It’s a rare jewel of a bar that can give you a hangover on Friday night and help cure it on Saturday morning. Mama Koko’s is that kind of jewel. A coffee shop that serves breakfast and lunch by day, it transforms into a cocktail bar with outstanding drinks and small plates Wednesday through Saturday nights. We love it in all its forms.

Housed in the historic James E. Hooper House in Old Goucher, the setting of Mama Koko’s is as alluring as its food and drink. Built in 1886, the mansion retains an old-world charm. Climb the steps through the front door and into the foyer and you’ll find a large wooden fireplace and piano.

There is a bevy of rooms in which to hang out. On the main level, there are some high-top tables and a bar that serves draft cocktails. Other rooms have couches where larger groups can congregate. There’s outdoor seating in the back, and another bar that serves hand-mixed specialty cocktails. The upper levels house artist studios, pop-up stores, gallery space, and more. Feel free to bring your drink and wander throughout.

The concept, general manager Angola Selassie told us in August, shortly after it opened, comes from his mother, Kokahvah Zauditu-Selassie.

“One day I’m inside her kitchen, and I take a look around and see Star Wars collectibles, vintage coffee posters, references to New Orleans, stacks of books, an ancestral shrine, a bar cart—and I thought, we should theme [Mama Koko’s] after our house and the hospitality my mother gives,” he said.

The eclectic decor hints at a fascinating menu that includes breakfast smoothies like the Green Gangsta (apple, peach, pineapple, mango, spinach, wheatgrass, spirulina, and ginger), and lunch items like Cajun shrimp and grits. But when we visited on a bustling Friday night in October, the focus was on the cleverly named cocktails like Pharaoh Dance and Cruel Summer.

We started with a Perfect Crime, a combination of mezcal, velvet falernum, China-China, tamarind, and grapefruit. Each specialty cocktail is ranked on a scale of refreshing to spirited and comforting to adventurous, and this one accurately graded toward refreshing and adventurous. It was slightly but not overwhelmingly smokey, with a hint of orange.

Next, we tried a Noble Ember, a draft cocktail that’s Mama Koko’s take on an Old-Fashioned. Hibiscus, vanilla and orange bitters, and lemon and orange oils give the drink a tangier flavor than its traditional brethren. Beer, wine, cider, and mead also are available, and people in all the rooms seemed be enjoying the full array of offerings.

Nine bar bites, including fried plantains, smoked collard greens, and Liberian meatballs, incorporate flavors from the Caribbean, New Orleans, West Africa, and French cuisine. A plate of Poisson Boule—fried red snapper balls with a spicy peri peri sauce—was excellent.

A bowl of rice and beans also hit the spot. The menu says they’re “Ms. Jackson’s original recipe…there’s a story here, just ask.” Although we didn’t get a chance to, we will when we return. And we’ll definitely return—on a Friday night and Saturday morning.

Like many of the best dishes at Yebo Kitchen, the new restaurant in Old Goucher, chef Sammy Davis’ shrimp and grits are engineered with unapologetic decadence, a trait that’s found throughout the Southern-Asian fusion-inspired menu. Thick, rich, and delicious, the dish will delight your soul, if not your scale.

Davis earned his cooking chops in Atlanta and at upscale chains like Roy’s and Nobu before landing on the Food Network’s Chopped. In May, he opened Yebo Kitchen in the former home of Church, the ill-fated cocktail bar that crashed and burned (figuratively) in 2023.

Here, he’s exorcised those demons and opened a restaurant with upbeat, welcoming vibes. Organ pipes hanging from the ceiling over the bar are the only remnants of the previous occupant. A small lounge greets visitors through the main entrance, and there is outdoor seating in the front and a dining room in the back. The music is loud, service is friendly but not overly formal, and a welcoming feeling permeates the place.

The centerpiece of the space is the open kitchen, where guests once could watch Davis do his thing. But over the summer he suffered a heart attack. It’s not certain when he will return, but for now, his nephew, sous chef Chris Davis, runs the kitchen, adhering closely to his uncle’s recipes and methods.

Yebo hasn’t missed a beat. During our visits in the fall, we started with cocktails. The maple Old-Fashioned included the requisite bourbon and bitters, along with maple syrup and a cinnamon stick. Like many things here, the melding of sweet and bold worked nicely. There are a host of mocktails as well, and the mango-ginger lemonade crush was quite refreshing. A small happy hour menu (available from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays at the bar) includes grilled chicken wings with copious amounts of jerk seasoning. They were excellent on their own, yet got even better when dunked into a wasabi-ranch sauce.

The regular menu features several small plates, including standout red curry Thai basil mussels with a rich, coconutty sauce. Crab egg rolls, Chinese ribs, and fried shrimp and dragon fruit exemplify the restaurant’s fusion concept.

“I wanted to give people the Asian influence, but with a twist of Creole,” Sammy Davis says over the phone. “We take influence from Louisiana and places like that and [combine] it with the Japanese techniques.”

That philosophy is evident in the entrees as well. The honey jerk lamb chops, for example, are coated with plenty of the seasoning—which gave our lips a tingle—yet the taste of the meat remained juicy and tender.

The lobster pasta arrived with copious amounts of Cajun cream sauce and truffle oil on the rigatoni. Each bite felt like a mini meal in its own right—and that’s before we even dove into the large piece of fried lobster that topped the pasta. The dish is served with a purple orchid and the lobster tail shell, which make for a lovely presentation, but the award for showiest plating goes to the crab and shrimp fried rice. A tower of Dungeness crab legs shoots toward the sky, inevitably attracting eyeballs from nearby diners.

The restaurant’s calling card remains those shrimp and grits, which include chunks of andouille sausage and tomato. (Grits with salmon are available as well.) Davis says he’s been called the “King of Brunch,” and a few forkfuls of grits tell why.

“We use the [city of] Charleston technique, which is where it was first invented,” he says. “We don’t use water. We don’t even cook it in milk. We cook it in heavy cream. That’s where you get the richness from. You want grits to taste just like mashed potatoes; you want that creaminess texture. The way that’s achieved is through cream and cheese.”

Be forewarned: Not much at Yebo Kitchen is light. That’s particularly true of the sides, which include lobster mashed potatoes, fried mini corn, fried rice, herb fried potatoes, and fried green beans. Many of them are terrific, including the green beans that are flash-fried for less than a minute.

“American cooking is based more upon recipes,” Davis says. “The Japanese, once you learn their technique, you can take that technique and apply it to any genre of cuisine.”

In Zulu, “yebo” means “yes,” which is the answer we’ve given to several questions we’ve been posed since our visits to the restaurant. Should we take a break from counting calories when we eat here? Is the food worth those calories? And most importantly, will we be going back?

