. The shopping center, which is already home to several establishments like South Moon Under, Stebbins Anderson, About Faces Day Spa & Salon (and most recently a brand new Trader Joe’s), is currently undergoing a $20-million dollar expansion.

“It’s time for a facelift,” says Ray Mitchener, co-owner of Ruth Shaw. “I think it’s really important to be in an area where there is a lot of service and stores that compliment each other. You can now get your hair done, nails done, pick up something at Trader Joe’s, grab a bottle of wine, and still shop in the same place.”

That doesn’t mean Mitchener and his team won’t miss their original Cross Keys store. “I did a lot of my growing up here,” he says.”I came to work for Ruth in 1977 after I left Stewart’s department store and it’s such a beautiful space.” Mitchener eventually bought the store from Shaw and maintained the well-known reputation of bringing high fashion and quality customer service to its customers. 

In 2014, the team launched sister store The Girl Next Door after a successful holiday pop-up shop. The store, which carried more of the youthful, contemporary lines, will still have a presence in the Kenilworth store but won’t be its own separate entity. “We will be introducing some new designers in the store this fall that are less expensive,” says Mitchener. “We are hoping to captivate a new customer from the Towson area including some of the students at Towson University.”

The new 3,100-square-foot space is being designed by Jay Jenkins of Jenkins Baer, who was a perfect fit for Ruth Shaw’s aesthetic. “He just gets us,” says Mitchener. “He understands our look and the store is going to be beautiful. It’s going to be very modern, open, and airy.” The team at Ruth Shaw is excited to provide more of an experience for customers—offering glasses of wine, cappuccino, and espresso while they shop. 

“It will just be great to meet new people,” he says. “I always tell people we are captive here from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., whether we want to be or not, so you guys are our entertainment.” 

Malls once reigned supreme as hermetically sealed bastions of youth culture, retail, and suburban convenience. But over the last 20 years, they have lost their place of primacy, challenged by the immediacy of the Internet and a yearning for experiences that feel personal and authentic. Now, in a supreme act of irony, malls are being supplanted by retail developments designed to ape the very thing malls were supposed to replace—the traditional Main Street.

“Everything old is new again,” says Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, who is keeping tabs on a number of redevelopment projects in the county, including one on the site of the former Owings Mills Mall, which will be demolished soon and replaced with what Kamenetz calls an “open-air town center.” “I think that’s a reflection of how to reach today’s consumers,” he says. “The advantage of a town center is it has a flexible design—you can add new attractions to it.”

Nowhere is this more evident than at The Avenue at White Marsh, where redevelopment of the property will double the size of its central plaza, which will serve as a lawn in the summer and an ice-skating rink in the winter.

“What we’re going to be able to do is extend the activities in that plaza year-round,” says Dave Joss, a development manager with Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns The Avenue.

Within cities, suburban-type shopping centers are struggling, too. Earlier this year, The Gallery at Harborplace announced it was turning its fourth floor into office space. Then in May, its parent company, General Growth Properties, announced the complex was for sale.

Even the Village of Cross Keys is getting refreshed. “The shopping center is a little bit sleepy right now,” acknowledges Chris McSherry, the first vice president of the Roland Park Civic League, which must approve any renovations to the 51-year-old shopping center. The plans call for a brighter color scheme, a more inviting entrance, new signage, and improved pedestrian accessibility. “[Cross Keys] realizes they’re missing out on a huge opportunity,” she says. “If folks from Roland Park could just walk down there, it would be a lot better.”

Like the playfulness of her creations, there’s an impish, humorous side to jewelry designer extraordinaire Betty Cooke. When she tells you that, in the 1940s, she and a girlfriend hitchhiked from Maine through Nova Scotia and back again with nothing but a rucksack of clothes, a couple of sleeping bags, and a sheath knife, you readily believe it. “But we were [proper] Girl Scouts,” she wants you to know. “We were camping. We’d see girls hitchhike in shorts and skirts, but we didn’t.”

At 90 years old, Cooke remains as vital as her work. It’s been 50 years since she and her husband and business partner, Bill Steinmetz, opened The Store Ltd at the Village of Cross Keys, introducing fuddy-duddy Baltimoreans to contemporary aesthetics. “Sell only great design” is the mantra around the shop and it’s kept the business relevant long after Halston tunics and chintz slipcovers have come and gone.

“They just have a great eye and a sense of what’s good,” says Fred Lazarus, president emeritus of the Maryland Institute College of Art, who admits to purchasing “a ton” of pieces of Cooke’s jewelry for his wife, Jonna, over the years. “The shop is a real statement. Everything in it is so carefully chosen and represents the best in design, whether it’s home wares or clothing or gift items. Really, no retailer stays in business for 50 years anywhere and still has a fresh look to it.”

The same can be said of Cooke’s jewelry. With their geometric gold and silver spheres and tubes, precariously balanced like an Alexander Calder sculpture, there’s a contemporary sensibility to all of her designs, whether she created them 60 years ago or yesterday. Stories abound of jewelry-clad strangers approaching one another to ask, “Is that a Betty Cooke?”

