I wonder if executive chef/owner Zack Trabbold has ever met an ingredient he didn’t like.

The Local’s menu reads like a wish list for epicures with in-depth descriptions reminiscent of food writer M.F.K. Fisher’s musings. For example, Trabbold paints an enticing picture of the smoky, char-grilled oysters before they even arrive at the table. We learn the Chesapeake bivalves will be embellished with parsley, lemon, truffle-herb compound butter, aged Parmesan, crusty bread, and charred lemon. And, indeed, the five plump half shells lived up to their billing, delivered on a wooden board and resplendent in their shellfish glory.

The rest of the menu continues the same kind of detailed chronicle, leaving little doubt what is coming your way. Trabbold, who was named 2023 Chef of the Year by the Restaurant Association of Maryland, burst onto the local culinary scene in 2021 when he opened the instantly popular The Local in Fallston.

He soon expanded the fledgling eatery into a neighboring building to accommodate the crowds before venturing to open another spot on The Avenue at White Marsh last summer, where Shania Agkamirian is the corporate sous chef. She recently made a splash in the restaurant industry, winning first place at the World Food Championships in Dallas.

The star of the menu at both Local locations is the beef Wellington for two, presented on a cart tableside. Expect the dining room to pause in awe temporarily as they watch the 18-ounce hunk of rosy tenderloin cut in half before being presented with crisp red potatoes, creamed corn, and a pleasing bordelaise wine sauce.

The chef doesn’t mess with tradition in the Wellington’s preparation. The tender meat is covered with duxelle, a mushroom mixture, wrapped in flaky pastry, and baked until golden. The kitchen requires 45 minutes to make the meal; order it soon after getting settled at your table.

The only sticking point on the beef Wellington may be the price, $115. On my first visit in September, it was $105 and jumped $10 by the time I returned in November. I rationalized the price tag this way: Even after the two of us ate until we were stuffed, there were plenty of leftovers. (And I used the remaining beef at home to make a stir fry, steak and eggs, and a black-and-blue salad, so that helped balance the price tag.) There’s also a gorgeous three-pound tomahawk steak for two on the menu for serious carnivores. Maybe next time.

For a restaurant that borders on casual, with its deep-brown tones, bare tables, and industrial details, the service is impeccable. On both visits, the servers were professional and genial. A manager also visited our table—and others in the room—asking about our experience. A sense of caring permeates the space (even though there is a cheeky photo of chef Anthony Bourdain giving diners the finger hanging on the wall).

A serious list of appetizers beckons while you wait for your entrees. A wedge salad takes on a new shape as an indulgent mound of chopped iceberg lettuce, Stilton blue cheese, and applewood smoked bacon. The chicken-fried deviled eggs, featuring four plump half orbs, teased our palates with a swirl of creamy yolk, all to be dipped into a tongue-tingling rosemary hot sauce.

True to its name, The Local relies on local, seasonal ingredients, which, combined with Trabbold’s creative streak, means you should expect the menu to change. On one visit, we had crispy slices of pork belly over a mound of grits. Another time, the pork belly morphed into a different dish with peanut butter, a blueberry-ginger compote, apples, and candied jalapeños.

Besides the entrees for two, a house specialty is the beef Stroganoff, a retro classic updated with house-made pappardelle pasta and tangy hunks of blue cheese (a masterful addition) accompanying the requisite filet slices, mushrooms, and sour cream.

If you’re not a meat-eater, don’t worry. The kitchen has you covered with offerings like lobster pot pie, salmon, crab cakes, scallops, and fish. We sampled a luxurious halibut filet encrusted with herbs and Parmesan, served on cheesy risotto, and smothered with baby arugula hinting of truffle oil.

Desserts are basic but not boring, from a decadent bananas Foster to a flourless chocolate torte. Other choices include a seasonal selection from Newberry Bakery in Bel Air (Smith Island cake in the fall) and a seasonal crème brûlée (peach in late summer and, you guessed it, pumpkin spice in November).

“We’re not fine dining,” Trabbold says, describing The Local’s food as elevated comfort food.

But dining at The Local on The Avenue tastes just fine to me.