YEBO KITCHEN: 2219 Maryland Ave., Old Goucher, 443-900-4891. HOURS: Mon. and Thur. 5-10 p.m., Fri. 5-11 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-11 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. PRICES: Soup and salad $12-14; tapas $10-26; mains $28-55; sides $7-13.

The forest green, light blue, and dark red exterior of Sandy Sparks’ rowhome isn’t the flashiest on her block, but the calming palette undeniably catches the eye. In fact, nine years ago, a panel of judges agreed, awarding the Charles Village resident a $1,500 prize for “best showpiece” in the neighborhood’s now-25-year-old Painted Ladies contest.

“You really have to keep after the painting,” says Sparks of her Guilford Avenue home. “It’s important to feel good about where you live. It makes life more satisfying.”

For two decades, this house-painting contest helped reinvent the residential aesthetic of Greater Charles Village and the surrounding Abell, Old Goucher, and Harwood communities. Today, the Painted Ladies—a moniker lifted from famous blocks in San Francisco—have become iconic for North Baltimore. They’re also ubiquitous, with their image posted everywhere from local airport and subway station ads to tourism brochures, real estate mailers, and government reports.

In their St. Paul Street rowhouse, painted in primary colors since 1995, Steven and Linda Brown Rivelis, pictured above, recount how the original contest came to be. One night in 1997, the Rivelises and neighbors Dawna Cobb and Lisa Simeone were mulling how to get other residents to add new hues to their homes. (Simeone was the group’s trailblazer, having painted her 31st Street home in muted pink, blue, and white in 1988.)

“It was a time when crime was on the rise, people said they were having trouble selling their houses, and we wanted a way to excite people about living in Charles Village,” recalls Cobb, who lived on 30th Street until 2016.

During the 1990s, these rowhome blocks were a contiguous shade of muddy brown—rumor has it Bethlehem Steel employees took home the plant’s brown primer as free housepaint.

“It led to a conversation of, ‘These are old Victorian homes, so why don’t we paint them in bright Victorian colors?’” says Linda. “That’s one [way to interest people], but if you incentivize it, that does more.”

That incentive would be cash. The group cold-pitched the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based national youth charity, and convinced them to contribute a whopping $20,000. Cobb and Simeone also canvased the neighborhood, leaving photo books about San Francisco’s Painted Ladies on doorsteps to drum up interest.

It was an immediate hit. Launched in 1998, inaugural awards included the most vibrant porchfront, the most colorful flush-front facade, and the best front door, with winners receiving posters and plaques to put in their windows. By the end of 1999, some 40 houses had been painted, and by 2001, there were nearly 60, with other categories added over time, like best house trim, railings, and facelift.

A variety of donors have helped carry on the tradition, with funding hailing from the Charles Village Community Foundation and the local Goldseker Foundation. The last competition was a decade ago, and there are no current plans for another resurrection—after a quarter-century, Charles Villagers don’t need a financial incentive to adorn their houses in bright colors; it’s simply part of the neighborhood culture.

Still, the contest will get a revival of sorts this summer, with the Painted Ladies serving as the theme for the annual Charles Village Festival. The June 3-4 event will include a history booth to showcase the houses, as well as a guided walking tour.

Simeone, who’s since repainted her home a spirited medley of lavender, coral, and buttery cream with a reddish pink door, says the tradition has shown what beautification can accomplish at the neighborhood level.

“Beauty is incredibly important in people’s lives,” she says. “It’s not going to replace a decent wage or a roof over your head; it’s not going to get rid of crime. But I cannot stress enough that beauty is an essential element for humans, for communities to thrive.”

Promising a “chicken for every pot” may have been a political slogan back in Herbert Hoover’s day, but today that chicken, a symbol of prosperity, would have to be prepared in a rotisserie. The owners of Chachi’s in Old Goucher came to that conclusion when choosing on-the-spit birds as a signature dish for their restaurant. We’re glad they did.

Husband-and-wife team Karl and Stephanie Diehn, both restaurant veterans—he of Dylan’s Oyster Cellar; she of Clavel, among others—went a step farther by placing potatoes in the bottom of the rotisserie to catch drippings from the 3 1⁄2-pound juicy chickens, resulting in chunky mounds of roasted deliciousness. They also added seasonal salads and soups to a tightly scripted menu. In case you’re wondering if the restaurant is named after the character played by Scott Baio in the TV show Happy Days, it’s not. Chachi is a nod to Stephanie Diehn’s family nickname.

Finding the place, which opened in September in the former Larder space, can be a little like finding train platform 9 3⁄4 in a Harry Potter movie if you’re a muggle. But persevere. Even though the address is 2223 Maryland Ave., the entrance is off West 23rd Street, where the tiny storefront with about 20 seats shares a courtyard with the wine-and-beer tavern Fadensonnen. You can also eat outside, where cafe tables are scattered among ivy-tendrilled walls. There is also covered, communal seating with several heaters and a main fire hearth. On our visit, we nestled close to the blaze, awaiting our meal with mugs of hot mulled cider.

Before being seated, diners place their orders at Chachi’s indoor counter. A cute menu, formed with magnetic alphabet letters, is on the wall. Salads and soups change seasonally, but year-round, you can choose a whole, half, or quarter chicken, all of which have been dry-brined for 24 hours and seasoned with herbs and spices before cooking. The dish is accompanied by several house-made sauces from the four that are offered: garlic mayo, sweet and sour, ranch, and green anchovy.

We opted for a succulent half bird with ranch and green anchovy sauces, which are served separately and packed with flavor. We couldn’t resist sampling a bowl of schmaltz potatoes (the ones cooked in the rotisserie) sprinkled with coarse salt, which shouted comfort food. A staff member brings the dishes to your table as they’re ready. In addition to the chicken, we were impressed with a beet-cured salmon salad with cannellini beans, cubed beets, pickled green beans, and feathery dill sprigs. The carrot-apple salad, tossed with Dijon mustard, was also a standout. A Hubbard squash soup—the vegetable is named after one of the first farmers to grow the winter squash in the U.S.—was a knockout, with ginger, star anise, and a swirl of optional sour cream atop the orange elixir.

The Diehns have elevated their PA-sourced birds to star status with their own style of trimmings. Forget the pot. Go for Chachi’s rotisserie.

CHACHI’S 2223 Maryland Ave. HOURS: Tues.-Fri., 5-10 p.m.; Sat.- Sun., 3-10 p.m. PRICES: From the rotisserie: $8-27; from the kitchen: $6-15; drinks: $5.

Make an appointment at this Old Goucher gallery from September 11 to October 16 to examine personal links to the South, both concrete and conceptual, in the work of 10 Black artists. Co-curated by artist Felandus Thames and historian-curator Key Jo Lee, this collection does not just ruminate on the past, but experiments with current identity and sets the region apart as something beyond location: “a repository for memory, hallowed ground for Black people, and a cornerstone for cultural transmission in the West.”

