File this under strange but true: The walls of one of Baltimore’s best neighborhood bars are decorated—some would say desecrated—with photos of football players wearing not purple and black, but burgundy and gold.

It can be jarring to walk into Wiley Gunter’s, a Riverside staple for more than a decade, and be subjected to Washington NFL memorabilia everywhere, but after a few minutes of conversation with a bartender or regular who’s bellied up beside you, a pint or two of a hard-to-find microbrew, and a burger that’s among the best in the city, you’ll feel right at home.

The memorabilia, like the former name of the team, is a relic of the past. The owners of the building’s previous inhabitant, the Sly Fox Pub, were Washington fans. Current owner Wyatt Mackie is not, but when he bought the place in 2012, he adopted an “if ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” attitude, according to general manager Dan Zaranski. He kept the unofficial affiliation—and improved everything else.

The Wiley Gunter’s (the name of Mackie’s great-great-grandfather) motto is simply, “Beer. Jams. Grub.” It delivers on all three.

Crushes are the most popular offering on the cocktail list, and each one is made with freshly squeezed fruit juice. A tower of grapefruits, oranges, lemons, and limes is restocked several times a day. But at its core, Wiley Gunter’s is a beer bar. While it doesn’t have the biggest beer program in the area, it has one of the most interesting.

Most of its 17 taps are changed out at least once a week. (Maine Beer Company’s Lunch, an IPA beloved by beer nerds, is always available.) All its draft upkeep—including line cleaning—is done in-house. Selection runs from local to national to international.

“You can come in on a Monday and by Wednesday there are four new beers,” Zaranski says.

Despite operating out of a space the size of a closet, the kitchen delivers quality. The burgers—each a half-pound of Angus beef, served with hand-cut fries or Old Bay pasta salad—are fresh and juicy. The southwest tuna nachos are labeled “award winning” on the menu.

“A few years back we were invited to the Heavy Seas Oyster Fest,” Zaranski says. “We didn’t have oysters, so we brought our tuna nachos. We thought we were going to have a fun day, have a few beers. We ended up being buried for like four hours making tuna nachos. We picked up an award, so you’ll hear some of the regulars call the tuna nachos ‘Wiley’s oysters.’”

Both Mackie and Zaranski regularly attend DelFest, an annual Memorial Day Weekend bluegrass festival in Cumberland. A few years back, they started making a playlist for the drive home. That’s grown to be more than 92 hours of music, which provides the soundtrack at the bar.

“You’ll get Phish, you’ll get Billy Strings, you’ll get some old-school Willie and Waylon,” Zaranski says. “Grateful Dead’s always creeping in there, too.”

Beer. Jams. Grub. Wiley Gunter’s has mastered the art of simplicity. Hail to one of Charm City’s best neighborhood bars.

Family Ties: My maternal and paternal families both have ties to Riverside. My paternal family bought this house during the middle of the 20th century. I often think of it as a refuge for some of the people in my family who never married. My Aunt Mabel lived here for many years with her cousins. After they passed away, she lived a full life here, on her own, often making improvements, like installing linoleum on each level, paving the dirt floor in the basement, and planting AstroTurf in the backyard.

Living the Dream: When I was a child and my parents carted us into the city to visit relatives, I knew rowhouses were for me. I enjoyed visiting my great-grandparents in East Baltimore just off Patterson Park. I liked the density and the street life. It was so exotic compared to our suburban tract home with a lawn and a fence.

Museum of Mabel: In 2012 I returned to Baltimore City after 25 years away. The house was empty at the time—that is, no one lived there, but it was still crammed full of my Aunt Mabel’s belongings. The house could have been a set for an early John Waters film: faux wood paneling, dropped ceilings, and Pepto Bismol wall-to-wall carpeting. Virgin Mary statues perched next to Orioles bobbleheads. I was elated to make it my own.

A House Divided: Every room is my favorite. I particularly like my den, bathroom, and third floor bedroom in the early morning and late evening. They are in the rear of the house, on the alley, and face the east. The morning light is a joy. The ground floor den opens onto my patio with a rain garden jumping with exuberant pokeweed. In the late afternoon, I like my front rooms, those that face west. Golden hour is a treat, especially when the Formstone retains the warmth of the sun. I like the front of the house because it sounds like Baltimore City: crossing guards, delivery trucks, buses, dirt bikes and trikes, and too-loud neighbors on their phones stumbling home at closing time.

Prized Possessions: I like things with stories: objects that lived lives, those that were used by my family in this city. I like the tension between high and low: bespoke linen lamps and mass-produced mugs. I love posters, plants, and puppets. I like stacks of magazines and books, especially exhibition catalogs. I like to have toys and art supplies close at hand in case pals—young and old—stop through for a visit. I love tchotchkes that whisper stories: Grandmother Quinn’s Jack and Jackie Kennedy salt and pepper shakers, telescope pictures from Ocean City, and Grandmom Jones’ pressed aluminum coasters. I am an enthusiastic steward of my family’s trinkets.

Sitting at a four-top in the second-floor dining room of their popular Italian restaurant, Josh and Stephanie Hershkovitz occasionally finish each other’s sentences, like an old married couple.

They’re definitely not that.

