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.

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.

Before becoming one of the top sake sommeliers in the United States, Tiffany Dawn Soto was not exactly a fan of the fermented, Japanese rice wine. “I didn’t think much of sake,” she says, while standing in the kitchen of her Ellicott City home. “I had the same associations everyone else did—hot battery acid, bad sushi at 3 in the morning, sake bombs—all those horrible terms that I now loathe and spend my life trying to undo.”

It was while studying advertising and philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2005 that Soto first discovered real sake. “I signed up for a wine class, so I could drink before my sorority meetings,” she cracks. “And there were a lot of Japanese students in the class, who were always asking about sake.” Her interest was piqued when she discovered that there were few resources for those seeking to learn more about the beverage that’s beloved in the Land of the Rising Sun. “There were all these Italian specialists and all these German specialists, so many French and Champagne specialists,” says Soto, 34, “but when I went into it, no one was specializing in sake.”

So she learned all she could about the fermented wine, eventually landing consulting gigs at Pabu and Azumi in the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore and developing sake training programs at hot spots such as Umi in Atlanta and Tao in New York City. On average, she racks up close to $1 million in sake sales annually in the United States.

“I had the same associations everyone did with sake. Hot battery acid, bad sushi, sake bombs.”

Soto not only enjoys drinking sake, but cooking with it, as well. “You can marinate anything in it,” she says, “and make it taste good.” This recipe for sake shrimp was inspired, in part, by Martha Stewart. “In 2007, right when I was coming up in the field, she had this recipe for sake butter to dip lobster into, and I use that in my recipe to make a drizzle over the veggies, shrimp, and rice,” she says.

Growing up with dozens of foster children in her home, Soto learned to cook for the crew at an early age. “My mom can cook in the most we-ate-like-the-Duggars-way,” she says. “But we also lived with my grandmother, and she was an amazing cook.” When her grandmother was hospitalized after a heart attack, Soto recalls, “My grandfather said to me, ‘If anything ever happens to your grandmother, no one is going to take care of the family—as the oldest, you’re going to learn how to cook.’”

Clearly, she has. As she whirls around her kitchen, chopping vegetables and sautéing shrimp, Soto triples the portion, so that when she’s on the road for work, her attorney husband Ryan Cianci and two daughters will still be well-fed. “It’s ridiculous how much Tupperware I have,” she says. “At any given moment, there are probably 20 meals in my kitchen freezer and 40 in the basement freezers right now. I make a lot of pasta, rice dishes, and curries. It helps me be okay with not being here all the time. Basically, I’m still cooking like the Duggars.”

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Recipe: Sake-Steamed Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups good-quality sake
• 1 pound jumbo shrimp
• 4 cups fresh vegetables (haricots verts, julienned carrots, snap peas, broccoli)
• Kosher salt
• Coarse black pepper
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups Nishiki brand
• rice, cooked
• Sesame seeds

For Martha Stewart’s Sake Butter:

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into large pieces
• 2 tablespoons peeled julienned ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced shallots
• ½ cup plus 1 teaspoon good-quality sake
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon fresh lime juice
• Coarse salt

Directions:
Pour 1 cup of sake over the shrimp in a medium bowl. Refrigerate. Allow to absorb for 1 hour. Add vegetables to a wok over medium-high heat. Pour in ½ cup of sake and ½ cup of water. Cover. Steam until vegetables are tender. Drain. Set aside.While vegetables are steaming, drain shrimp and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper. Once vegetables have been set aside, increase heat of wok to high, and add canola oil. Add shrimp and garlic and cook until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Place rice on plate. Top with vegetables and shrimp. Drizzle with sake butter. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serves 4.

For Martha Stewart’s Sake Butter:
Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add ginger and shallots. Stir 2 minutes. Add ½ cup sake and bring to a boil; cook until reduced by ⅔, about 3 minutes. Add heavy cream, bring to a boil; cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining butter in batches, whisking constantly. Once mixture is thick, remove from heat. Whisk in remaining teaspoon of sake and lime juice; season with salt.