Hospitality : Development News

The Corner Stable, a family-owned restaurant in Cockeysville, is opening a second restaurant in the King's Contrivance Village Center in Columbia in October.

Known for its ribs and crab cakes, the 6,000-square-foot restaurant will replace longtime local watering hole Michael's Pub that closed earlier this year.

Co-owner Charles "Chip" Reed says he plans to hire between 65 and 85 full-time workers to staff the new restaurant. Reed says he and his wife Randy Reed have been scouring the Greater Baltimore region for a second location for years. They said they settled on Columbia because they thought a family-owned restaurant and bar could stand out among the area's many chain establishments. And many of the area's restaurants are bustling on the weekends.

There's also ample parking in the shopping center, which includes Harris Teeter, a CVS pharmacy, and a consignment shop, Reed says.

Close to Routes 29 and 32 and Interstate 95, the location will hopefully draw folks who live in Ellicott City, Laurel, Elkridge, and Silver Spring.

Reed says he plans to spruce up the interior with large-screen televisions and a pool table. His nephew Bryan Hiller will manage the restaurant.

The Corner Stable in Cockeysville opened in 1971. The Reeds have owned it for 10 years.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Charles "Chip" Reed, Corner Stable

After two years at the helm of downtown restaurant Maisy's, Matt Helme has decided to give the place a face lift.

In the fall, he plans to add better lighting and will redo the downstairs lounge with new custom-made tables.

Helme recently hired Cyrus Keefer, whose French-inspired cuisine will be featured in a new menu soon. Keefer has worked at Rehoboth Beach restaurants Espuma, Nage, and Eden. He also recently won the People's Choice award at the B&O American Brasserie's Crab Bash for his blue crab and white corn ravioli.

Maisy's menu currently includes house-smoked wings, bison tartar, brick-oven pizza, and seafood paella.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Matt Helme, Maisy's

Southern Management Corp., known for its portfolio of apartment holdings, is opening a 150-room boutique hotel by early August as the developer hopes to capitalize on the tourism revenue expected from the casino debuting next year at Arundel Mills mall.

The Hotel at Arundel Preserve is part of a $150 million development includes 242 apartments, which opened this month, and Grillfire restaurant. The project is part of the 268-acre Arundel Preserve complex that includes shops, offices, apartments, and restaurants.

The 156-seat Grillfire will open July 28. The sixth restaurant of New York's George Martin Group, the steakhouse will also serve seafood, salads, and chicken dishes.

The hotel will house three other restaurants, including Indian eatery Rangoli, says John Cohan, Southern Management's director of marketing.

The Vienna, Va., developer saw an "untapped market." Though the area around Arundel Mills mall is chock full of hotels, many are chain hotels targeting business travelers flying through Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Cohan says. Southern Management is hoping that an independently owned boutique hotel will stand apart for leisure travelers looking to press their luck at the slots machines.

The company also hopes to appeal to the thousands of defense contractors that will move and work in the area due to the federal government's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC).


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: John Cohan, Southern Management

The waterside patio at McCormick & Schmick's got a new, contemporary look this month -- its first facelift since the Inner Harbor seafood restaurant opened a decade ago.

It now has 70 tables, or 20 more than it used to, and 275 seats.

Restaurant managers were going for a "resort-style" feel with the patio's sofas and high-top cocktail tables, says Jay Twardowski, the Portland, Ore., chain's regional manager.

It makes good business sense for McCormick & Schmick's to invest in the great outdoors. On a nice summer day the restaurant gets as much as half of its sales from the 4,700-square-foot patio, Twardowski says.

"We felt that we became a little bit dated and we wanted to reinvigorate the patio as the place to be in the city."

Twardowski declined to say how much the restaurant is spending on the renovation. The makeover is part of a national plan to invest in many of its restaurant properties. Meanwhile, M&S Grill at Harborplace last month got new floors and carpets.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Jay Twardowski, McCormick & Schmick's

The developer of a fire-ravaged Mount Vernon building is in the final stages of getting city permits to begin construction as soon as next month.

The building at 800 N. Charles contained Donna's, Indigma, MyThai, and several offices. Indigma will open temporarily across the street until its original home is ready. And Donna's Co-Owner Alan Hirsch says he plans to reopen the restaurant with a wine bar and tapas menu.

The Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation has given developer Dominic Wiker the OK to proceed with the design. Final demolition will begin this week and construction will begin later this summer, he says.

Wiker said in a statement that he expects to have a better idea of the number of tenants in the building by the end of July.

The new structure will feature a few contemporary touches, says Steven Shen, chairman of the architectural review committee of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association. It will include a skylight and an all-glass entrance. It will also house a patio on the fifth floor.

Last year's five-alarm fire gutted the building and took out the roof.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Dominic Wiker; Steven Shen, Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association

A restaurant with a waterfront view and seasonal menu will open by September at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park. Designed by Patrick Sutton, the 75-seat Vu at Living Classrooms will feature a menu crafted by Corks' Jerry Pellegrino and cost more than $900,000 to build.

Foundation staff are calling the Vu a "seed-to-plate" restaurant, because it will serve produce grown at Living Classrooms Foundation's after-school gardening program, says Richard Slingluff, the nonprofit's facilities manager. That program is known as Baltimore Urban Gardening With Students, or BUGS.

"We're excited to work with our students to get as much student-grown produce to be served at a high-end restaurant one block away," Slingluff says.

The first-floor restaurant will feature floor-to-ceiling windows facing the Domino Sugar factory and Fort McHenry, Living Classrooms CEO James Piper Bond says.

The restaurant will hopefully bring in revenue to support the maritime park, Bond says.

On Mondays, restaurant employees will provide hospitality and culinary training to Living Classrooms' students. The nonprofit oversees after-school and job training programs for at-risk youth.

"It's a beautiful space on the water," Pellegrino says. "How can you beat that?"


Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: James Piper Bond, Richard Slingluff, Living Classrooms; Jerry Pellegrino, Corks

Call it a kitchen stadium. Call it a restaurant within a restaurant.

Matthew Milani has a tough time coming up with a word to describe the expansion he is planning for Rumor Mill Fusion Bar & Restaurant in September.

He's installing an open-air kitchen where diners will feast on a 25-course meal composed of molecular gastronomic concoctions. They might include upscale Jello shooters that can freeze without ice or sous-vide duck with cherries. Guests will pay between $75 and $125 per meal.

Milani is hoping that a concept like Minibar, the six-seat restaurant in Washington, D.C., spearheaded by James Beard-award winner Jose Andres, will work for the small-plate restaurant in historic downtown Ellicott City.

Incorporating molecular gastronomy into the small plate restaurant offers his cooks a chance to "go crazy." And cooking demonstrations are big in the foodie world now.

"Talking to the chef is now part of the meal," Milani says. Diners feel like they get an added value if they get to interact with the chef.

The owner expects to spend less than $3,000 on the 20-seat kitchen stadium if he buys a lot of equipment at auction.

"We believe this is something that can set us apart," Milani says.

Local food blogger Dara Bunjon says Milani's venture is unique to the Baltimore area.

"There might be chefs here in Baltimore creating molecular gastronomy, but not 20-plus courses."