Bits & Bites: What’s for dinner? Everything. Here’s a midyear update on Baltimore restaurant openings

Last week, I took a tour of Cece’s Roland Park, a new restaurant that opened June 13 in the Village of Cross Keys.

Cece’s, which comes from The Cordish Cos. and features food from chef Nick Sharpe, an alum of the Mina Group, is a sleek new addition to the North Baltimore restaurant scene with a Mad Men-esque feel that Cordish Cos. principal Reed Cordish describes as “retro modern.”

With capacity for more than 300 diners between indoor and outdoor seating areas, the restaurant also has a larger footprint than many recently opened dining options in the city. Several restaurateurs have told me they’re looking for less overhead — which often means smaller dining rooms, especially as customers lean on takeout and delivery orders, a trend accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

But Cordish is bullish on the city’s dining scene, and Cece’s ability to get diners to sit and stay awhile.

“I feel like Baltimore has real momentum and real energy,” he said, “and I think it has great potential to have an amazing renaissance.”

He might be onto something. Since the start of the year, by my count, Baltimore has added more than two dozen bars and restaurants. It’s also lost some favorites, like Thai Arrroy, Birds of a Feather and Cafe Poupon.

I have a mid-year rundown in today’s column to bring you up to speed.

Early openings

The year started off strong with some eagerly awaited openings.

Just a few weeks into 2024, Clavel co-owner Carlos Raba opened Nana, a Mexican restaurant north of the city inspired by the chef’s childhood in Sinaloa. The 15-seat space has already found a following, turning out tacos, tortas and even whole rotisserie chickens for sit-down diners as well as those picking up a family meal on the way home from work.

Other early additions included an expansion of the 109-year-old Attman’s Delicatessen with a second location in Harbor Point, and the return of The Urban Oyster, a Black woman-owned oyster bar and seafood restaurant that opened in February on the Avenue in Hampden. Costiera, a Mediterranean restaurant serving crudo, arancini and squid ink bucatini, debuted the same month near Little Italy. The eatery just launched “Costi Club,” a monthly, members-only Sunday supper club.

Two heads are better than one?

Collaboration seems to be the name of the game in 2024.

In Downtown Baltimore, Prim & Proper, which opened in February, is the result of a partnership between restaurateurs Chris Simon, of BLK Swan, and Berry Clark, of Papi Cuisine, as well as their spouses, Janeen Simon and Janell Clark. The restaurant serves “modern French American” dishes from chef Calvin Riley, who has stayed loyal to the kitchen on Redwood Street through several iterations, as a sous chef at Chez Hugo and then as chef/owner of Prim & Proper’s immediate predecessor, LoCal.

On the same block is Kechy Pizza Co., which opened in April and serves stone-oven-baked pies as well as Mediterranean dishes. Two restaurateurs with a background in pizza — Cem Ari of Zella’s Pizzeria and Dogan Salis, formerly a partner in HomeSlyce — teamed up to open Kechy, which takes its name from the Turkish word for “goat.”

And in Little Italy, the owners of HoodFellas Bistro & Catering and RYMKS Bar & Grille teamed up this spring after shuttering their respective restaurants. Soul Street, a barbecue restaurant, dishes out brisket, catfish, cornbread, mac and cheese and more from HoodFellas chef Benjamin Thompson. Ira Chase of HoodFellas and Teaon Everage of RYMKS oversee the business end of the operation.

More downtown options

After years of closures spurred by COVID-19, Downtown Baltimore is starting to see an influx of new dining options.

Tacos & Me is an eclectic new lunch and dinner option on Charles Street. The eatery, serving options like poke bowls, Asian fusion tacos and sesame Brussels sprouts, took over the long-vacant Maisy’s space. Across the street, Turkish spot Cazbar has finally reopened after a nearly four-year hiatus.

Down by the stadiums, Maryland Yards opened where Frank & Nic’s West End Grille used to be on South Paca Street. Though its name is a nod to Camden Yards, the new restaurant’s owners, who also run Guilford Hall Brewery in Greenmount West, want it to be an off-season destination, too, with an in-house cafe and Maryland-centric menu options like crabcakes, seafood towers and a Berger cookie martini.