A meeting of the creative minds will christen the brand new Voxel stage this week as playwright Lola B. Pierson and local avante-garde rockers Horse Lords premiere their joint venture, The First Thing That Happens, on Feb. 13.

The new experimental opera, from local theater company The Acme Corporation, is an exploration of the human experience that finds a series of actors struggling to make their ideas come across and come to life. It’s a meditation on “the construction of the piece itself and about what we as humans and artists give up to communicate with other people,” says Pierson, who wrote and directed the piece.

The idea was born from an earlier collaboration with Horse Lords’ Andrew Bernstein, who worked with Pierson on Azimuth for Baltimore Rock Opera Society in 2015.

“We both had a really good experience working together,” Pierson says. “I’m a pretty big fan of their work, and Acme does a fair amount of work with music. So I approached Horse Lords about a year ago about maybe doing another thing together, and they for some reason said yes.”

The partnership highlights the avant-garde sensibilities of both groups, and the creative process has allowed them to experiment with what exactly “opera” means.

“I’m not sure if classic opera people would call it that, but we’re calling it that,” Pierson says. She and Horse Lords have been working together since last summer in a back-and-forth process, adding and changing elements in a sort of ongoing conversation as they crafted the piece.

“They’re very flexible and adaptable people, and they’re a highly collaborative band,” Pierson says. “Day to day they embodied a thing that I think theater is all about, which is reacting to the thing that’s actually happening in the room. They said something in one of our first meetings where they were like, ‘We kind of think of our work as tricking people into dancing to avant-garde music. And I was like, ‘Oh, I think of my work as tricking people into feeling to avant-garde theater.’ We’re good teammates.”

The results of this team effort will be performed in seven acts on the newly minted Voxel stage from Feb. 13-March 1. It’s the first performance at the Old Goucher performance space (and former home of The Autograph), which is owned by local software company Figure 53. While its daytime mission is to be an education and exploratory resource for the community, by night it’s on offer as a DIY theater space for rotating resident artists. Pierson, who works part time with Figure 53, was selected to be the first artist to use the new black box theater to stage The First Thing That Happens.

The venue offers a flexible new space for performers, who can reconfigure the 70-100 seats as needed and have access to in-house professional lighting and audio equipment.

“Right now it looks like a big empty box that’s available to do whatever you want, which to me as an artist is the most exciting thing in the world,” Pierson says. “I think it really has the potential to be an incredible asset to the Baltimore performance community as a whole. The support and the artists’ community we have here feels unique, and it feels like there’s this really special moment going on.”

Perhaps one of the most striking things about walking into Dutch Courage in Old Goucher before the sun sets is the amount of natural light that shines through the corner building’s many windows.

For industry veterans Brendan Dorr and Eric Fooy, the brains behind the soon-to-open gin bar that has been in the works for nearly two years, the light is symbolic of the spirit they’ve decided to showcase.

“Because gin is bright and airy, we wanted the space to feel bright and airy,” says Dorr, the president of the Baltimore Bartenders’ Guild, who previously worked at B&O American Brasserie alongside Fooy. “So many cocktail bars are dark and moody, but we want this to be a place where you can go to have a cocktail at night and actually read the menu.”

Highlighting a 100-bottle gin collection, the bar will offer a rotating list of cocktails that aim to educate guests about the complexities of the spirit.

Among them will be the “Sirocco” (Mahon gin, aloe liqueur, sherry, egg white, dehydrated apple) and “A Japanese Breakfast,” which fuses nikka gin with chartreuse, yuzu marmalade, and dehydrated lime. Another option, “The Eleanor” (Baltimore Spirits Company Shot Tower gin, rosewater, grapefruit, and sparkling wine), is named after Eleanor Roosevelt—who once dined in the space when it housed the president of Goucher College.

“There are thousands of whiskey cocktail bars in the country right now, but not a lot of gin joints,” Fooy says. “We wanted to do something a little different. There are lots of gins out there that aren’t recognized because they haven’t gained a lot of traction yet.”

To accompany the drink menu—which will also include local beer, wine, and cocktails highlighting other spirits—Dutch Courage will offer a food program with shareable snacks and sandwiches. (Think pickled veggies with herbed buttermilk dip, a cheese and charcuterie platter, and a pressed Cubano.)

“Gin has become such a global spirit,” Dorr says. “It’s being made everywhere. I just tasted a gin from Mexico made using agave and a lot of different botanicals, including juniper. So the food can kind of be global in that way, too.”

Though gin will be the focus, the spot—set in a historic North Charles Street property that was most recently a printing business—also shows its uniqueness through the many DIY pieces and vintage finds scattered throughout the interior.

Dorr and Fooy made it a priority to preserve as much of the building’s originality as possible—maintaining woods, trims, and moldings throughout. But their additions only elevate the bar’s charm.

“I have a ton of art,” says Dorr, who has gathered many of his collectables from places such as Second Chance and Wishbone Reserve. “I also have reclaimed cast iron fireplace faces and grandfather clock faces that I’ve picked up over the years. You just gotta match the right pieces.”

Here are a few other treasures to look out for when visiting Dutch Courage—named after British soldiers’ tendency to consume copious amounts of Genever before battle during the Thirty Years’ War—which could be open as soon as next month pending final inspections.

Tables made of reclaimed wood and old sewing machines
While renovating the space with contractor Lewis Hibbs and architect Jay Orr, Dorr discovered wood panels that caught his eye. “I said, ‘Wow, these boards are really nice. What are we doing with them?’” Dorr says. “No one had a real immediate answer, so I said, ‘Can I have them to make tabletops out of?’” And that’s exactly what he did with the reclaimed panels, which now sit atop cast iron bases taken from old sewing machines.

Vintage cash register
Stationed at the end of the quartz-topped bar is this cool conversation piece, which Dorr inherited from his father. “My dad liked collecting different things, and this was probably his fanciest one,” he says. Though he remembers a time when the register opened, it’s now strictly for show. “It doesn’t work anymore, because when I was 12, I broke it,” he shares. “I cranked it, and my dad says he thinks a gear must have slipped. So it’s still locked.”

Red velvet sofa from Wishbone Reserve
Though the majority of the space is bright and airy, there is one area just past the bar that has a more cozy feel. There, guests will spot a red velvet couch that Dorr found at Wishbone Reserve in Hampden. It’s set against a wall covered in navy blue wallpaper with hints of gold—which we can only predict will be Charm City’s next great Instagram backdrop.

