Some days plumbers and electricians arrived. Construction crews carried in stainless steel sinks. Ovens and ranges showed up. No one noticed the concrete finishers. Then came the moving vans and the pickup trucks.

But word quietly spread that something amazing was working away at Hooper House, a reconditioned 1886 residence that once housed one of Baltimore’s cotton and canvas sailcloth barons.

For years, Hooper House sat at the corner of Saint Paul and 23rd Streets like that big, obsolete antique sideboard or china closet that no one really wanted. Yes, this boldly Victorian house had a substantial presence, with 77 mostly huge windows and 33 rooms, a dumbwaiter and a set of servants’ stairs hidden behind old plasterboard.

While there are grand staircases worthy of a private club, what do you do with this remarkable but problematic residential relic of Baltimore’s 19th century manufacturing elite? It’s so big, and how do you make economic sense of oversized fireplaces and chimneys that could accommodate two Santas?

Then, two years ago, a fire broke out on its upper floors, and though the damage was contained, the water used to fight the blaze created its own set of preservation issues — plaster damage and warped floors.

A developer and creative partner rolled up their sleeves, determined to make the place into a working space with a restaurant and bar. The result of this summer’s transformation is an unexpected knockout.

On a recent morning, dozens of diverse young persons brought their laptops to Mama Koko’s, what might just be Baltimore’s most elegant new eating and cocktail establishment.

The grand old Hooper family parlor has been transformed into a breakfast bar — and later in the day, a full cocktail setting. Customers were having ham and eggs at 9 a.m., but by evening, the scene changes. It’s no longer latte and tea, but rum, citrus and herbs.

“Small businesses wanted to operate in a setting that is singular in the city,” said Matt Oppenheim, a developer who commutes to Baltimore from Washington, D.C. “We are able to offer something unique and special in Old Goucher. We provide a space where clients and customers are going to be inspired.”

Oppenheim’s business partner is Michael Haskins Jr., the proprietor of the fashion clothing brand Currency Studio, who lives nearby in a renovated East 20th Street home in the Barclay community.

“There’s an experience of coming here, walking in the front door, up the steps and seeing this interior,” said Haskins as he gestured toward the high ceilings and unhurried, stylish decor. It’s all reminiscent of a first class ocean liner lounge, or at least the drawing room of some merchant prince and princess.

“We collaborated heavily with Ayo Hogans, an owner of Mama Koko’s, who is a professional fashion stylist,” said Oppenheim.

There’s a new outdoor patio with teakwood tables. And on a cool September morning, what better place to catch up on your emails?

So the question has to be asked, what is Hooper House?

Just inside the front door is a proper office directory, listing its business tenants who occupy the former bedrooms and library on the upper floors. They range from a hair salon, to fashion designers and a candle maker.

Haskins says that despite the business uses, the old house still retains its residential atmosphere within the collection of old Goucher College buildings and 1880s rowhouses in midtown Baltimore.

“It never really feels like it’s booming here. It’s just Baltimore,” Haskins said. “As you move through the city, you can miss what is going on inside this preserved place and the architecture we have preserved. It was important to welcome these businesses — to put the creative class in one place.”

The restaurant group confirmed plans to put a restaurant in the space; however, a name and concept are not “ready to be released,” according to a Thursday news release. While details are sparse, the group is “dedicated to honoring the historical significance of the location while bringing an exciting option to the residents and visitors of Annapolis,” according to the release.

“We greatly respect the rich history of Annapolis and the Stevens Hardware building, and while we are excited to bring an Atlas concept to this iconic location, we have no plans to alter the building’s historic facade,” Joe Sweeney, spokesperson for Atlas, wrote in an email Friday.

Stevens Hardware, at 142 Dock St., closed its doors in December 2012 after decades of operation. The space was occupied by Mission BBQ from 2016 until it closed in January. 

Dock Street will be the restaurant group’s fourth location in the downtown area. In addition to the Choptank on Compromise Street, the Baltimore-based group plans on opening two  establishments in the Annapolis Waterfront Hotel space that will be left vacant by Pusser’s Caribbean Grille after it closes later this year. A tequila bar called Armada and an Italian chophouse, Marmo, are expected to open next summer.

Atlas Restaurant Group was founded in 2012 by President and CEO Alex Smith. Smith and his brother Eric Smith, a co-owner of Atlas Restaurant Group, are nephews of Baltimore Sun owner David D. Smith.

