Customers will also be able to buy
eggs, milk, bread, milled flours, grits, and other goods from local
purveyors. “The idea of the butcher shop was for it to be a shopping
experience,” said George Marsh, Parts & Labor’s executive chef and head
butcher. “We wanted to have things for the neighbors.”

George, pictured third from left with
his team of butchers above, set up the shop with an open window to the kitchen. “We
wanted it to be communal between the butcher and the people if they had
questions,” he said yesterday as the store was prepping for its opening. (The
cured boar’s head in the butchers’ photo was en route to becoming a steaming
pot of chili today.)

The attached restaurant area with
communal seating and tables with church pews is scheduled to open April 24. The
focus is on hearth cooking, pictured, in cast-iron pots, featuring steaks, pork
chops, and many other items.

Beer is a huge part of the bar
program with about 18 brews on tap and a growler station. Kegged wines and
local ciders will also be available.

The refurbished space in an old car-repair-and-tire
shop at 2600 N. Howard St. is co-owned by James Beard finalist Spike Gjerde and
his wife Amy, who also operate Woodberry Kitchen, Artifact Coffee, and Shoo-Fly
Diner.

In the retail shop, carryout sandwiches
will be available during the day in addition to various sausages, cheese, and
pâtés. Jars of preserved vegetables processed through Woodberry Kitchen are on the
shelves as well as cookbooks, knives, cutting boards, and butcher’s aprons.

You definitely want to visit this
one-of-a-kind shop soon.

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Billed as a “modern-day roadside burger stand,”
Shake Shack will be located in the Inner Harbor at 400 E. Pratt St. across from
the Aquarium, according to a press release from Danny Meyer’s Union Square
Hospitality Group.

To give you an idea of the eatery’s popularity, when
it opened in Dupont Circle in DC in 2011, long lines formed before 11 a.m. to
sample the all-natural Angus beef burgers, hot dogs, milkshakes, frozen
custard, and more.

In Manhattan, a commenter on chowhound.com said
he waited an hour at that store on one occasion, and “it was totally worth it.”
Some even say the burger place has a cult following.

Shake Shake evolved from a hot-dog cart in Madison
Square Park in Manhattan that was open summers from 2001-03. In 2004, a
permanent kiosk opened, and Shake Shack was born.

In addition to many U.S. locations, there are
Shake Shacks in the Middle East, Russia, Turkey, and London.

We’re definitely due for one in Baltimore.

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After being shuttered for several months during
the $600,000-plus overhaul, dinner service starts at 5 p.m. this evening, April 8, with
lunch at 12 p.m. tomorrow, April 9. Brunch will follow soon.

Ethel’s food is described
on its website as a mix of Cajun/Creole cuisine and local Maryland fare. Its chef/owner Ed Bloom was classically trained
under chef Paul Prudhomme of Louisiana cooking fame.

The original restaurant started out serving
coffee and tea 20 years ago, expanding next door 10 years ago. Its menu grew
over the years.

The latest renovation includes an upstairs
dining balcony, outdoor porch dining, a full-service bar downstairs, and an
enlarged kitchen.

Reservations are requested at this time. Call
410-664-2971.

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Fresh bread, a scrapple sandwich, and house-smoked salmon on an everything bagel are just a few of the breakfast options. The lunch menu includes familiar items like BLTs and turkey wraps, along with more unusual fare, such as curry-apple salad and porchetta.

The café also offers a variety of pastries, like scones and muffins, which can be paired with specialty drinks, including a cinnamon-toast latte and an espresso with wildflower honey.

Like the restaurant, many of the ingredients used at the café are locally sourced from the owner’s Cunningham Farms in Cockeysville.

The café will be open daily, from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on weekends.

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Marsh, pictured left,
is the head butcher at Parts & Labor, the latest offering by Spike
and Amy Gjerde, who also run Artifact, Woodberry Kitchen, and Shoo-Fly
Diner. The new Remington space at 2600 N. Howard St. will house a
full-service butcher shop and a restaurant.

The butcher shop will
open in late March and showcase cuts of meat from area farms like
Liberty Delight Farm, Whistle Pig Hollow, and Many Rocks Farm as well as
offer salami and pâtés for sale.

The 84-seat restaurant will
begin service in April. It will feature hearth-cooked items like steak,
pork chops, various sausages, and roasted seasonal vegetables. Diners
will also be able to enjoy “one-pot” dishes like chilies and stews and
construct their own cured-meat board from a selection of hams, terrines,
and sausages.

A beer program will offer 24 taps featuring Maryland breweries as much as possible. There will also be a growler station.

The Artifact butchery event is being hosted by Make Tribe,
a group focusing on crafting workshops. Tickets are $68 (includes food,
drink, lesson, tax, and gratuity) and can be purchased on their website. Space is limited.

Chef photo courtesy of starchefs.com.

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I
caught up this afternoon with Dimitris Spiliadis, whose family owned
the boutique hotel until they ran into financial difficulty a year ago.
After filing for bankruptcy, the property ended up with its mortgage
holder.

With the new partners, Dimitris will continue to manage
the 12-suite inn, which includes a market and a restaurant. His parents,
Stelios and Pauline, will handle the family’s long-time restaurant The
Black Olive in Fells Point as a separate entity.

“It’s the coolest thing that ever happened,” Dimitris said of the acquisition. “It’s very humbling.”

Agora
café/market on the inn’s first floor and its rooftop Olive Room
restaurant are open for business. They focus on organic fare. The Olive
Room serves dinner Tuesday-Saturday and brunch on Sundays.

Dimitris and Woody—whose most recent venture is HBO’s acclaimed True Detective—became friends when the actor stayed at the inn, bordering Fells Point and Harbor East, for seven weeks while filming Game Change in Baltimore for HBO.