Outdoor courtyard with its own satellite bar
The location is also equipped with its own outdoor courtyard, which Dorr and Fooy envision being decorated with string lights and lots of greenery. It will feature custom-built planters made out of leftover pallet wood from equipment deliveries. During the warmer months, the team will set up a satellite bar to make the patio more of an outdoor hangout.

Both inside and outside, all of the touches are meant to contribute to an inviting feel—something Dorr and Fooy feel strongly about given their many years in the service industry.

“I’d like this to be a neighborhood bar,” Fooy says. “I’d rather fill every seat every day than make it a special occasion place. We have wood on our walls, but we’re not the Engineer’s Club. We want you to come in and just be excited to have a drink here.”

Before Chris Ashworth and a team of builders could install water lines for his new theater concept, The Voxel, they first had to tear through the old trolley tracks on 25th Street in its Old Goucher neighborhood.

Ashworth is the founder of Baltimore-based software company Figure 53, heading a small but mighty team that has expanded to satellite offices in Los Angeles and New York. The company’s main focus is creating programs that control elements of live shows like light and sound. An actor himself, Ashworth is in a unique position where his two passions—computer science and theatre—have coalesced into his life’s work. Now, he’s putting those interests to use in the transformation of the old Voxel theater.

“When I bought the building it was in pretty rough shape,” Ashworth says. “Now it has this potential to come back to life.”

Dating back to 1946, the building started as the Homewood Theatre and then became The Playhouse, a place to see movies. Part of a post-World War II boom, the theater was there for people who were feeling celebratory and ready to come back to a sense of normalcy.

Because it was later shut down due to safety concerns, the renovation project has become a massive undertaking. Neighbors have made it a point to recount stories of the theater’s past life to Ashworth and inquire details about the project. But he doesn’t plan to overextend himself.

Though Figure 53 isn’t going to completely pivot into becoming a production company in this new venture, Ashworth’s fingerprints will be on all aspects of the theater’s design.

“We’re going to do the interior design in what I hope is a subtle and classy way,” Ashworth says. “We tried to do the best we could with what we had and with the budget that we had.”

As for the production calendar, Ashworth has heard from fellow actors who are excited about performing in the space. When it opens around its target date of early next year, he anticipates that it will be a home for the city’s growing DIY theater scene, providing for local companies and productions that are additive and not necessarily in competition with other spaces. Comfortably accommodating audiences of 70-100, the venue could also feature live music performances.

“I suspect it would be a mix,” he says. “We’re not trying bring in national touring shows. A lot of the folks who work at Figure 53 have roots in the DIY theater scene. We’re gonna learn as we go. I have some stuff I want to aim toward, but I also want to leave it a little open-ended to learn about which direction fits us and Baltimore.”

There are also plans to nod to the theater’s history, including displaying its original projector in the lobby—which will feature theatrical typographic design cooked up by local company Post Typography.

Builders had to essentially gut the theater completely to get it to a point where it would be usable—a task that has been harder than anticipated, but has given Ashworth a new appreciation for the intricacies of theater spaces.

In some ways, Ashworth feels that the space is a nice complement to what Figure 53 does. The company will use it to host classes, where Ashworth and his employees teach how to operate their software and develop products themselves.

“It’s very natural—especially at this point in our growth as a company,” he says. “We have increasing numbers of people asking for training and we’ve never been able to host it ourselves. This gives us a space where we can set up to be just what we need.”

When it’s completed, The Voxel will be many things—a living relic, a working space, and a place for new and exciting theater productions in an area eager to take it all in.

“This is a passion project,” Ashworth says. “We can try some stuff and see what works and what doesn’t. I want it to be a resource in Baltimore.”

With its shelves stocked with fancy finishing salts, artisanal toothpaste, and hand-crafted herbal cleaning products, Larder feels like a place where you might find Gwyneth Paltrow nibbling on a gluten-free frittata with nettles and edible flowers.

Larder is owned by chef Helena del Pesco, whose chef C.V. includes gigs around the globe in places such as Mexico City, Tel Aviv, and the San Francisco Bay area, where she trimmed chanterelles and made nettle ravioli at Alice Water’s legendary Chez Panisse.

Del Pesco opened Larder after befriending Lane Harlan of Clavel fame. Harlan, ever the sorceress, excels at taking properties in need of some TLC and making magic of them. This time around, she had the vision to transform a dilapidated block between Maryland and Charles Streets to make way for three independently owned businesses, of which Larder (sharing a courtyard with Harlan’s new natural wine bar/tap room Fadensonnen) is one.

At Larder, you’ll find a lunch menu rife with farm-grown produce, including house-made relishes and kimchis, as well as scratch-made gluten-free pastries. The menu rotates weekly, but for all of the offerings, the focus is on “food that tastes good, feels good, and does good,” according to the menu’s website.

If, indeed, we are what we eat, we’re in good hands here—all ingredients were recently picked, plucked, or sourced from farm or field. For Del Pesco, who holds a graduate degree in fine arts from Berkley, presentation is paramount, and everything— from the blond wood walls to the not-too-sour house kombucha—is meticulously curated and crafted.

The menu is concise, yet broad enough without feeling limited, thanks to the opportunities for customizing vegetarian dishes with cheese, lamb, or beef. On my visit, a too-pretty-to-eat mushroom and pesto pasta arrived in a delicate blue-and-white striped bowl filled with brown rice pasta, tossed with a mix of cremini, shitake, and oyster mushrooms, and enlivened with fresh dill and walnut pesto.

In the bowl of Beans, Greens & Grains, the individual elements, including locally grown Hmong sticky rice, black beans, Swiss chard, kale, and grilled radicchio (and sheep’s milk, which we added on), worked in harmony, though some acid to boost the brightness of the vegetables would have been appreciated.

Another item, a simple bowl of tomato soup with sprigs of dill flower floating in delicate broth, was the essence of summer. The soup was accompanied by a diminutive—and delicious—grilled cheese served on whole-grain bread sourced from the new Motzi Bread, owned by Russell Trimmer, the former lead baker of Woodberry Kitchen.

Know before you go that Del Pesco takes more of a quality over quantity approach and portions tend to be on the smaller side, though the price point, an average of $9 per, allows you to order an additional plate or side without breaking the bank.

“Some people complain about our portion size,” admits Del Pesco, “but with food this nutrient-dense, I ask them, ‘Are you still hungry or do you feel satisfied?’”

On our trip to Larder, two of three of us felt the latter. Even so, we decided to sample the spicy-sweet strawberry tart. In addition to being delicious, its ginger-vinegar curd seemed practically detoxifying, even good for the gut. Gywneth would approve.

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›› LARDER 3 W. 23rd St., 410-982-6246, Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

When chef Helena del Pesco, owner of the new Larder in Old Goucher, arrived here after years of living in the San Francisco Bay area, she was surprised by the farms she found. “I was expecting it to be a challenge coming from a place where there’s such a big scene around small organic farms, but there are a lot more small farms here than I expected,” she says.