“We are thrilled to expand our presence in Annapolis and to be a part of the vibrant community here,” Alex Smith said in the Thursday statement. “The historic nature of 142 Dock Street provides a unique opportunity to blend the past and the future, and we look forward to sharing more details about our plans in the coming months.”

But before his debut with the team Thursday night, football fans will see him fighting for dominance in another (fictional) arena.

Henry, who previously played for the Tennessee Titans, appears in a Gladiator-themed Pepsi commercial slated to run before and during Thursday’s broadcast of the Ravens-Kansas City Chiefs game.

The ad finds him in the Colosseum alongside fellow football stars Travis Kelce, a running back for the Chiefs, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson as they battle tigers — but not each other — and seek the favor of an empress portrayed by rapper Megan Thee Stallion.

The commercial also stars actors Jake Lacy and Lamorne Morris as bewildered Pepsi drinkers transported to the ring to watch as the action unfolds (“I really gotta stop thinking about the Roman Empire,” Morris quips.)

The Ravens-Chiefs game will air on NBC and WBAL Channel 11 at 7 p.m.

Now we hear another celebrity has apparently been charmed by Charm City.

Ja Rule and a team of business partners have picked Baltimore Spirits Co. in Medfield to produce a new line of honey-flavored rye whiskey making its way to liquor store shelves. I have details in this week’s column.

Livin’ it up

How did a New York rapper get involved with a Baltimore liquor company? It all comes down to a local connection.

Herb Rice, a co-founder of the new Amber & Opal Spirits, was born and raised in New York City but came to the Baltimore area to attend Towson University. He’s been living here since 1998 and is an investor in several whiskey brands with a group of business partners.

One of those partners happens to be Ja Rule. The rapper, famous for early-aughts hits like “Always On Time” and “Livin’ It Up,” has known Rice for the past 25 years — their wives are childhood best friends.

So when Rice started to dream of launching his own whiskey brand, Ja was a natural call.

“Whiskey is one of the spirits that’s sorely underrepresented by people of color,” Rice said. “We were interested in bringing the spirit into those communities.”

The result is Amber & Opal, a new line of whiskey infused with sweet notes of honey, smoky lapsang souchong tea and fig, cinnamon and ginger from an herbal tea. Rice said the smooth flavors are a more palatable way to introduce whiskey to the uninitiated.

“We wanted to create a niche product,” he said. “We knew flavored whiskey would be a bit more inviting, a bit curious.”

https://t.co/Ia4NCBQ17G pic.twitter.com/CSZJH2vpeH

— Ja Rule (@jarule) August 15, 2024

The brand uses two-year-aged rye whiskey from Baltimore Spirits Co. as its base. Rice first connected with BSC founders Max Lents and Eli Breitburg-Smith a couple of years ago after touring the distillery, part of the Union Collective compound in North Baltimore.

Lents and Breitburg-Smith didn’t know Ja Rule would be involved until he popped into a Zoom meeting early in their conversations with Rice and his business partners, Kelvin Barton and Sandy Sandiford.

“It was unexpected,” Lents said. “It was certainly a fun development. We were all smiles.”

Though Baltimore Spirits Co. has done some smaller-scale collaborations and product development, this is the company’s first partnership that involves a new brand distilled and bottled by BSC. The Amber & Opal bottle notes the spirit was produced by Baltimore Spirits Co.

Rice said the brand is in talks with a national distributor and hopes to have the whiskey on shelves soon. In the meantime, a small amount will be available in the Baltimore Spirits Co. tasting room.

Ja Rule has been spreading the word about Amber & Opal on Instagram, alongside concert shots and photos of golf outings.

Lents said the rapper has been to Baltimore for tastings and a private launch party. (“He’s very funny in person,” he said of Ja.)

Will he be back for more?

“I can’t speak to his schedule, but I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lents said.

A mixed berry review

Keith Lee raved about Rooted Rotisserie’s chicken and watched as his family picked some crabs at Kahler’s. He couldn’t leave town without dessert.

Inspired by an invitation from owner LaQuicha Brown, Lee stopped at Berries By Quicha inside the Best Western Plus Hotel in Southeast Baltimore last week for what may be his final Baltimore review.

The TikTok food critic grabbed a selection of chocolate-covered strawberries to taste in his car. The verdict: most were pretty tasty.