As they recount the many successes and rare stumbles they’ve experienced in the decade-plus since they slid that first margherita pizza into their wood-fired oven, they sound like seasoned business partners telling war stories long after the battle for Neapolitan supremacy has been won.

But they’re far more than that.

“He came out of the womb as big as I was at that time,” Stephanie says of her younger brother.

“I was a big bully to her,” he admits.

Each lets out a belly laugh (a frequent sound when they are together), and a key ingredient in what makes their Riverside restaurant such a gem becomes clear.

They’re more than siblings—they’re best friends, too.

Beloved restaurants often elicit familial feelings, both in the front of the house and in the back. Chefs spend more time with their prep cooks than with their own spouses. Hosts interact with servers more than they do with their own kids. Regulars perch themselves on bar stools and discuss the mundane (and sometimes intimate) details of their lives with bartenders who, like Mom or Dad, are usually happy to offer a sympathetic ear.

In that sense, Hersh’s—not just for the brother and sister who own and run it, but for the staff and customers who treasure it—is very much a family affair.

“I don’t think I appreciated how much we meant to a lot of people,” Josh says. “The number of people who have gone on first dates here and then had their rehearsal dinner here…”

“And then come back with their babies,” Stephanie chimes in. “That is so touching to me. We take this seriously, but it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re important to these people as well.’”

Stephanie, 47, is three years Josh’s senior. “We don’t have any other siblings,” he says. “As far as we know,” she adds wryly.

As young children, they had starkly different personalities.

“I always said that if I would sit Stephie down in the corner with some toys and books and come back two hours later, she would be reading,” their mother, Berly, says. “If I put Josh there, when I came back that corner of the house would have been gone.”

The boy who would grow up to become one of Baltimore’s most talented chefs did not have a very wide palate. His sister jokes that all he liked to eat was veal Parmesan, French fries, and Big Macs. Stephanie wasn’t much more of an adventurous eater herself.

“Trying to get them to eat vegetables was a nightmare,” Berly says. “It got to the point where I went to the doctor’s and said, ‘I can’t get them to eat vegetables.’ He said, ‘As long as they’re eating protein, I don’t really care.’”

Growing up in Owings Mills, food was always a focus in the Hershkovitz household. Although the kids loved Berly’s chicken soup (a staple among many Jewish mothers), she admits she wasn’t the best cook. That honor went to her mother, Deborah, who prepared made-from-scratch Shabbat dinners for the extended family every Friday night at her home in Pikesville.

Their father, Avi, didn’t deal with pots and pans, but he loved to eat. Family trips to Israel seemed to be organized around stops at his favorite falafel shops. When the kids were older, he took them to renowned restaurants like Georges Perrier’s late Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia.

Josh didn’t begin to immerse himself in the culinary world until he was in college at the University of Chicago. By then he and Stephanie had grown close, and she had graduated from University of Pennsylvania and moved to New York City. She eventually went to law school and practiced in commercial litigation and products liability defense.

Meanwhile, Josh, who earned degrees in sculpture and philosophy, started a furniture-making business. He loved the artistry of it and would bring Stephanie pieces in exchange for dinners at primo restaurants in New York. At that point, his tastebuds had evolved well beyond McDonald’s.

“Once Josh made me this desk and I took him to Babbo when Babbo was a thing,” Stephanie says of Mario Batali’s former flagship restaurant. “I finally got a reservation for like five o’clock in the afternoon. We went and had this four-hour meal. The funny part is, we went back a few years later and had essentially the same meal and it was fairly differently executed but still amazing. That was very influential for both of us.”

The restaurant’s simplicity in its preparation of dishes using basic but quality ingredients spoke to them. By this time Josh had become enamored with the world of food, and when he was 24, on a whim he walked into Cindy Wolf’s Charleston in Harbor East and applied for a job. He had no restaurant experience whatsoever, so he wrote an essay on the back of the application detailing why he wanted the gig.

“I liked what I was doing, but my eyes had been opened to cooking,” he says. “It was new and exciting in so many ways to me. And [it] still involved working with my hands.”

He was hired and began working as a chef garde manger, making and plating cold salads, pâtés, and desserts. Soon he moved to Wolf’s Petit Louis Bistro in Roland Park, where he played several roles in the kitchen and developed a passion for the business. On subsequent visits to see Stephanie in New York, they would host dinner parties for their friends.

 

JOSH AND STEPHANIE ARE MORE THAN SIBLINGS, THEY’RE BEST FRIENDS, TOO.

 

“The food was not always great; we were experimenting a lot at the time,” Stephanie says. “But it was when we got into the idea of hospitality. One of the first times we made pasta I had the brilliant idea that we should put it between wet paper towels to keep it moist, which is the last thing you should ever do.”

It was from these dinners that the idea to open a restaurant was hatched. They settled on Italian because of the cuisine’s approachability and its association with family gatherings. Next came the research.

“When we were deciding on different components of the pizza we went back to New York and we ate at something like eight pizza restaurants in one day,” Stephanie says. “It was the only time I’ve ever had heartburn.”