In trading the San Francisco Bay for the Chesapeake Bay, del Pesco has found new ways to challenge herself. “There’s not as much abundance year-round and you have to find ways to preserve things,” she says. “But those constraints can bring out more creativity and that’s been really fun.”

I know you came from California a few years ago. What brought you to Baltimore?
My husband and I moved here three years ago from San Francisco after traveling for a year. We wanted to be closer to his family—they are in Delaware. My first ever trip to Baltimore was to go to an event that Hex Ferments was hosting. Owner Meaghan and I had gone to art school together in Minneapolis and I started working at Hex while living in Northern Maryland and commuting down to Baltimore. I fell in love with Baltimore and the food scene here. We did a pop up before we even moved here, and it sold out within 24 hours.

I know that Lane Harlan approached you about the idea of sharing a courtyard when she opened Fadensonnen.
Lane and I really clicked in terms of our sensibility and our interests. We have spent a lot of time in Oaxaca and Mexico City, and I could tell that she was very passionate about mezcal and took it seriously. She also has a poetry background, so we both have this crossover between food and art.

Originally, I was going to potentially be the chef for the wine bar at Fadensonnen, but when she realized that there was going to be additional space on the property, she approached me and Kris [Fulton, the owner of Sophomore Coffee]. We’re all collaborators now. We make the pâtes and pickles and marmalades for Fadensonnen and we make the pastries for Sophomore Coffee.

How did you become a chef?
I have a background in art. I went to undergrad at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and have a graduate degree from UC Berkley for fine art. I became a chef because I was already working with food as part of performance events and as an artist, I was making ceramics and textiles and objects incorporated into those meals. My thesis project led up to 8- to 10-year-olds running a restaurant for a day. They made all of the plates and silverware and ceramics and made menus out of silkscreen. And they made ravioli with the fillings you’d expect from 8- to 10-year-olds. My favorite was a burrito ravioli.

So how did you go from an artist’s studio to restaurants?
I had worked in restaurants for a very long time–more front of the house as a server. I’ve always loved food and worked for really fantastic chefs in San Francisco, who shared not only their techniques but their sourcing of ingredients and working closely with farmers. I’ve always loved plants. I garden. I have some background in making folk medicine from plants. As an artist, I felt limited with what I could do in the space of a gallery or a museum—there were lots of restrictions in terms of bringing living things and food into those spaces.

I love the creative process of cooking for others. It’s very immediate and ephemeral. You make it—and then it’s gone. That appeals to me and also it appeals to me in terms of a footprint. In art school, I’d produce all of this stuff. Maybe someone buys it, or it goes into a storage unit or gets throw away. The object can feel like a burden. With cooking, I love how immediate it is.

What was it like to work at the famed Chez Panisse?
I did work at Chez Panisse as a stage. It was more like a brief stint. My good friend Jerome Waag was the head chef there. The people who work in that kitchen are very intuitive, very elegant. It’s obvious that they know the ingredients really well and treat the ingredients with so much respect and do things minimally to make those things shine. I’ve worked in more formal kitchens like Arzak in San Sebastian, Spain. The kitchen is very theatrical, very elaborate like paper thin layers of potatoes in vegetable dyes. There’s so much process and it’s incredible.

Has this informed your farm-to-table leaning Larder?
I’m more drawn to the Chez Panisse style—showing off what the plant has to offer. I also worked [in the San Francisco area] at Camino and Bar Agricole. Those two places had a strong farm-to-table ethos that became how I thought about food, how I think about seasons and getting to know what a farmer’s strengths are and building a menu and the products that you know are available. I’m not a hard-core locavore. I get my citrus from California and olive oil from Italy, but it’s all in the service of preparing a menu that is based on what’s here.

Did you do any R&D before opening Larder?
I spent the first two years getting to know the local farms and doing farm visits. Getting to know what other people in the area are doing and how could we fill a need. I think lunch is challenging for a farm-to-table restaurant. It’s challenging to keep the prices low enough.

Has anything about the food scene here surprised you?
Finding Clavel and just realizing that there’s really good Mexican food to be had in Baltimore was a great surprise. At one point, good Mexican food on the East Coast was pretty tough to find. I’ve been really impressed with how supportive the food scene is—how supportive people are of each other, of sharing resources and giving advice. One thing I miss the most in San Francisco is some of the Asian flavors, the Thai, the Japanese—there’s not as much variety with that.

Any menu items you want to highlight?
The frittata is on the menu to keep things consistent, but it will change with the season. We can change the flavor profile with the seasons. It’s a comfort food that won’t put you to sleep easily. We started out doing nettles in the beginning that’s a lovely spring delicacy super good for you. The chicken salad is very approachable, but it’s made with tahini instead of mayonnaise. The menu is approachable menu with little twist that make it more interesting or delicious.

What’s your elevator pitch for people coming to visit Larder?
We’re trying to provide the overall element of food being delicious and also that you leave feeling good, not weighed down, that it feels good in the body and that the space is pleasant, so that it’s a total experience and service, of course, adds to that and it all feels very personal.

To call this project a labor of of love might be an understatement. Five years ago, before Clavel was even a glimmer in their eye, the husband-and-wife team of Lane Harlan and Matthew Pierce wanted to open a small-scale beer garden in Baltimore.

The pieces didn’t quite come together, and they moved on—such is life. But that vision remained and, in fact, only grew into what is now a multipurpose complex in Old Goucher that will soon consist of three small businesses and an artist residency.

The first of those businesses is Fadensonnen (3 W. 23rd St.). Located in a former two-story carriage house, it’s not only a beer garden but a natural wine and sake bar. Mirroring the mood of Clavel, the 148-seat courtyard is minimalist with a wooden overhang, string lights, and picnic tables. The beer garden menu features a sustainable keg program pouring small-batch selections from Union Craft Brewing, Brooklyn Kura, Old Westminster Winery, and Hex Ferments.

In case you were wondering (like many are), “Fadensonnen” is the title of a German poem published in 1968 by Paul Celan and translates into English as “threadsuns,” which gives a nod to both the style of the beer garden and its open-air concept.

Ascend the carriage house stairs and you’ll find a cozy, 35-seat wine bar complete with original exposed ceiling beams, a white-brick fireplace, and charred Japanese wood throughout. Details aren’t overlooked here, and nice touches include the complimentary hot tea upon arrival and the bar and snacks from Larder (an upcoming business in the complex) such as pork pâté, chocolate, and charcuterie plates.

Things can get really funky, literally, as you taste your way through natural wines and unpasteurized sake. Take the sake from Fukushima, Japan, that was smooth and creamy and had hints of sweet cherry. Or the apricot-colored wine from the country of Georgia that was super earthy and peachy and redefined what we thought wine could taste like.

