It’s a late afternoon in August, and there’s a cluster of people on the sidewalk fronting the little theater and restaurant row in Station North that’s home to The Charles Theatre and an abundance of great restaurant options, including Alma Cocina Latina, Foraged, Sofi’s Crepes—and Tapas Teatro, which, after 21 years, has the most enduring presence of them all.

Promptly at 5 p.m., the crowd disappears through its doors. Although there’s both a Jordan Peele flick and a John Waters retrospective playing at The Charles, it’s the tapas that draw people, consistently, hungrily, for the more than two decades since the Karzai family first opened their small plates Spanish restaurant.

Inside Tapas Teatro, dusky purple walls arch into a high-ceilinged room, illuminated with Gutierrez Studios lights and sconces, next to a busy open kitchen. A dining room showcases century-old brick walls and art (an Iberian pig foraging for acorns; the silhouette of a bull) reflecting the Spanish theme of the menu—by most accounts, the first tapas restaurant in Baltimore.

The building is part of The Charles, the oldest theater in the city, a Beaux-Arts structure designed in 1892 as a trolley barn. A back room showcases a massive bar, a long wooden community table, and benches featuring Andalusian arches. Soon it seems like nearly every table, both inside and out on the sidewalk and pandemic-expanded patio, is filled with people attentive to plates of boquerones (marinated white anchovies), croquetas built of potatoes and cheese, the sauced lamb meatballs called albondigas, bowls of gazpacho, grilled octopus doused with romesco sauce, and glasses filled from the extensive Spanish wine list.

“When we first opened, we had Spanish influences, but becoming more authentic was a process, as I started going to Spain,” says Helmand Karzai, 43, whose family also owns The Helmand, the excellent 32-year-old Afghan restaurant on N. Charles Street. (Yes, Helmand’s parents, Pat and Qayum Karzai, named the restaurant after him; it’s also the name of an important province and river in Afghanistan, where the family is from.) Karzai had been involved in Tapas Teatro from the outset, but gradually stepped front and center as he became more interested in Spanish wines and his parents moved away from the day-to-day operations to the administrative side.

“I started taking over the wine-ordering, which means the wine-tasting, and I really got into wine.” Karzai attended the wine program at The French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center) in New York City and spent more and more time traveling to Spain, particularly rural Catalonia and the wine regions of Priorat and Montsant.

“Spain had a moment in the early 2000s, [likely] because of Ferran Adrià,” says Karzai, referencing the Spanish chef who ran El Bulli in Catalonia, which was for years considered the best restaurant in the world.

This moment happily coincided with the then-newly opened tapas restaurant. Serving tapas just made sense, as Karzai’s father loved the cuisine and the small-plates model—this was years before small plates became the trendy thing they are now was perfectly tailored for moviegoers.

“Hey, we’re connected to a movie theater,” says Karzai. “What gets people in and out? It matches so well.” And it doesn’t hurt that the restaurant shares The Charles’ liquor license, which means that you can take the signature jugs of sangria inside the theater.

The Karzai family had other ventures, the now-closed Pen & Quill and B. Bistro, “but this has always been where my heart is,” says Karzai.

Between the carefully selected bottles of Pedro Ximénez and Axta Patcharan, the long list of Idiazábal and Manchego cheeses, and the ribbon-y mounds of jamón Serrano and Ibérico de Bellota on the menu, you can tell. The staff is made up of as many longtimers as the clientele, with some cooks having worked for a decade or more behind the stoves, a rarity these days.

That familiarity—and the dexterity that comes with it—shows in the plates of three of the best tapas: a terrific iteration of gambas al ajillo, perfectly cooked shrimp in olive oil and garlic, served with discs of baguette, a classic dish that’s been on the menu since the restaurant opened; papas bravas, fried potatoes paired with a zippy aioli; and the chile rellenos, roasted piquillo peppers stuffed with melted, aged Idiazábal. The dish is deceptively simple—just bold, salty cheese oozing from the peppers’ tender, bright-scarlet casing—but it’s alarmingly good.

And then there’s the one big plate on the menu—that’s the paella—something to order if you’ve already seen your movie, or you’ve skipped the showing altogether because you’ve been distracted by the impressive gin-and-tonic list. It’s an old-school offering, with seafood, chicken, and chorizo embedded within saffron-painted Calaspara rice and a verdant handful of fresh peas. It is undeniably delicious—and comforting as a bag of movie popcorn.

The Sara Spencer Washington Story, a short documentary from Baltimore-raised, New York-based filmmaker Royston Scott, is one of nearly 100 films from 16 countries screening this week at the Fifth Annual Baltimore International Black Film Festival. Scott offers a compelling glimpse into the vast accomplishments of his grandmother, Sara Spencer Washington, one of the first African-American millionaires.

In 1920, Sara Spencer Washington, notably recognized as “The Madame,” founded Apex News and Hair Company, a black-owned-and-operated beauty brand empire. Apex capitalized on the absurdity of American segregation by targeting consumers white beauty brands refused to acknowledge. Apex advertisements centered around black aesthetics and showcased the style and humanity of African-American culture.

Washington was able to increase the wealth and prestige of Apex across the eastern seaboard while innumerable businesses collapsed during the Great Depression. Those earnings allowed for an ambitious expansion of the Apex brand. In less than a decade, she brokered many lucrative endeavors: Apex Beauty Colleges, beachfront resort Hotel Brigantine, Apex Country Course in Atlantic City, and various philanthropic initiatives. Celebrities of the era like Joe Lewis and Marian Anderson regularly graced the cover of Apex News. By the mid-1950s, the brand had employed and educated thousands of African Americans.

We spoke briefly with director Royston Scott about the incredible and inspiring story of Sara Spencer Washington and The Apex News and Hair Company.

This is a powerful documentary. What inspired you to tell her story?
When my mother passed away, I found in the basement all of these boxes of Apex memorabilia and scrap books. My mother had compiled scrapbooks of newspaper articles, and clippings of graduates in their caps and gowns, hundreds of Black women in caps and gowns from the 1930s and 40s. One whole book was D.C., another Baltimore, another Atlanta, Atlantic City. I realized if all these women graduated in this year, and all of the scrapbooks were by year, I was trying to figure out how many women had actually graduated and how many lives were affected.

What struck you about this particular story?

I really had a moment that brought me to tears realizing that my family history was so important and influential in affecting the lives of so many black women. This story is really important. I dug deeper into the boxes and found magazine that had promotional items and equipment that you could use in salons. I realized the magnitude of the business, which is something I never looked into as a kid.

And why turn this story into a documentary?

It’s something I looked into when I went to study at NYU to go to film school and acting. I thought it would be a great project. This is my first documentary. It’s definitely been a labor of love. My mother’s health took a turn for the worst right before I was about to interview her. Within a year she passed away. I lost with her passing firsthand knowledge of Apex and growing up with Sara Spencer Washington. She grew up as the Apex heiress, debutant and the face of Apex after The Madame passed away in 1953. It was a life-changing event for me. I realized my family’s history was so important and I realized I had the opportunity to do something about it as a filmmaker and documentary filmmaker.

What has it been like to see your work come to fruition?

Things are really going great and this has been such a rewarding experience. My colleague Jacob Burckhardt, who is the assistant producer, [has been] instrumental in helping me along with this. It took seven years to make this. It’s been a great learning experience all around. I know it means a lot to the people who see it. I really want the youth of today to know about their role models. That’s the great thing about making documentary films—you learn about role models and your history. I believe that people should be aware of their history.

The Sara Spencer Washington Documentary will screen this Thursday, October 4, at 12:30 p.m. at The Charles Theatre.