By 2010, Stephanie had moved back to Baltimore, Josh had married his wife, Lena, and the siblings were actively looking for locations. (Stephanie got married on New Year’s Eve 2015.) They checked out a few in Hampden before touring the building at the end of Light Street that once housed the barbecue joint Rub. They liked the vibe and the fact that it had previously been a restaurant, so they didn’t need to completely retrofit it. One more thing sealed the deal. They had settled on the name Hersh’s—short for Hershkovitz, of course—before discovering that several iterations prior to Rub, the building had housed a business named Hirsch’s. The name is painted on the brick wall on the side of the building that faces Light Street, and the siblings considered that bashert—the Yiddish word for destiny.

The first order of business was de-Texifying the space. They removed the corrugated metal from the walls and hired artist Kerry Cesen to paint large murals. Stephanie put in the Edison bulbs that were popular in Brooklyn at the time. Josh built the cabinetry behind the bar.

Next was the matter of installing the 5,000-pound, Italian-made, wood-burning pizza oven they bought from an importer in San Francisco. They rented a forklift and somehow managed to finagle it into the spot where Rub’s smoker once sat.

On Veterans Day 2011—11/11/11—Hersh’s opened for business. The menu was small as compared to today, but three pizzas from then remain: the margherita; Pepe’s Clam Pie, an ode to the famous shellfish-topped white pizza from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Connecticut; and the unique kale and pistachio. “That was a random pie I made at home one night,” Josh says. “My wife would request it every time we made pizza at home. It’s one of the things that if we took it off the menu, we would lose like half our customers.”

The place was a hit from the start. Diners loved Josh’s homemade, lightly sauced, heavily accented pastas (he oversees executive chef Matt Milani in the kitchen) and Stephanie’s craft cocktails (she runs the beverage program).

But most of all, people loved the pizzas. Hersh’s makes the dough fresh using Double Zero flour from Italy, which is much finer than all-purpose flour, plus fresh yeast, water, and salt. It ferments in the walk-in refrigerator for three days before being used. When it’s showtime, it’s hand-stretched, sauced, and topped before going into the 800-degree oven for just 90 seconds.

“The hallmarks of the Neapolitan pizza are the dough is very simple and it’s sparsely topped,” Josh says. “Just like the pasta is about the pasta, this is about the dough. You see some plates come back with just the crust left, and it kills me. This is where the work is!”

The menu has evolved to include antipasti like wood-fired octopus; burrata; and pork, brisket, and prosciutto meat- balls served with whipped ricotta in a prosciutto broth. Entrees include sophisticated dishes like artichoke salmon and rockfish puttanesca.

“Steph and I both have a philosophy that one fewer ingredient is preferable to one too many,” Josh says. “We always have a crostini on the menu. My favorite dish of the year is the heirloom tomato crostini. This is nothing more than our focaccia, our black pepper aioli, a big slab of tomatoes, olive oil, and salt. It’s a glorified mayonnaise and tomato sandwich. It speaks to what we do here. It’s a very simple dish. People ask for it all year and I have to say, ‘Sorry, it’s July through October, that’s it.’”

Business improved steadily each year until 2018, when it really took off. Hersh’s found its way onto a list of OpenTable’s 100 top restaurants in America, and people came from all over to try a slice of the pie. It hosted comedian John Oliver, and local celebrities like David Simon, Laura Lippman, and Justin Tucker have stopped in.

Then, the pandemic hit.

The Hershkovitzes were among the first to close their business, doing so before Governor Hogan’s official decree. They briefly pivoted to serving takeout pizzas and subs, but their skeleton staff couldn’t meet the intense demand. They closed until May 2021, when they re-opened with a covered outdoor patio.

Like everyone, they were fundamentally changed by the pandemic. Stephanie began spending most of her time helping their father run the family’s Highlandtown grocery store, a role she continues today, in addition to her work at the restaurant. Josh became a vegan.

Wait—what? The man who created a pizza called The Salami Maker’s Girlfriend, topped with pepperoni, and soppressata, giving up meat for good?

“I feel like everyone dealt with COVID in their own way,” he says. “I was reading about what a great way being vegan is to eat. That started to speak to me. I made a good decision for myself and trying to get my kids to eat more vegetables, but I don’t need to stand here and tell you what you need to do. There’s the joke, ‘A vegan walked into a bar. How do you know? Because he wouldn’t stop telling everyone about it.’ I try not to be that proselytizing vegan.”

 

IN 2018, HERSH’S WAS ON A LIST OF OPENTABLE’S 100 TOP RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA.

 

His transformation is subtly acknowledged at the bottom of the menu, where he’s listed as pizza-maker and Stephanie as pizza-eater. (There is a vegan pie on the menu, and vegan mozzarella can be substituted for cheese on request.) It’s an example of the whimsy that permeates the place. “Pizza for President” reads a sign above the bar. In what looks like a TV case, a painted wooden sign reads “please stand by.” (There are no TVs at Hersh’s.) “Will Ferrell, if you come into our humble establishment, your meal’s on us,” reads a line in the About section of the restaurant’s website. The siblings are big Anchorman fans.

Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy hasn’t taken them up on that offer yet, but on a relaxing Thursday night in June, two families with small kids and an elderly man and woman dined outside, while couples sat at the bar. Cotten and Claire Seiler, celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary, were among them.