And that’s the magic of all of Harlan and Pierce’s projects—they don’t just nourish us, they make us think. After paying our bill, we walked away not only with the warm buzz of wine and sake humming in our heads, but with a new perspective on how a bar should be: edifying yet comfortable.

Nestled between Station North and Remington, the historic neighborhood of Old Goucher is on the brink of a renaissance. In recent years, it’s seen a lot of action—a bid for Amazon HQ2, Sophomore Coffee, Co_Lab Books, and Lane Harlan’s new beer garden. But there’s one 12,000-square-foot building on the corner of 23rd and St. Paul that has been trying to make a name for itself in this rising community.

The James E. Hooper House was erected in 1886 for its namesake when he was the president and general manager of William E. Hooper and Sons, one of the largest cotton mills in Baltimore. Hooper House, as it’s affectionately known, has been on the National Historic Register since 1982 and is now a hub of creativity.

Besides the character that comes from the antique architecture of the building—it still has some of the original molding, staircases, and floors—this hub is currently home to 12 tenants including a cartographer, bike repairman, and a host of other artists and musicians.

Though it’s thriving today, the catalyst for creative minds started back in 2001 when David Andler of Morphius Records, a local music producer and musician, purchased the building and began to map out his vision to provide a place for artists of all types to have a cooperative arts workspace. He set up a recording studio in the bottom floor and began to seek out tenants who shared his vision.

“It’s the most central place in the city,” Andler said of Hooper House. “The building is five blocks away from the heart of the city. We felt like our customers—everyone from punk rock kids coming in from the suburbs to hip-hop and Baltimore club artist who live in West Baltimore—appreciate the location because it is perfect and central to everyone.”

Andler, who is still a tenant, sold the building to Matt Oppenheim and his business partner Mick Mier in July 2018, hoping that the essence of the space remained the same once it changed hands.

“When Matt came in to look at the building, he had a really radical vision of what he wanted to do and I liked it,” Andler said. “I felt that it was really consistent with what we were trying to do.”

Oppenheim, who has a degree in architecture and a few businesses in Washington, D.C., fell in love with the Hooper House and Old Goucher’s charm. He said that he wanted to create something unique and that this was the perfect place to do it.

“This is my second project in Baltimore, and I can’t do something like this in D.C.,” he said. “Down there, a lot of the projects we do, you can only make it work one way because it’s so expensive, whereas Hooper House offered the opportunity to work with local creatives and really build a community and do the whole urban archeology process.”

Hooper House tenant Tommy Barse of Cutlass Velo bike shop was just a bike messenger who frequented the building when Oppenheim approached him about housing his business there. Barse creates custom wheels, handles bike repairs, and offers a wheel building class in his newly acquired space.

“The atmosphere is really motivational when we start discussing our vision and work ethic applied to our businesses,” he said. “I work alone so a little personal interaction can help refresh me if I’m between service, wheel builds, or answering emails.”

The location was also a big motivator in Barse’s decision. He says the close proximity to the center of the city, highways, and parks make the Old Goucher neighborhood perfect for his business.

“The idea of being around other small businesses in a cool space was appealing as well as being able to create a small space that works well for me,” he said. “The neighborhood is pretty cool and is gaining traction. It helps having Brown Rice a stone’s throw away too.”

Kelly Cross, the president of the Old Goucher Community Association, believes that the growth of Hooper House will help push Old Goucher to the forefront of the city’s creative hubs.

“We began an initiative three years ago to become a center for art, restaurants, and small independent business,” Cross said. “We will see over 30 new restaurants, bars, and small independent businesses opening in Old Goucher by the end of 2020. We are definitely on the rise.”

This isn’t the first time Lane Harlan has been a trailblazer in Baltimore. Back before it was trendy, she and her now-husband Matthew Pierce opened cocktail bar W.C. Harlan in Remington before the thought of ordering Old Fashioneds and Fernet Branca was commonplace. And, of course, a couple of years later, they followed just down the street with Clavel and introduced Baltimore to the world of mezcal and Sinaloan cuisine.

Now, they are making new waves in the nearby neighborhood of Old Goucher with Socle at 2223 Maryland Avenue, a complex that consists of three small businesses and an artist residency. The first of those businesses—and the true baby for Harlan and Pierce—is Fadensonnen, a beer garden and natural wine and sake bar that is opening to the public this Friday.

“Back in 2014, before we ever set our sights on opening Clavel, we started looking at properties in Old Goucher to realize our dream of opening a small-scale beer garden,” Harlan says. “After being unable to find a building with enough outdoor space, we moved on to Clavel and kept the vision of Fadensonnen alive in our minds. Two years later, we found the perfect location—an old carriage house facing an open-air courtyard just two blocks from our other businesses.”

For those curious about the name, Fadensonnen is the title of a German poem published in 1968 by Paul Celan and translates into English as “threadsuns,” which gives a nod to both the style of the beer garden and its open-air concept.

The 148-seat courtyard will include a sustainable keg program pouring wild ciders, natural wines, unpasteurized sake, and beer on draft with selections from Union Craft Brewing, Graft Cider, Old Westminster Winery, and Hex Ferments as well as many wines from around the world. Guests will also be able to access a bottle shop to select wine to enjoy at the bar or take home.

Harlan is particularly excited to introduce locals to the concept of natural wine, which is farmed biodynamically or organically without the use of harsh chemicals in the vineyard.

“The wine is produced without additives following a low interventionist philosophy,” she explains. “Fermentation occurs with indigenous yeasts and there is no fining or sterile filtering of the wine resulting in a real ‘living wine.’”

Up the stairs and through the carriage house is an intimate 35-seat wine bar (with original exposed ceiling beams and dark, charred wood throughout) that will specialize in more natural wine and Japanese sake. The menu will rotate frequently to reflect the nature of small-scale sake microbreweries.

Other concepts to look forward to in the Socle complex will be Larder, a cafe from Chef Helena del Pesco, who honed her culinary skills in San Francisco and places like Mexico City and Tel Aviv. She’ll be working closely with local farmers to create seasonal lunch options including hearty snap pea salads and slow-cooked shepherd’s pie.

The third business will be the subterranean Sophomore Coffee, run by Ann Travers Fortune and Kris Fulton (formerly of Lamill Coffee in the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore). Their menu will focus on coffees roasted by Toby’s Estate in Brooklyn, New York, as well as a selection of teas and light fare.

“We are a creative nexus of people who recognize that the things we consume to nourish ourselves are a key part of our daily rhythm,” Harlan says, “one that pulses with the bright flavors of farm-grown produce, the wild notes of natural wine, and the complexity of meticulously roasted coffee beans.”

