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