“I have come here after a run in my workout clothes, and I have come here in a formal dress,” Claire says. “On any given night you see all kinds of people. We’ve had lots of celebrations here, so it’s become special to us over time. Our rehearsal dinner, my 40th birthday, our dear friend’s 50th.

“Everything happens at Hersh’s.”

Social media offers a buffet of drool-inducing food photos so appetizing that they can make your stomach growl five minutes after you’ve eaten a full meal. But as anyone who has ever used a dating app knows, what you see online is not always what you get in real life.

Papi’s owner-chef Alex Perez first rose to local culinary prominence by posting photos of the Afro-Caribbean-Latin-influenced dishes he makes on Instagram and other social media platforms. He started his professional career in Baltimore by cooking out of the shared commercial space B-more Kitchen before opening his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Papi Cuisine, in Fells Point in 2019.

The popularity of that corner joint—his dishes somehow tasted even better than they looked online—quickly proved so overwhelming that Perez moved the operation to the Riverside neighborhood of Federal Hill, where it opened in May in the space formerly occupied by the seafood restaurant Minnow and The Hot Dry.

From the moment you walk through the doors, it’s clear that something exciting is happening here. There’s a buzz in the large dining room and bar that’s been sadly missing everywhere during the pandemic. During our visits this summer, it seemed like many of the restaurant’s tens of thousands of Instagram followers were all there at one time. The crowds proved to be no sweat for the restaurant’s staff, which was friendly, efficient, and thoughtful during each of our meals.

Papi’s has an impressive cocktail list that, like the rest of its menu, trends toward the sweet. The Papi’s Pineapple, a rum punch with blue Curaçao served in a whole pineapple, is a show unto itself. It spews dry ice, which draws glances throughout the restaurant.

Several of the cocktails are made with Hennessy. When we ordered a pomegranate margarita, our bartender assured us that it wasn’t too sweet, and cheerfully promised to make us a new drink if it was. She was right. The tequila, sour mix, pomegranate juice, and honey combined to make a crisply refreshing libation. About that honey. It’s clearly one of Perez’s favorite ingredients, and it’s featured throughout the menu. The salmon bites appetizer (and the entrée filet) is glazed with it, but again, not overwhelmingly so. We might have been the only ones in the place to try an appetizer in addition to the crab cake egg roll, which helped put Papi Cuisine—and Perez—on the map.

The fried rolls of cheesy crab are topped with house sauces. Like much of the food here, they’re delicious, decadent—and quite filling. At $35, they’re not cheap, but with jumbo lump going for as much as $60 a pound, is any crab dish these days?

Entrees, almost without exception, are rich, buttery, sweet, and spicy. The lamb chops, which we ordered with a honey jerk rub, were exceptional, both tender and abundantly flavorful.

A dry-aged New York strip, cooked medium-rare with a simple peppery rub, also was outstanding. Seafood is featured prominently on the menu. The crab-stuffed lobster was surprisingly bland—the breading on the crab seemed to steal flavor from both the crab and lobster meat.

A build-your-own-pasta dish was more successful. A bowl of fettucine topped with a rich Alfredo sauce was surrounded by expertly fried shrimp tossed in a spicy house sauce. The dish was delicious but impossible for one person to finish.

The sides were less even. Mac and cheese, made with four cheeses including New York cheddar and smoked Gouda, is gooey, rich, and among the best takes on the comfort food in the city. Perez’s version of traditional greens is made with kale, and it is pleasingly acidic. Seasoned fries, mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts, however, were unremarkable.

A party vibe envelops the entire restaurant, which means a few things. First, everyone is having fun, including the staff, each of whom went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed. (One friendly bartender assured us that it is okay to park in any space on the ground floor of the attached garage for two hours, even though the signage is less than clear.)

Also: This place is loud. If you’re looking for a quiet, peaceful night out, you might want to save Papi’s for another, more jovial time. But don’t pass on it completely.

During each of our visits, multiple tables were celebrating birthdays and special occasions. The guests of honor ranged in age from 10 to—well, we won’t venture a guess, but at all the parties, both kids and adults were merrily eating some of the most festive food in the city.

If there’s one thing that husband-and-wife duo Todd and Nikki Marks both feel they need in their respective careers as a developer and chef—it’s more workspace.

Todd, the founder and CEO of Mindgrub Technologies, says the mobile app, web, and and marketing company has outgrown its 20,000 square-foot offices inside the Banner Building in Locust Point. And Nikki, co-owner of Share Kitchen in the same building, has given up her own area in the commissary kitchen to meet the demand of other food startups interested in leasing space.

“We’ve got people practically sitting on laps at Mindgrub,” Todd says. “We’ve just run out of room. And Nikki is a chef without a home right now. There’s just so much demand for kitchen space.”

A lightbulb went off when Todd came across the former home of Rachel New American Cuisine, a three-story building zoned for many different uses, just down Fort Avenue in Riverside. Though the former restaurant has sat vacant for more than a year, he envisioned the top two floors as Mindgrub offices, and the kitchen as a place for Nikki to continue her cooking classes, prep for catering gigs, and host other chefs in need of commercial equipment. Keeping all of this in mind, the couple recently purchased the property as a home for a new collaborative concept, which they’re calling, “Mindpub.”