For now, just Fadensonnen will open at 3 W. 23rd Street to the public on Friday, with the courtyard staying open until midnight and the upstairs bar closing at 1 a.m.

Even veteran barista Kris Fulton knows that, sometimes, craft coffee shops can feel snobby.

“If there isn’t an overarching energy that promotes discovery and learning, it can be very off-putting,” he says. “But if you create an environment that is inviting, people are going to feel comfortable taking that journey with you.”

To combat the coffee culture stigma, Fulton and his partner Ann Travers Fortune are opening Sophomore Coffee—a welcoming shop inside the shared space that Clavel co-owner Lane Harlan is developing in Old Goucher. The property will also house Harlan’s outdoor beer garden concept and a neighborhood food counter and grocery store.

Though he’s racked up more than a decade of experience working for roasteries across the country, the new space will be the first that Fulton can call his own. The Anne Arundel County native got his start in the industry at Annapolis landmark City Dock Coffee and later moved to Baltimore where he became one of the founders of Charmington’s, along with Travers, in Remington in 2010.

His post at the now-closed Lamill Coffee inside the Four Seasons Baltimore spawned a new opportunity for him to work for the company in Los Angeles, and most recently, Fulton headed up education and training efforts for Brooklyn-based Toby’s Estate Coffee in New York. Ultimately, after four years abroad, the pull of Baltimore beckoned him home.

“Baltimore shaped who I am in a lot of ways,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to come back here. And when I did, it was pretty noticeable that the whole city structure had shifted a bit. Places like R. House and Clavel had opened up—there was just so much that had happened.”

Expected to join the city’s robust food scene this fall, Sophomore Coffee will feature a seasonal program with blends from Toby’s Estate—including a single-origin house drip, espresso drinks, and flash-brew options. The starting menu will be small, and perhaps most notably, it will lack terms like “cappuccino,” “latte,” or “macchiato.”

“We want to educate people in a simplified way,” Fulton says. “And we want to explain that if you’re getting a larger espresso milk beverage, you’re actually getting more milk and not as much coffee. These are all interactions I’ve had in the past that can very easily spark a pretentious vibe, especially if you’re talking to someone who is saying, ‘a macchiato is this or a cappuccino is that.’ It creates a tension that doesn’t really need to be there.”

In keeping with the inclusive feel, Fulton is using smaller, low-profile pieces of equipment behind the counter, ensuring that customers are able to communicate and ask questions about their drinks without feeling like the machines create a barrier.

“We’re going to try our best to shed light on the fact that some coffee beans might be more expensive because of the work put into creating them,” Fulton says. “But we’re also going to work with coffees that are approachable, and offer flavor profiles that aren’t so hard to wrap your head around or aren’t so different than what you expect coffee to taste like.”

The interior, designed by Travers, will also reflect the owners’ mantra with soft shades of yellow and pink, high-top bar seating with built-in power outlets, an L-shaped area for meetings and gatherings, and a mobile accent wall that also works as a sliding gate for the back entrance. Fulton says he is especially excited about the property’s shared courtyard, which will be accessible to coffee patrons during the day and transition into Harlan’s beer garden at night.

Though the space won’t debut to the public until the end of the summer, Fulton and Travers have been giving locals a taste of their offerings at a recurring pop-up at Hunting Ground in Hampden—which returns for one last installment this Saturday, June 16 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. He says that he’s enjoyed having a personal interaction with patrons, and is looking forward to meeting regular customers at Sophomore Coffee—cleverly named after he and Travers’ second venture in the business, the first being Charmington’s.

“I’ve always thought the coffee could be a regular luxury item,” he says. “It’s something you have that is really made with care from the best ingredients. I’ve always made the joke that the coffee P. Diddy can drink, I can drink, too. You can’t say that about a lot of other things that P. Diddy has. It’s a sensible luxury.”

When architects Megan Elcrat and Phillip Jones opened Co_Lab co-working space in the spring of 2016, they envisioned the front portion of the building would one day become a bookstore with a focus on architecture and design.

That time has come.

Co_Lab Books opened in Old Goucher with a soft launch this month and will hold its grand opening in January.

It’s obvious that it was created by people who have made careers out of having a good eye. The look is clean and minimalistic, modern with wooden shelves, paintings by local artists on the walls, and a large, well-lit wooden table at its center, ideal for browsing some of the large art books. Subject matter runs the gamut: architecture theory and criticism, how-to guides, typography, crafts and DIY, city living and urban planning, and a Baltimore section that will expand in 2018.

“We were hungry for a design bookstore in Baltimore. We just thought there was a hole there,” Elcrat says, speaking for herself and on behalf of her husband, Jones. “We’re trying to be more holistically about design,” she adds, leafing through the book Hybrid Modernism and eyeing its large, gorgeous photographs of movie theaters in South India—one of many titles chosen for its showcase of architectural styles.

Behind the bookstore is the workspace of several freelancers (writers, app developers, a lawyer), people who work remotely for larger companies, and nonprofit groups, such as Bikemore, Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, and Child Justice. Though not all the tenants work in art and design fields, many do, and several of them recommended books to add to the store inventory. With two small children of her own, Elcrat stocked several picture books, too, with artwork as beautiful as their messages.

To engage more with the community, Elcrat, who also teaches architecture at Maryland Institute College of Art, plans to hold author talks and other events in 2018.

“Having a storefront presence is kind of an excuse to hang out with people,” she says.

Brendan Dorr, head bartender at B&O American Brasserie and president of the Baltimore Bartenders’ Guild, is well regarded as the godfather of the cocktail scene in town. Since the mid-2000s, Dorr has been managing bars and consulting on drink recipes, all the while dreaming of starting his own place.

“It feels like forever,” Dorr says with a laugh. “But I didn’t just want to open another bar in Baltimore. I want it to make national headlines.”

Next spring, Dorr and his bartending business partner Eric Fooy, will open the doors of Dutch Courage, a gin bar at 2220 North Charles Street in the Old Goucher neighborhood. The space was built in 1851 and features crown molding, marble fireplaces, ceiling medallions, and a 1,000-square-foot courtyard out back.

“We’ve had this concept for a long time, but we knew we couldn’t put it just anywhere,” Dorr says. “This place—and in the neighborhood—are pretty spectacular.”

Dorr says that he was drawn to the neighborhood because of the work being done by Old Goucher Community Association president Kelly Cross, who has helped to establish businesses like Brown Rice and a beer garden from Clavel’s Lane Harlan, slated to open in 2018.

“There are so many great businesses that Kelly has brought to the neighborhood and we wanted to be a part of that,” Dorr says. “It’s exciting that Lane is opening a cool beer garden—we’re rife for that kind of outdoor space. We’ll be around the corner and be able to send each other guests.”