@keith_lee125

Berries By Quicha taste test would you try it ? #foodcritic @Berriesbyquicha

♬ original sound – Keith Lee

“In my opinion, she uses really good chocolate and it’s very snappy, and the strawberries are big,” Lee said after taking a big bite of a strawberry shortcake-coated berry. He rated the majority of the berries he sampled a 7.5 out of 10.

He was less enthusiastic about an ice cream sundae-flavored treat, though. The elaborate toppings on the berry — sprinkles, milk and white chocolate and a cherry on top — overwhelmed Lee’s tastebuds.

“It don’t even taste like strawberry no more,” he said, rating the dessert a 3 out of 10.

One misstep didn’t matter much: Berries by Quicha was still feeling the “Keith Lee effect” after the TikToker’s visit, selling out of desserts last week according to Instagram.

“Knowing that sweets aren’t typically your preference, we’re beyond grateful that you answered your DM,” Brown wrote in a thank-you post to Lee.

She also said she plans to retire the ice cream sundae flavor.

Fans of churrasco will find a large dining room centered on an open grill, offering diners a 360-degree view of chefs as they butcher, carve, roast and sear cuts of pork, beef, lamb and more.

The Towson steakhouse has an outdoor patio and also “showcases a seasonal Market Table, dry-aged meat lockers for in-house aging, a lively indoor Bar Fogo area ideal for all-day happy hour, and private dining spaces,” according to a news release about the new restaurant, which is the chain’s fourth in Maryland, including a location at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

The restaurant offers lunch, dinner, Brazilian brunch, catering and a to-go menu. The all-day happy hour includes $10 Brazilian-inspired cocktails, $8 glasses of wine and $5 beer.

Fogo de Chão said it will donate a portion of its sales from the first week to the Maryland Food Bank.

“At Fogo, we’ve always been focused on feeding our guests and communities; that’s why we’re excited to collaborate with the Maryland Food Bank which supports so many in Towson and throughout Maryland,” said Barry McGowan, CEO of Fogo de Chão said in the release.

According to Parade, Wendy’s is bringing its vanilla-flavored Frosty back to menus across the nation.

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Food blogger Markie Devo took to Instagram Saturday and announced that Wendy’s is working to relaunch its Vanilla Frosty.

“Sound the forking alarms. Wendy’s is phasing out the Triple Berry Frosty right now to replace it with the awesome OG Vanilla,” Devo wrote in the post’s caption.

According to the post, the Vanilla Frosty should go on sale at Wendy’s locations nationwide starting sometime this week.

Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.

Salads are generally not the most coveted item in the cafeteria line, said Elizabeth Marchetta, executive director of food and nutrition services for Baltimore City Schools. So the surge of interest in Caesars came as a surprise.

“I don’t think we were fully prepared for how successful the chicken Caesar salad was going to be,” Marchetta said.

The salad, available in high school cafeterias only on Thursdays last school year, boosted daily lunch participation by 1,300 meals each week. In at least a few schools, it even outpaced the popular pre-Thanksgiving holiday meal of thick-sliced turkey and sweet potato pumpkin bread. (“At one school, I was wondering if they were even offering a holiday meal,” Marchetta said, “because all I saw was salad.”)

While the Caesar salad, which celebrated its 100th birthday in July, has long been a menu staple, it has lately experienced a renaissance of sorts. The salad — a combination of wedge lettuce, croutons, Parmesan cheese and a salty-tangy dressing that traditionally blends lemon juice, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, egg yolks and anchovies — is now showing up in new forms, with chefs swapping kale for lettuce or adding new ingredients like tomatoes, avocado and even pig ears.

The city schools’ version hews to the traditional, with some chicken tossed on top for protein and Ken’s brand Caesar dressing. Familiarity likely accounts for much of the popularity, Marchetta said: “It’s just a really familiar taste profile. Kids are aware of it.”

The school system’s menu planning and procurement team, led by manager Monique Rolle, takes student feedback into account while developing each year’s dining options. Marchetta said the team solicits feedback through taste tests and the Associated Student Congress of Baltimore City. A group of students also accompanied city school officials to the Maryland State Department of Education’s annual school nutrition conference to sample new food options.

This year’s menu will introduce at least three new menu items: beef taco crisp-ups with salsa, sour cream and black beans; chicken queso dip with tortilla chips and black beans; and a Greek beef gyro with hummus and wedge fries.