“There are a lot of options that we want to try out by having this space,” Todd says. “It’s kind of a food-tech playground to see how food, technology, kitchens, and office space get to play together.”

Eventually, the couple can see the first floor transforming into a cafe that is open to the public full time. But the short-term plan is for it to be a hangout for Mindgrub employees and an events space for the company’s many meetings and speaker series.

Other than the remediation work that inevitably comes with reviving a vacant building, the owners say the quick turnaround—Todd expects workers to begin using the space mid-December—will involve building a rooftop deck and adding fresh coats of paint. The offices will be able to accommodate 30-40 people, while the kitchen will have room for 10-15 chefs working in the kitchen at any given time.

Todd says that Mindpub is a stepping stone for a much larger “work-live-play” environment that he envisions for the company when its lease at the Banner Building is up in five years.

“When I look at my younger employees—it’s all about the experience,” he says. “The office of the future should be kind of like Google or Silicon Valley. They have things like tetherball, dry cleaning, and daycare. This is a foray into that.”

For now, he is excited to activate the 4,000-square-foot corner spot, which historically hasn’t survived as a restaurant, as something that will have many different uses within the community.

“Over the past ten years I think four or five restaurants came in and out of that space,” he says. “The other places were trying to do two-floor restaurants, and they couldn’t get enough people in there because of parking, cost, or [a lack of diners coming in from other neighborhoods]. So the fact that we can have office space and the restaurant will allow everything to thrive.”

Of course, Todd is also looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate more closely on a project with Nikki. The two previously worked together to rebrand food truck MindGrub Cafe, which Nikki sold last year to focus her energy on Share Kitchen. But Todd says that Mindpub will create an entirely new experience for the couple.

“We’re always trying to figure out why we’re so in love,” he says. “I’m a math guy, but the only conclusion I can come to is that we both have the same stardust in us. In this case, we get to parallel play. It’s the best of both worlds because we’re not reporting to each other, we’re not in the same business, but we both get to do what we love under one roof.”

When one door closes, another one opens. Such is the case for the Lefenfeld family (including brothers Jake and Ben, as well as Ben’s wife, Amy), who closed their seafood spot Minnow in South Baltimore last week. Just seven days later, they reopened the space as a new Asian street food-inspired eatery called The Hot Dry.

The menu focuses on the Hubei region of Central China, and specifically the city of Wuhan—where “hot dry noodles” made with Sichuan peppercorns are revered. In addition to two types of noodles, featured offerings include scratch-made soup dumplings, pickled vegetables, and chicken with chilis and peppercorns. Minnow chef Sarah Murray is staying on, though noticeable changes include a new mural, additional high-top tables, and a lower price point—with dumplings for as little as $5. “This is the concept I’ve been wanting to do for years,” says Ben, whose family is also the team behind La Cuchara in Woodberry. “This is kind of food that I love and that I grew up eating in Columbia.”

We sat down with the chef to talk more about the inspiration behind the concept, the importance of culinary authenticity, and his love of noodles.

Why did you decide to open up an Asian street food spot?
When I was growing up, Columbia had a lot of chain restaurants and ethnic restaurants—and it was the Asian restaurants that had the best food in town. In particular, I love noodles. When I go to different cities, I look for soup dumplings at the hole-in-the-wall places. As a kid, I loved going to Chinatown in New York and trying out tons of them.

Why did you decide to open The Hot Dry now?
I started doing research for this menu and concept a couple of years ago. I would have opened this instead of Minnow had I been prepared, but I didn’t feel confident in terms of the research I had done and my familiarity I had with the cuisine at that time.

Your chef C.V. includes stints at Asian restaurants after graduating from culinary school. What did you learn from those gigs?
They were both Asian fusion spots—I learned the wok. I learned how to work with ginger and how to toast chili peppers, how to toast garlic and flavor the oil before sautéing it. I learned how to cook eggs in a wok…I was exposed to a lot of beautiful flavors.

Why did you pick this specific region of China to focus on?
I didn’t want to cherry-pick across this massive continent. Instead, I wanted to focus on a specific region to have that North Star direction and spirit for specific dishes, though we are by no means calling this authentic cuisine.

Recently, there’s been a lot of backlash about Caucasian chefs appropriating Asian flavors and opening Asian restaurants. What’s your response to that and is it something you thought about prior to opening?
It’s a double-edged sword to focus on a specific cuisine because the questions that come up are, “Did you grow up there?” and “How long did you train there?”—which are completely fair if it’s within the context of authentic cuisine. But that’s not what we’re going for here. There’s a lot of eloquence on both sides of this debate, but at the end of the day, I think people should be able to cook whatever they like—as long as they have respect for the journey, they are sourcing correctly and developing correct techniques, and they are doing it with respect for the cuisine, I don’t see a conflict. That said, I do plan on traveling to the region within the next few months.

We know that you recently went to Peter Chang’s Mama Chang in Fairfax, VA, to break bread—we mean, eat noodles—with Ekiben owner Steve Chu and Leandro Lagera, co-founder of the Chinatown Collective and Charm City Night Market. What was the purpose of the meal?
I wanted to learn more about the issues involved with this controversy. I learned that we need to be ourselves with this. If you’re cooking food that you love and trying to do due diligence and learn the history of the cuisine, while not calling it authentic, that’s what it comes down to.