“What my jewelry has in common over the years is that it always looks like I did it,” says Cooke. “It always expresses my approach—simple, clear-cut, architectural. Things have changed style-wise, but there’s something that ties them together. Like any other artist or musician, your voice is your voice, it doesn’t change, but what you do with it does.”

 

“What my jewelry has in common over the years is that it always looks like I  did it.”

 

These days, Cooke relies on a few select craftspeople to help with the work, but she still sketches every idea and creates custom designs for clients regularly. She and Steinmetz are at the store nearly every day of the week and personally pick out most items the shop carries. “She’s just inspirational,” says Vivian Fliegel, long-time manager of the shop’s jewelry section. “She has so much energy. She makes us tired. It’s unbelievable.”

In the 1940s, Cooke was teaching design at the Maryland Institute College of Art—known simply as the Institute at the time—when she met Steinmetz, a World War II vet three years her junior and one of her students. Cooke was creating and selling her jewelry as well as leather goods and Japanese folk art out of a tiny row home on Tyson Street in Mt. Vernon. As an engagement present, a friend gave them a baby Suffolk lamb, on which they bestowed the made-up name Mimsibou and kept in their backyard. It became sort of a mascot for the shop, and while customers loved it, “I’m sure it was illegal to keep livestock in the city,” says Cooke.

The store’s proximity to the posh Betty Patterson bakery, Antique Row, and the Medical Arts Building, with its plethora of doctors and dentists, meant a steady stream of moneyed clientele, including a young aeronautical engineer named Howard Head who, as Cooke recalls, came into the shop one day and announced, “I just rented a garage around the corner and I’m going to make skis!” Head would go on to create the mammoth ski and tennis-racket business that bore his name, and would continue to buy several paintings and pieces of jewelry from Cooke over the years.

Another devout customer was developer Jim Rouse who, over a 20-year span, purchased a custom-designed piece of jewelry for his wife, Patty, for every birthday and anniversary. Each piece featured a numerical reference to the occasion subtlety worked into the design, six pearls on an earring to represent the couple’s sixth anniversary or an abstract 6 and 8 in gold on a necklace for Patty’s 68th birthday.

In 1965, Rouse invited Steinmetz and Cooke to move their shop to his new development along Falls Road. The couple was impressed by Cross Keys’ architecture and its “community concept” that served as an early prototype for Rouse’s development in Columbia. They decided to call their new venture The Store Ltd, simply “because we didn’t know what we wanted to carry,” says Steinmetz, who taught basic design at MICA from 1950 to 1969. (Cooke also continued teaching until the late ’60s.)

They ended up carrying a little bit of everything: Marimekko fabrics, Noguchi paper lamps, even cardboard furniture designed by Frank Gehry. At one point, they sold high-end culinary equipment and held cooking demonstrations on-site. It was a little Museum of Modern Art gift shop in Baltimore—and no one in town had ever seen anything like it.

“Betty and Bill probably have done more to raise the bar on good design and aesthetics than anybody in this town, and the store is a great part of that,” says architect Monk Askew, a former design director for the Rouse Co., who hired Cooke and Steinmetz to create temporary storefronts for Rouse developments. “There’s something for everybody in there—kids, teens, someone who wants something on the cutting edge. It’s a department store in microcosm and it’s been a destination for good design since it opened.”

Cooke and Steinmetz also design interiors. Their work at Eastpoint’s Mischanton’s Restaurant got the attention of Herbert Friedberg of Fair Lanes bowling centers, who hired the couple to design the interiors of more than 50 of his centers. Instead of the drab bowling alley browns and beiges prevalent at the time, Cooke and Steinmetz suggested bright blues and oranges, circular patterns for the carpets, and Herman Miller furniture. “This was at the time of the design revolution,” recalls Cooke. “Everything was exciting and new.”

 

“She’s just inspirational. She has so much energy, she makes us tired. It’s unbelievable.”

 

In the late 1970s, clothing designer Geoffrey Beene hired Cooke to design pieces for his fashion shows in New York and Milan. Cooke was also a two-time winner of what was once the biggest competition for diamond jewelry design in the country, the De Beers Diamond Today Award. There was also a short-lived partnership with the Stieff silver company, which produced a line of gold jewelry that Cooke designed. Her work has been collected by numerous museums around North America, including Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, where, on another cross-country camping adventure in the 1940s, she knocked on the door carrying a box of her jewelry. A surprised curator requested eight to 10 pieces on the spot and included them in a show—Cooke’s first major recognition.

After all the accolades over the years, the typically modest Cooke seems tickled that people remain so interested in her work. “I didn’t realize in the beginning how these very simple tokens would mean so much to people,” says Cooke, who claims she and Steinmetz have no plans to slow down. “I think it’s very interesting that people have collected it and loved it all these years. Now we see third- and fourth-generation customers coming into the store wearing my jewelry.”

Her success has led to one annoying problem, however: forgeries. Cooke isn’t one to be flattered by imitation. “I don’t think it’s nice to copy anybody’s work at all,” she insists, “and I think it’s a shame. Some people believe it’s fine, but I don’t.” And then she smiles. At 90 years old, Betty Cooke still has a few tricks up her sleeve. “All I can say is, they don’t know what’s coming next.”

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