Any addition to the menu must meet nutritional requirements for sodium, whole grains and added sugars, and also needs to be available to buy in bulk.

“We can bring up lots of products that we would like to get, but if our vendors can’t go buy 50,000 for us for lunch, we can’t serve it,” Marchetta said.

Other Baltimore-area school districts try to keep their menus innovative, as well.

In Anne Arundel County, food and nutrition services supervisor Jodi Risse said cafeterias recently added hummus and will roll out chicken sandwiches on a pretzel roll this week. They’re looking into empanadas, too.

“Especially if we see something trending in retail, we like to take a peek at it and say is it nutritionally sound, can it meet our requirements?” Risse said.

The county, which served 9 million school meals last year, also has its enduring favorites. Pizza — served four different ways — always tops the list. An “upside-down day,” where students eat chicken and waffles and other breakfast foods for lunch, is very popular, as are the tacos, which have been made using the same recipe for 30 years.

Baltimore City Public Schools officials hope more menu hits will encourage students to eat cafeteria meals, which are free in the city regardless of a family’s income. After a pandemic-era dip, the number of meals served at school is once again on the rise, totaling 12 million last school year. That number includes not only lunch, but also breakfast, snacks and even supper.

Elementary schools account for the highest school lunch participation: Lois T. Murray Elementary/Middle School in Wilson Park has the highest participation rate at 89%, followed by Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School in Northeast Baltimore and Lillie May Carroll Jackson School in Clifton Park at 82% each. But Marchetta is seeing encouraging growth at the high school level. Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School and Benjamin Franklin High School recorded the greatest increases in school lunch participation last year, at 40% and 38%, respectively.

This year — with the help of the Caesar salad and other new menu items — Marchetta hopes the district can serve even more: “It would be great to break 13 million meals,” she said.

The TikTok food critic has been touring the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area for the past week, eating at local mom-and-pop restaurants and posting his thoughts. (His enthusiastic video about Baltimore’s Rooted Rotisserie helped drive scores of new business to the Hollins Market dining spot.)

Since Lee announced his DMV visit, though, some followers wondered how he could truly get a feel for the area’s cuisine without eating crabs. The TikToker has a shellfish allergy, and has previously posted about taking precautions to avoid a reaction.

His family stepped in to lend a hand (and their tastebuds), stopping by Kahler’s Crabhouse in Rosedale to chow down on a half-dozen steamed crabs. They approved of the freshness of the crab meat and appreciated the generous seasoning — but struggled to find the right approach to picking the juicy morsels.

One person used teeth to crack into a leg. Lee’s wife, Ronni, pressed down on the middle of a crab shell like she was performing CPR.

Ultimately, their efforts worked — and picking crabs is not an exact science, despite what many Marylanders might believe. But some viewers had thoughts and advice.

“Oh no! Yall should’ve watched a tutorial on how to eat Maryland crabs,” one person commented.

“The way they’re cracking those crabs is stressing me out!” said another.

Rachel Troyer, the general manager at Kahler’s, said the crabhouse’s staff is accustomed to giving dine-in customers crab-picking tutorials. “We’re more than happy to sit down and show them how,” she said.

Troyer said friends and family have been texting her about the video since early Thursday. Labor Day Weekend is already a busy time for the crabhouse — an answering machine message recommended making reservations Friday — but Troyer said she thinks Lee likely gave the business a bit of a boost, too.

“A lot of people have said congrats on the review,” she said. “We’re just this little crabhouse in Rosedale, and for them to choose us, I think, is just amazing.”

Though Marylanders take pride in our blue crab-picking skills, we were all novices at one point. In that spirit, the Sun is resharing our guide to picking a steamed crab, complete with photos illustrating each step.

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Though not quite on that frenzied scale, Benkert, the co-owner of Hampden’s Bluebird Cocktail Room, knows a thing or two about a mad rush. On busy nights at the Bluebird, when there’s a wait out the door, there’s no time for chatting with customers or basking in the bar’s low-lit ambiance.

For his next project, a new and intimate restaurant on the Eastern Shore, he intends to take it slow.

“It’s a zen kitchen: there’s no ticket printer, no chaos,” he said. “I want to have a conversation with people. It’s just one meal, one night.”