Where did the name of the restaurant come from?
Hot dry noodles separate themselves from other noodles in the country in that they’re not served in broth. The noodles are tossed with hot oil and they’re fun because they can be garnished with lots of different ingredients—ours have black and white sesame seeds, cilantro, and pickled cabbage on the side. There’s a secondary reason for the name, as well. The food is hot, and you get that drying sensation from the Sichuan peppercorns.

Tell us about the menu.
We’re doing noodles, alkaline noodles, knife-cut noodles, three types of dumplings, chilled vegetable salads, and other dishes that don’t involve noodles like twice-cooked pork with Pixian chili paste and dry pot chicken with potato, coriander, and cabbage.

Will there be changes to the bar program, as well?
We’ve added some cooling drinks to the program. Our bar program was already pretty fun, but we’ve featured a larger selection of white wines with a higher amount of the residual sugar to work well with the spice. One drink that Jake put on the menu has almond milk as its base. It’s absolutely delicious and cools the burn as you’re eating the spicy food. We also have a couple of large format cocktails for the table. There’s one called, “This Drink Sucks,” its vacuum-infused whiskey with black tea.

What about sourcing?
We’re making our own lye solution for the alkaline noodles. We are importing Pixian chili paste from Pixia and also using imported fermented bean paste. The cabbage, green beans, and cucumbers for the chilled dishes are all from local farms.

When news broke last Fall that 80-proof Pikesville Rye was being discontinued, lots of locals were dismayed. Events were even planned to mourn the loss. That’s because we in Baltimore are a loyal bunch and Pikesville, though no longer distilled in our state, has a deep local history dating back to the 1890s.

It’s also because rye is experiencing quite the comeback.

Our region was once synonymous with rye whiskey (what bourbon is to Kentucky) and, though rye production was hit hard by Prohibition, it’s back with a vengeance. Bar patrons are ordering old fashioneds with rye, local distilleries (and athletic apparel CEOs) are getting in on the game, and “Maryland-style rye” has been resurrected as a spirits category all its own.

“It’s gone crazy recently,” says Michael Leeds, owner of Barfly’s in Riverside, which has the city’s largest whiskey selection (with 98 bottles of rye alone). “It never used to be a big thing in cocktails, but now a lot of people are asking for rye specifically.”

Bar managers are also seeing a change in who is doing the drinking.

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that the younger kids are drinking it now,” Leeds says. “Manhattans and bourbons in general were something your dad drank.”

Similarly, Loch Bar, which currently has about 450 whiskies on hand, has seen a huge boom in requests for rye. The bar even has a Maryland Free State flight with four 1-ounce rye pours for $30.

“You get all these rich, oaky flavors of vanilla and it has more of a spicy bite to it than a bourbon,” says Eric Smith, managing partner at Atlas Restaurant Group and head of the beverage program at Loch Bar. “It’s a great way to change it up in the colder months.”

While weather is one factor, many agree, it’s the emphasis on local that has helped the trend take off.

“People are drawn to it because of its rich Maryland history,” Smith says. “Wars and Prohibition caused it to recede. But, just like our city continues to fight back, rye is doing the same thing.”

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Tasting Notes

Sagamore Spirit Rye American Whiskey
Sagamore Spirit, founded by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, is getting into the rye whiskey game, with its version
blending two mash bills—a high rye and a low rye. The result is a sweeter, smoother rye whiskey.

Lyon Distilling Free State Rye
This St. Michaels distillery might be better known for its rum production, but its rye whiskey is noteworthy. The 100-proof Maryland Free State Rye is aged in oak barrels for less than a year, resulting in a spicy flavor with hints of vanilla.

New Liberty Distilling Melvale Straight Rye
Inspired by the Melvale Distillery, which opened on Cold Spring Lane in the 1880s, Philadelphia-based New Liberty Distillery re-created the recipe. The 90-proof rye is sweet (honey, vanilla) and spicy (cinnamon, pepper).

One Eight Distilling Rock Creek Rye
Washington, D.C.-based One Eight Distilling just released the first grain-to-glass rye to be bottled in the District since Prohibition. Using local rye and corn and a copper pot still, the distillery’s 94-proof rye has a nutty finish and is ideal in cocktails.

Spring is finally making its debut in Baltimore—with flowery buds blooming on trees and neighbors venturing out to sit on their stoops. With that also comes fresh area produce and the use of herbaceous and fruity local ingredients on cocktail menus around town.

“A lot of what we do with cocktails here is fun and quirky anyway,” says Jake Lefenfeld, co-owner of Minnow in Riverside. “But spring is that great time to get locally sourced carrots and beautiful fruits like huckleberries.”

Minnow’s new spring cocktail menu, which launches on Monday, include drinks on the entire color spectrum including Through the Looking Glass, a gin martini with lychee pearls infused with a bright, naturally blue butterfly pea extract.

“We were lucky enough to work in the McCormick science lab to test what products we could infuse that would still hold up their forms,” Lefenfeld says. “You’ve got to fail at eight different things before you get it to work. My goal was to use something natural to achieve a beautiful color.”