Wisconsin fried chicken chain Mad Chicken, meanwhile, recently took over the old Brown Rice Korean Grill storefront on Calvert Street. And on the ground floor of 414 Light, Baltimore’s tallest apartment tower, an Italian restaurant from celebrity chef Matthew Kenney has replaced two vegan concepts. Facci, which has two other locations in Howard County, opened in March and serves wood-fired pizzas and housemade pastas.

Over in Harbor East, an Atlas Restaurant Group steakhouse called The Ruxton transformed the vacant Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse space, another pandemic casualty. The 200-seat, 10,000-square-foot restaurant is the hospitality group’s largest to date and also has an attached cocktail bar, Order of the Ace.

Buzzworthy debuts

Baltimoreans really love breakfast. Two of the city’s buzziest openings this year serve lattes and breakfast sandwiches and both are here to stay, judging by the lines whenever I’ve stopped by. Catalog Coffee, a brightly colored cafe that opened in Hampden in March, marks the return of Dave Sherman, formerly of Cafe Cito and Ground & Griddled, as well as his popular breakfast sandwiches like “What the Kitchen Eats,” stuffed with a paprika-fried egg, turkey sausage, cheddar cheese and caramelized onions.

Good Boy Bagels, in Canton, opened in May and serves New Jersey-style bagels (and pizza bagels), coffee and generous breakfast sandwiches. I recommend the 40 Gold, a combination of pit beef, fried eggs, thin-sliced onions and a cheddar horseradish cream cheese.

Plenty of spots serving dinner are getting hype, too.

Yebo Kitchen, which opened this spring in Old Goucher, brings a menu fusing Asian and African cuisine from “Chopped” winner Sammy Davis Jr.: think fried beef wontons, shrimp and dragonfruit tapas and an “Asian ribeye” with shiitake mushrooms, hoisin sauce and a side of lobster mash.

Love, Pomelo sees the owners of Canton’s ever-popular Cafe Dear Leon take a spin with Italian cooking. The intimate restaurant, which opened two doors down from the bakery in April, has just 26 seats in total and serves a tightly curated menu with a handful of pastas, antipasti, two meat dishes and just one dessert option: tiramisu. The new restaurant doesn’t usually take reservations (with the exception of some holidays), so get there early to avoid a wait.

In Locust Point, fans of Limoncello’s pandemic-era takeout pizza finally got a restaurant focused on the pies. The Italian restaurant has opened a spin-off, Limoncello Pizza, that serves Tuscan-style pizza, featuring a crust that falls somewhere between the thin New York-style pizza and the thick, focaccia-like Sicilian style. “It was a calling from the neighborhood,” general manager Vincenzo Schiano told me.

Sweet on dessert

Dessert is having a moment, judging by all the sweet treat spots popping up around the city.

Baltimore has added at least three new ice cream spots so far this year: Sydney’s Ice Creams in Belair-Edison, Always Ice Cream in Cross Keys and a brick-and-mortar extension of the Miss Twist ice cream truck in Locust Point.

For baked goods, check out La Cosette, a French pastry shop on Fort Avenue,

Amour d’La Crêpe a Parisian-inspired creperie on South Broadway and a new Roggenart store in Mount Vernon. Fells Point patisserie Sacré Sucré completed its move from Fleet Street to a much larger space on Fells Street in January, and recently secured a liquor license, too, despite objections from some neighbors.

More to try

Some new spots defy easy categorization but are still worth checking out.

In Federal Hill, Bernard Dehaene, formerly the chef and owner of The Corner Charcuterie and Bar in Hampden, is back with Freetjes, a small restaurant serving Belgian eats like baked potatoes and waffles.

Mobtown Ballroom, which recently made the movie from Pigtown to Station North, now has a culinary component with Mobtown Cafe, serving coffee, cocktails and sandwiches. Nearby, The Club Car, a “queer cocktail and cabaret” that started as a pop-up, has extended its run where The Windup Space used to be.

What did I miss? Send me an email at ayeager@baltsun.com.