Benkert and his wife and business partner, Caroline, plan to open Sassafras in Kent County next spring. The restaurant takes its name from the Sassafras River, which merges with the Chesapeake Bay nearby.

Sassafras will take over a cottage-shaped building in Betterton that used to belong to a restaurant called Barbara’s on the Bay. The Benkerts, who moved to the Eastern Shore a year and a half ago with their daughters in search of a slower life, have purchased the restaurant space and are planning to outfit it with a second kitchen, a wood-burning oven and a chef’s counter.

They plan to offer just one dinner service, limited to 20 people, per night. The 12-course menu will be set at a fixed price of about $150 per person.

Paul Benkert, who will serve as the restaurant’s chef, says the focus will be “fine Chesapeake cookery”: seafood from the Bay, local waterfowl during hunting season and produce foraged or grown by area farmers. The only non-local ingredient on his list, so far, is wild-caught caviar from the Mississippi River.

The couple are taking inspiration for the restaurant from The Lost Kitchen, a rustic, 40-seat fine dining spot in Freedom, Maine.

“We really like that style — an intimate dinner party that is sustainable for our lives,” Paul said.

To fund improvements and open inventory for Sassafras, they’ve launched a campaign on Honeycomb Credit, a crowd-sourced investment platform. Investors earn an interest rate of 13.75% under the agreement.

The Benkerts are looking to raise between $60,000 and $124,000; as of Wednesday, 24 investors had pledged a total of $24,600 to the project.

The couple will continue to operate The Bluebird Cocktail Room in addition to Sassafras. They previously owned a pizzeria in Urbana called Manina, but it shut down in January 2023.

The closure was primarily due to slow traffic, Paul said, “We’ve wracked our brains endlessly for the reason. There’s many, many reasons, but I think it all comes down to location. From the start, we just didn’t have people walking through the door.”

Though he sometimes worries about a similar fate befalling Sassafras, which is set in an even more remote spot, he said he and Caroline are in a better position to control expenses as owners of the building. In addition to the Benkerts, the restaurant will only employ a handful of other staff.

As the Eastern Shore’s culinary scene starts to garner more attention — chef Harley Peet of Bas Rouge in Easton won a James Beard Award earlier this summer, for instance — Paul Benkert said he hopes Sassafras will find an audience.

“After having successes and failures, we just want to tell an amazing story in a small way,” he said.

A fresh wave of customers would be welcome news for many local restaurants this time of year. Unless you’re on the waterfront, summer is a notoriously slow season for Baltimore’s dining spots.

One North Baltimore restaurant recently came close to closing but has been revived by a social media campaign of its own — for the moment, at least. I have more details here plus updates on a new Fells Point bar and a lawsuit involving a James Beard-nominated chef.

Smokehouse out of the doghouse, for now

This time last week, George Marsh wasn’t sure whether Heritage Smokehouse would survive another few days. He’s still wondering what’s in store for the future.

The barbecue restaurant in Govans had a slow start to the year and has suffered from even slower business this summer.

“We just weren’t able to keep up, and were getting to the point where I thought maybe we were done for,” Marsh said. So he fired off a Facebook post updating customers on the situation: “I thought I would just let people know that if they want us to be around, they need to come out.”

The last-ditch call for support ended up bringing in “droves” of diners for lunch and dinner last week. Heritage Smokehouse sold out of food each night, sometimes by 6 or 7 p.m. The wave of business helped Marsh pay off some important bills, order new inventory and keep the doors open for now.

“It was amazing,” he said Tuesday. “We really needed it.”

But the restaurant is not quite out of the woods yet. Marsh said Heritage Smokehouse, which he owns with his wife Jenny, will need several weeks of sustained business to stay afloat. In the meantime, he’s trimmed the menu to remove a few items that were slowing down the kitchen, like hushpuppies and French fries.

Heritage Smokehouse opened in 2021. Marsh, previously the head chef at Spike Gjerde’s Parts & Labor in Remington, said he wanted to create a casual, family-oriented spot with lower prices.

Heritage has had busy bursts during its time in business, he said, but has also grappled with establishing a consistent volume of sales. Marsh thinks part of the reason might be that the city’s restaurant scene is becoming crowded.

“Population-wise this is not a growing city, and there’s more and more restaurants opening all the time, which is fine,” he said, “but the market is a little saturated, I think.”