Natural ingredients are also highlighted on the new, John Waters-inspired menu at R. Bar, which uses titles from the filmmakers’ irreverent portfolio as inspiration.

“We’re finally getting the fresh things that are locally produced,” says R. Bar manager Amie Ward. “You’re looking at more greenery and herbs; berries start to get on the radar. Any opportunity I have to sneak in carrot juice or snap peas into cocktails, I’ll take it.”

One way Ward’s staff is sneaking in those vegetables in is through the Suspicious Scotty Barnhill (based off a character in Serial Mom), which uses Barr Hill Gin, Mastiha Greek Liqueur, carrot juice from R. House’s Stall 11, and Shrub District Celery.

“At first, you wouldn’t think all those ingredients would pair well together except if you were a health nut,” Ward says. “But it’s delicious! People say it’s a great Bloody Mary substitute.”

An ode to Female Trouble, the Trouble Maker cocktail also uses stall ingredients—in this case, matcha tea, from Ground & Griddled—to compliment the funky notes of Paranubes Oaxacan Rum, herbaceous honey-thyme flavor of Vecchio Amaro del Capo, and lemon.

On Wednesday, the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership (SBGP)—an economic development authority funded by revenue from Horseshoe Casino—announced it would be awarding more than $2 million to support community projects and local parks in South and Southwest Baltimore.

The first-ever round of grants totaling $650,000 from SBGP was awarded to 30 recipients including Cherry Hill CDC, Citizens of Pigtown, Federal Hill Main Street, and Living Classrooms Foundation. The amounts are divided into three levels—up to $5,000, up to $50,000, and up to $100,000—and will be awarded twice a year.

“Neighborhoods and nonprofits across the district asked us to help them make a difference,” said executive director of SBGP Brad Rogers. “And we’ve got their backs.”

Some of the higher tier recipients include the Youth Resiliency Institute that received $100,000 for its Cherry Hill Arts and Music Festival and Living Classrooms Foundation that was awarded $90,000 to support its School Leadership in Urban Runoff Reduction Project.

Smaller grants were awarded to projects like the Pigtown community garden, a mobile pantry by Fishes and Loaves, and Southwest Baltimore Charter School—the venue for the announcement.

“Our aging school building has needed audio-visual equipment for so long,” said Erika Brockman, executive director of the Southwest Baltimore Charter School. “With this $5,000 grant, we will be able to finally take care of the problem.”

SBGP is tasked with spending its portion of the funding from the city’s casino revenue on projects that improve the life of 16 South and Southwest Baltimore communities—including Cherry Hill, Westport, Federal Hill, Otterbein, and Lakeland—as outlined in the group’s master plan.

“The needs in the community are very real,” Rogers said. “We have set an audacious goal—to have the best parks in Baltimore. Period. Because our neighborhoods deserve them.” 

Rogers explains that the goal of SBGP is to allocate 20 percent of funds for grants, 30 percent for enhanced services in the community, and 50 percent for bigger picture projects. All proposals and applications for funding allocation are vetted and approved by SBGP’s board of directors including neighborhood leaders, local business owners, and city officials.

In the coming 2018 fiscal year, SBGP will disperse about $6 million along with another $6 million from the Local Development Council—a committee also created to manage the city’s casino revenue.

Rogers also announced on Wednesday that SBGP is investing $1.4 million to improve public spaces in collaboration with the Department of Parks and Recreation. The funds will be used for maintenance and programming in local parks, but specific plans has not yet been decided.

Although plans are still being finalized, Rogers believes the overarching goal has already been fulfilled in the South and Southwestern Baltimore communities, and he is optimistic about the future of the projects.

“It’s incredibly exciting,” he said. “What you have, for the first time, is a large number of neighborhoods unified around a common goal with the resources to make it happen. We’re all committed to moving forward together.”

Australian millionaire and real-estate mogul Tim Gurner recently shared some words of wisdom with millennials who are struggling to save for a home: Stop buying artisanal avocado toast. It seems like a piece of sage advice to the aspiring homeowner. Then again, Gurner never had the crisped-up creations with roasted tomato vinaigrette at Jake and Ben Lefenfeld’s Minnow. If he had, he’d understand that renting has its merits.

In addition to the avocado toast, everything about this place is well worth the investment. The fare, prepared by former Foreman Wolf cook and Culinary Institute of America grad Drew Lesoveck, is high-quality, well-priced, and fuss-free. Situated in trendy Riverside, Minnow acts as a neighborhood place (we love that Jake, who lives within walking distance, knows the name of every dog who sniffs the sidewalk), but it’s also destination dining as good, or even better, than many fine-dining spots in the city.

The nautical theme is in full force here with bait-fish lures set inside recycled sardine tins from La Cuchara (the owners’ sister spot), fish-print pillows, and marine-blue touches—all of which invoke a modern-day Maryland seafood house. It’s a motif that could easily become kitschy or overdone, but remains tasteful here.

The highly approachable menu, with just the right amount of starters (“Smalls”), entrees (“Biggies”), and sides, practices similar restraint. Minnow’s menu is heavy on simple seafood preparations, though, surprisingly, you’ll also find several stellar vegetarian items, including a black bean burger with shredded beets and a flatbread festooned with lavender, asparagus, chevre, and zucchini.