THE LOCAL ON THE AVENUE: 8161 Honeygo Blvd., Nottingham, 410-870-8250. HOURS: Sun. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. brunch, 4-9 p.m. dinner; Mon.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. lunch, 4-10 p.m. dinner; Fri. Sat. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. lunch, 4-11 p.m. dinner. PRICES: Soups, salads, appetizers: $8-39; sandwiches: $14-17; entrees: $28-145; desserts, $9-12; also, market-price selections. AMBIANCE: Sophisticated, industrial vibe

Ultra-luxury ingredients from around the world—caviar, uni, truffles, foie gras, pâté—long the provenance of Michelin-starred restaurants, have found their way onto area tables, as diners develop an appetite for sophisticated, sometimes rare (and always expensive) ingredients.

From risotto with black truffles and chanterelles at Peter’s Inn to Japanese A5 Wagyu at Azumi to a burger with foie gras at Duck Duck Goose, exotic sourcing has becoming increasingly de rigueur. And as we enter a post-pandemic world, deprivation is so 2020, say area chefs.

“People are tired of staying home—they want to spoil themselves,” says executive chef-owner Zack Trabbold of The Local in Fallston. “They want to try new ingredients they don’t have at home. They want experiences now—people want to reward themselves.”

Nowhere is the reward greater than at The Local, where Trabbold and his chef de cuisine have devised a dish that’s the ultimate indulgence: a gold-leafed, two-and-a-half-pound lobster with squid ink pasta, uni, and caviar—all sitting in a pool of uni cream sauce.

“To make it really bougie, we added gold leaf,” says Trabbold of the $140 dish. “We actually paint the lobster with a little bit of clarified butter, then take the gold dustings from the gold leaf and brush them onto the lobster.”

Of course, social media has helped play a role in culinary one-upmanship, and Trabbold says he has designed the dish with that in mind.

“There’s not a lot of high-end dining in Harford County,” he says. “And we are trying to set the trends on social media. If phone cameras aren’t going off at every table with this dish, we aren’t doing something right.”

Zack Trabbold has worked all over town, from Del Frisco’s Steakhouse to The Bygone in Harbor East (where he was chef de cuisine). But the Wilmington, DE, native had long dreamed of having a place of his own. In late August, he opened The Local, an elevated comfort-food spot in Harford County. Within a few months, the 90-seat restaurant had become so popular, Trabbold decided to expand next door, nearly doubling the size of the space.

“I’ve had the concept in my head for a long time,” says the 33-year-old chef, who was nominated as Best Chef in Maryland in 2019. “It’s completely different from any other restaurant in Maryland. A lot of people say, ‘farm-to-table,’ but we don’t call it ‘farm-to-table,’ we just buy whatever we can locally to suit our style of cooking. All our beers on draft are strictly beers from Maryland. The liquors, and cordials, including Black Water Distillery and Sagamore, are all from Maryland. Even our charcuterie boards are custom-made right here in Fallston.”

Why did you want to open in Harford County?
There was just this lack of great spots in Harford County, where I live. I’m already looking for a second location.

Tell me about some of the signature items on the menu.
We feature comfort food but it’s not something you’d get anywhere else. For example, we have pot pie, but it’s a lobster pot pie. We have beef stroganoff, but the noodles are homemade, the beef is from Roseda Farm, the mushrooms are Hen of the Woods, and there’s some blue cheese on top and a red-wine reduction sauce. Our food is comfort food but it’s more like a Charleston, South Carolina, style of cooking.

How challenging is it to source locally in The Old-Line State?
We can get our cheese, our milk, our eggs, our chicken, our beef, and our wine, all right here. It’s all in Harford County within a 10-mile radius. I’ve traveled the country, from Texas to Chicago, and I’ve never been in a place where, from seafood to meat, you can get everything in one place.

How did you decide to become a chef?
My dad worked in radio his whole life, and I thought I’d follow in his footsteps, then my dad got sick, and my brother got custody of me at 15. My brother was waiting tables at Adriatico in Rehoboth Beach. I had to get a job, so I started bussing tables. My brother paid for me to go to The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia.

Like so many chefs, you have a few tattoos. Can you tell me about one that matters to you most?
I have an Anthony Bourdain portrait on my back. Like me, he came from nothing and worked his way up. He impacted so many people. That’s what it’s all about for me. There’s nothing better than hearing someone say, “This is the best meal I’ve ever had.”