Both men share a love of healthful food and lifestyles. In July 2012, Woody, pictured at the time, came back to Baltimore to attend a raw-foods dinner at the inn’s restaurant.

(Note the Yankees cap. Maybe next time, he’ll be wearing an O’s hat.)

He addressed the diners, including me, genially: “I’m honored to be here,” he said. “Raw food is where it’s at.”

Woody also thanked Dimitris. “You treated me so great,” he said. “More importantly, you are a great friend.”

Today, Dimitris said that Woody “would like me to do what I’ve been doing” at the inn.

“Every day, I’m very happy, very grateful,” he said. “But there is a lot of pressure to make it work.”

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Alain, a D.C. restaurateur who has been in the
hospitality business for 20 years, is also renovating the rest of the
multilevel building into a full-scale restaurant that he’s hoping will
be open in August.

He didn’t want to share the details of the
concept at this time, calling it a “surprise.” “A lot of money plus
hearts and souls are going into this,” he said. “I’m looking forward to
my new city.”

Milan opened to great fanfare in 2010 but closed due
to zoning violations two years later. The building, at the corner of
1000 Eastern Avenue and Exeter Street, has been vacant since.

The new café, pictured,
will carry several gelato flavors and spinoffs like gelato popsicles
and sugar-free options. A variety of specialty coffees will also be
offered. “I want to be a neighborhood hangout,” Alain said.

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French Fry Heaven,
which started in Florida, has arrived in the Baltimore area, and the
franchise owners have plans to open more locations across the state. For
now, though, french-fry lovers will have to visit the Towson location
to get a taste of French Fry Heaven’s unusual flavors.

These
include fries loaded with toppings like blueberry sauce, marshmallow,
dill pickle, and caramel. Names like the “St. Smooth” and the “Baked
Tater” add to the whimsy.

Not feeling so adventurous? Familiar
staples like BBQ sauce and cheese are also available. Specialty salts
and peppers top the fries off exactly to your liking.

Despite the
decadence of the twice-fried treats, French Fry Heaven’s goods aren’t as
guilty of a pleasure as they may seem. They have zero trans fat and are
cooked in gluten-free oil in order to cut down on grease. And
vegetarians, rejoice! Almost everything on the indulgent menu is
meat-free.

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The
restaurant’s current menu with a-la-carte items and prix-fix meals will
still be available in the upstairs area, now referred to as The Dining
Room.

The Tavern Room’s food won’t be typical pub grub, though.

Chefs
Chris Becker and Chris Amendola will be offering intriguing dishes like
merguez pretzel bites, ocean-trout belly crudo, confit duck leg, and
vegetarian items including glazed sunchokes as well as some previous
favorites: a “pig face and pickles” offal dish and a charcuterie and
cheese board.

To complement the food, Tim Riley, the restaurant’s
beverage director, will be showcasing various punches in large punch
bowls for groups. They’ll change seasonally.

The dining scene in Harbor East gets more interesting all the time.

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Dinner will be served at first, but eventually, the restaurant will be open for lunch, too.

I
caught up this afternoon with owner Ted Bauer, who also operates The
Oregon Grill in Hunt Valley. “We wanted to start out very slow until we
got to know the building a bit,” he said. “People have been very excited
about it.”

For the past three weeks, the historic restaurant,
which has undergone renovations, has been open on Fridays and Saturdays
to faithful fans, who were curious to check out the updates. The
restaurant closed in late 2010 when Ted acquired the property from Bud
Hatfield and his family, who had run the popular establishment since the
1920s. At one time, it was a popular gathering place for the
horse-country crowd.

Currently, the restaurant’s new kitchen,
under chef Tom Hawkins, an Oregon Grille sous chef, is serving
appetizers like oysters and steamed shrimp, a selection of soups and
salads, sandwiches including a 10-ounce burger and shrimp salad, and a
few larger plates featuring mahi mahi and steak.

Before the restaurant closed, the building, pictured,
near the upscale Green Spring Station mall, was showing its age. The
food was old-fashioned (lobster Newburg, hot turkey sandwiches with
gravy), but the mint juleps were great.

After Ted was granted a
liquor license in 2010, the old restaurant, officially in Lutherville,
remained vacant as the restaurateur sought various approvals for
updating the premises.

Under his management—he started the Mt.
Washington Tavern in 1979 before opening The Oregon Grille—the Valley
Inn should be ready to take on this century.

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A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, he has worked as the executive chef at The Hyatt Regency Schaumburg-Chicago and The Hamilton Hotel in D.C. among other restaurants. He focuses on contemporary American cuisine, according to a press release.

The multi-course, prix-fixe meal at Antrim has always been a treat. The restaurant, a perennial on our Best Resaurants list, welcomes diners in the main drawing room with hors d’oeuvres before escorting them to dining rooms for the main courses.

In the past, the staff presented guests with the night’s menu signed by Gettier, the former chef. I’m not sure if Wolff will continue that nicety. But it got me to wondering about Michael Gettier.

He carved quite a cooking niche in Baltimore—from the lauded Conservatory to his own French-influenced M. Gettier in Fells Point to buying the old Hersh’s Orchard Inn in Towson before landing at Antrim.

I was able to catch up with him on Facebook. And all is well.

Gettier, pictured, and chef Travis Wright have joined forces to form a new company called Kerfuffle Foods in Baltimore. They make vegetarian entrees, side dishes, and some desserts for wholesale to chefs and catering companies.

“Quite a difference to the restaurant gig!” he said in a message.

Sounds like a happy ending or great new beginning. Good luck to chefs Wolff and Gettier in their endeavors.

Photo courtesy of Kerfuffle Foods Facebook page

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