Minnow offers a familiar take on seafood favorites, but they’re done in a new way. Case in point: Another toast-forward offering is the crab toast—a fresh approach to a crab salad sandwich. It features an oversized scoop of Maryland’s finest jumbo lump perched on a house-made slab of buttery brioche toast drizzled with a classic creamy Green Goddess dressing and served alongside a grilled plum tomato.

Other seafood stars include the best mussels I’ve ever had (and a ridiculous bargain for $5 at the daily happy hour). Sourced from Prince Edward Island, served in a ceramic white bowl, and swimming in a simple sauce of white wine, roasted garlic slices, and parsley, they were so tender they slid straight out of the shell with little to no nudging. A pile of first-rate frites, dressed in garlic aioli and plopped on top, were equally irresistible.

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Crispy Tofu
In a sea of seafood, the crispy tofu seems like a menu anomaly and is easy enough to overlook. Go ahead and get it. It has been soaked in soy, garlic, shallots, and sesame oil for 36 hours, and is a great prelude to the menu’s proteins. 

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My dining companion and I also enjoyed the shrimp ceviche starter—a meltingly tender affair (soaked in lemon, lime, and orange juices) that seems to evaporate on the tongue and was accompanied by house-made chips for scooping.

Our “Biggies,” included a first-rate plate of Baltimore coddies—two patties made of blended roasted potatoes and cod—that offered a bit of nostalgia with a modern twist. This version is prettily presented atop a bed of sauteed spinach and pea shoots, and basks in a citrusy and sweet orange beurre blanc.

Though instinct would tell you to stick with the treasures of the sea, the non-seafood entrees—including the tomato bisque with grilled raclette on house-made sourdough bread and a killer fried chicken with crunchy pickled cabbage and blue-corn waffles (the smell will make you salivate as you walk in the front door)—are eminently satisfying, too.

In keeping with the casualness of the place, the waitstaff is pleasantly low-key. Over the course of several visits, our servers were helpful without hovering and seemed well-versed on dish details.

The beverage program, overseen by Lefenfeld, is similarly stalwart. Cheekily named rum-, whiskey-, and bourbon-based cocktails are $10 a pop and perfectly put together. (F* That’s Delicious—with Bulleit Bourbon, amaro, and cava—lives up to its name.) And if you don’t mind a bit of restaurant rubbernecking, consider a trendy Old Fashioned that gets smoked tableside.

There’s also a reasonably priced list of local beers and Mediterranean wines. In fact, at $8 a glass for a Spanish rose, you can order the $7 avocado toast and likely still afford a down payment on that one-bedroom loft in Riverside.

The La Cuchara team—Ben Lefenfeld, his wife, Amy, and brother, Jake, are putting the finishing touches on their new casual seafood spot in the Riverside Park area of Federal Hill at 2 E. Wells Street.

Set to open within the first week of May, the team is hoping that Minnow will contribute something new to Baltimore’s exploding scene.

“Lately, there have been very large, fine-dining restaurants opening, but we wanted to take a different path as far as location and as far as style of food,” explains Ben, who will remain at La Cuchara but oversee operations at the new venture. “There’s a lot of fast casual that’s been going in and also high-end dining—we’re trying to fill the void between the two.”

Chef Drew Lesoveck, former brewmaster at Union Craft Brewing, will oversee a menu of simply prepared large and small plates, including house-cured sardine toast, Bluefin tuna crudo, moules frites, a soft-shell crab BLT, and pan-roasted rainbow trout.

“For many years, there has been a lack of a great quality seafood places in the city, especially places that are casual and not producing most of their seafood in the steamer or fryer or the raw bar,” says Ben. “We are really trying to get back to simply prepared seafood with a heavy emphasis on fish.”

For non-seafood lovers, there will be other options, including a fried chicken sandwich served on a blue corn waffle (“not one of our lower calorie choices,” cracks Ben) and a black bean and beet vegetarian burger. Entrees will run between $11 and $17.

La Cuchara head baker Carrie Goltra will preside over the bread and pastry, and house-made ice cream program at Minnow, as well.

Sommelier Marco Valverde, formerly of The Elephant, will oversee the wine program. “The focus will be mainly Mediterranean wines,” says Jake. “We will have lots of wines by the glass and are going to have a fairly extensive cocktail list with a lower price point, as well as draft beers and some fun things that will remind customers of La Cuchara, like smoked cocktails, but with their own curve.” 

Aesthetically, Ben says, he wanted it to feel like “a cross between a Great Lakes cabin with an East Coast Maine feel.” To that end, design details include marine blue accents, a barn door made of barrel stays, and vintage lures set inside sardine tins mounted on the wall above a seating area of banquettes that is reminiscent of the team’s Basque-inspired spot in Woodberry.

Minnow will offer free valet parking, key in an area where parking is often a problem, and will not take reservations for parties under 6. The restaurant will be open daily for dinner, with plans for Sunday brunch in a few months.

Jake, a Riverside resident, knows the neighborhood firsthand and is excited to be able to walk to work.

“From living down here, I know there’s a crowd that wants to go out and enjoy great service, even if it’s for a lower price point,” he says. “We really hope to draw on that.”