Menu cost has also been an issue. Meat isn’t cheap, and the barbecue restaurant has to price accordingly, Marsh said. If Heritage Smokehouse could buy in greater bulk, he would be able to lower his prices — but that would require consistently higher sales.

Marsh said he hears from many fellow restaurateurs in the same boat: “We’re not the only ones. I know a bunch of people in the city who have excellent restaurants who have been going through slow times.”

For now, he’s planning to ride the wave of renewed attention for as long as he can. He is staffing up to better manage the rush, and plans to smoke as much meat as he can in advance. Heritage Smokehouse also recently started serving lunch, and he hopes to gain a foothold in the realm of catering, as well.

Ultimately, Marsh said, the restaurant will need sustained support from local diners to survive. He hopes to avoid a similar fate to Parts & Labor, which closed in 2018.

“I don’t want to see that happen again,” he said. “It was hard enough last time, and this is actually my money, or money I owe to the bank.”

Alma Cocina Latina lawsuit

A James Beard-nominated chef is suing the Station North restaurant where he earned his acclaim.

In a lawsuit filed Aug. 1, David Zamudio alleges he was defrauded by Alma Cocina Latina owners Mark Demshak and Irena Stein after they claimed to have awarded him a one-third partnership in the Venezuelan restaurant but didn’t follow through on giving him an official stake.

Zamudio, a native of Venezuela, worked his way up from a sous chef position to become the executive chef at Alma in 2021, the same year the restaurant moved from Canton to its current location at 1701 N. Charles St. The chef worked six to seven days a week to get ready for the opening, painting, cleaning and installing shelves in the new space, according to the complaint.

At the helm of Alma Cocina Latina, Zamudio’s cooking won glowing reviews from local and national publications, and Stein and Demshak praised his work in emails, text messages and even a letter of recommendation for an O-1 visa, reserved for “individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement,” the lawsuit says.

In July 2021, Demshak sent Zamudio a letter congratulating him on his success at the restaurant and rewarding him with 33% ownership of Alma, according to the complaint, which says Demshak and Stein referred to the chef as a “partner” and “owner” in texts and emails, and also held regular partnership meetings with him.

But Zamudio’s stake was not reflected in the company’s articles of incorporation, which listed Demshak as a 40% owner and Stein a 60% owner of the restaurant as of February 2023.

In January, Zamudio was named a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category of the James Beard Awards, the restaurant industry’s answer to the Oscars. By that point, however, he was no longer working at Alma Cocina Latina. According to the lawsuit, Demshak and Stein had sent the chef a termination letter “suddenly and without warning” on Dec. 30, 2023.

Zamudio, who is now working to open his own restaurant called Josefina in Harbor Point, says in the lawsuit that he passed up other professional opportunities because he believed he was a part-owner of Alma Cocina Latina. He is asking for punitive damages of $2 million, disclosure of Alma’s business records, attorney’s fees and a 6% post-judgment interest.

In a letter to customers, Stein and Demshak denied the lawsuit’s “baseless accusations” and said they are “strongly contesting the case” but couldn’t comment on the specifics “due to legal constraints.”

“While we are extremely disappointed and frustrated by the false claims being made by someone who was once a respected member of the team, it is important for us to resolve it in a manner that reflects the values we hold dear,” they wrote. “As we navigate the ongoing situation, our focus remains on maintaining the high standards of food, service and hospitality that you have come to expect from us.”

New bar ‘saunters’ in to Upper Fells

The corner space at 1801 E. Lombard St. has been home to numerous concepts over the past few years: Food Social, Bar 1801 and, most recently, a tiki bar called The Jungle Room.

Next up: Saunter Corner Bar.

The new concept comes from artist and teacher Martha Robichaud, who is teaming up with local bar operators Michael Cohn, of No Land Beyond, and Matthew and Molly Steinberg, of Kenwood Tavern. It’s a prelude to bigger things to come, the group said in a news release.

Saunter, which opens Sept. 5, will serve classic cocktails, craft beer and “customizable burgers and fries,” according to the release.

In early 2025, the neighborhood tavern will transform into Meander, an art bar offering activities like charcoal drawing, watercolor painting, clay modeling and Lego building.

“We knew the community missed Bar 1801, and we needed to activate the space right away,” Robichaud said in a statement. “This gives us the opportunity to make Meander exactly what it should be while filling the neighborhood cocktail bar void.”