As for Dutch Courage, the 1,500-square-foot interior will be divided into an upbeat main bar room on one side and a relaxing parlor on the other. Dorr and Fooy are thinking the cocktail menu will take a cue from Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston, which has a list of 25 classic cocktails and 10 rotating seasonal drinks on the menu. There is no plan to put in draft lines, but bottled and canned beer will be available. The owners are applying for a live music license to offer the occasional jazz trio for guests.

“Gin is a bright, fresh spirit so we want to the bar to have a bright, upbeat vibe,” Dorr says. “We want to bridge that gap between classic cocktail bar and something more modern. We will have something for everybody in all price ranges so anyone will feel welcome.”

There’s talk of opening earlier on Fridays and Saturdays for happy hour in the courtyard, which the owners are excited to turn into a lush garden for possible chef pop-up events. The bar itself won’t have a kitchen, but there will be snacks like crostini, nuts, crudité, and meat and cheese plates. Dorr says his “fingers-crossed timeline” is six months, but more realistically, Dutch Courage will take nine months to get through the construction and permitting process.

As for the name, Dorr’s love of history and, of course, cocktails played a role. During the Thirty Years War in the 17th century, British soldiers said that drinking Hollands gin gave them strength and confidence going into battle—”pretty much like liquid courage,” Dorr says. The title seems fitting for the pair, who are finally opening a space of their own.

“It’s funny, I go back and forth between being super excited and overwhelmed,” Dorr says. “Yesterday I felt like I got to open one of my stocking stuffers and this morning it was back to, ‘Oh man, we’ve got a lot of work to do.'”

When sifting through the 238 proposals from North American cities and regions, Amazon will see two bids from Baltimore that tell very different stories. According to Reuters, 54 states, provinces, districts, and territories applied to host the company’s second headquarters—a fate that would bring 50,000 jobs and tens of billions of dollars worth of investment to the winning bid. 

While the city’s Port Covington proposal comes with plenty of incentives, the Old Goucher neighborhood has also placed its hat in the ring. Located in the center of the city between Remington and Charles Village, the Old Goucher Community Association announced a completely independent bid last week. The proposal, “Center City Baltimore: Amazon’s Next Day One Neighborhood,” stresses the centrality of the area to restaurants, universities, and museums as a selling point.

“If [Amazon’s headquarters] come to Baltimore, I would be happy to have them in Port Covington or in Old Goucher,” said the community association’s president Kelly Cross. “We’ve been overlooked for decades. But when you look at the access that we have, you really can’t compare it to any other part of Baltimore.”

Among the recommended sites in the proposal are the stalled state center complex in West Baltimore and a prison complex on the east side of town. Although the Old Goucher community has major landmarks like MICA, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the University of Baltimore within walking distance, it’s hard to compete with the South Baltimore Port Covington site that is already slated to receive a $660 million TIF bond to start the project. The site is also expected to profit from more than $700 million in tax breaks.

An article published on Inc. magazine’s website last week said that the Port Covington site would be an ideal fit for Amazon’s HQ2 home. Writer Tom Popomaronis cited the flexibility of the 235-acre mixed-use space at Port Covington as one of the major factors that may sway Amazon’s decision. (That $233 million investment from Goldman Sachs didn’t hurt either.)

“Port Covington is bolted onto an existing city with an incredible, authentic history, deeply rooted in innovation that played a very strong part in American history,” he wrote. “To say that it’s compelling is an understatement.”

Tom Geddes, the CEO of Plank Industries, echoed the sentiment that Baltimore has the best foundation for a company like Amazon to build upon.

“Amazon might take a project in another city from 0-60, but with Baltimore, we expect them to take us from 50-90,” Geddes said in a statement. “We have significant momentum already and know the impact it will have on the city and region—Amazon would obviously be not only a huge accelerant to this, but also a beneficiary of it. You can feel the energy that already exists today which Amazon will inevitably fuel as they look to build their corporate culture on the East Coast.” 

In Maryland overall, other bids were submitted from Prince George’s, Howard, and Montgomery counties. And, while Port Covington certainly has plenty of merits, Cross said we shouldn’t count Old Goucher out just yet. On a recent visit to Google’s headquarters in New York City’s Midtown, he noticed a trend among major corporations that may give his community the extra push it needs for consideration.

“Tech companies are moving to that center city area,” he said. “One of the problems that Baltimore has had is that we haven’t been really focused on putting jobs and capital in the city core where it can really have the massive ripple effect everywhere.”

START FROM SCRATCH: My husband, Bruce [Willen], and I moved into the house in 2010 and had to do everything. There was no electricity, plumbing, or heating, so we did about a year of renovation before we could really move in.

MIX AND MATCH: Some of the furniture we got from Home Anthology, a store in Catonsville. We also have a lot of family pieces. It’s a real mix of things we have acquired along the way.

IN HOUSE: The couch is an old midcentury modern hand-me-down that’s usually covered in a quilt or two. The back cushion is upholstered with my screen-printed Radica fabric. We also have some curtains and an armchair upholstered with my fabric as well.

DESIGN DREAM: In the living room, we have vintage theater posters from Poland, which just seems to have exceptional graphic designers doing these posters.

WALL OF FACES: In the dining room, we have a portrait wall, which contains mostly portraits that friends and family have made for us. A friend of ours had a wedding and, instead of having a photographer, he had someone doing drawings of all of the guests, so we have one of them. The portrait wall is constantly evolving.

FROM CATHEDRAL TO CUPBOARD: The cabinets in the kitchen were all custom-made for us by Emmanuel Nikolaidis, who is a cabinetmaker here in town. The darker wood ones were actually made out of demolished church pews that we found.

IDIOSYNCRATIC ILLUMINATION: One year for Thanksgiving, all of the family came over but my grandfather was unable to get up the three sets of the stairs to get into the house, so we ended up moving the whole Thanksgiving dinner into my parents’ garage. We made these impromptu chandeliers out of garden supplies. One of them is now hanging in our dining room. It’s just one of those iron planters with Christmas lights thrown into piles in it.

I SAW THE SIGN: Bruce does a lot of hand lettering for his company, Post Typography, and we are really into the look of old grocery-store signs, so I got this sign painter in the neighborhood to make those signs above the record player for Bruce’s birthday. The hand painted “J. Mayer Willen” sign in the bathroom is from the law office of Bruce’s grandfather, who practiced law in Baltimore until the age of 97 when his last client died.

FACE THE MUSIC: We have a lot of records from our friends’ bands or that we found at thrift stores. We have a nice speaker system that is throughout the entire first floor, so we often have music playing.

NOW PLAYING: Lately, I’ve been really into Paranoid, the old Black Sabbath album. But also the new Peals album—Bruce’s band—that is about to come out.