Mark your calendars, Hampden: The Duchess has an opening date.
The neighborhood first caught wind of Tony Foreman’s plans to open a restaurant on The Avenue more than two years ago, but a serious health issue delayed those plans. Now the restaurateur is back to work and getting ready to introduce a new concept in December that melds English pub decor and Asian cuisine.
This week’s column has more details on The Duchess, as well as a pizza switch-up in Bolton Hill and a new tiki bar in the Baltimore Peninsula.
The Duchess arrives
Foreman will throw two parties for the new restaurant he’s opening with business partner and executive chef Kiko Fejarang.
“We’re not that big of a place,” he reasoned in a phone interview last week, adding that The Duchess can accommodate “150 people, tops.”
The restaurant will have the look and feel of a British pub and a menu that highlights Fejarang’s family ties to Guam’s Chamorro culture, whose cuisine combines Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Hawaiian influences.
For $175, curious foodies can get a taste on Dec. 4 or Dec. 5. In addition to snacks and drinks from the new menu, both nights will have live music from local singer-songwriter Katie Callahan and Americana duo Penny & Sparrow. Proceeds from the parties will benefit B’more for Healthy Babies, a Baltimore City Health Department initiative supporting parental and child health.
The occasion is a milestone for Foreman, who jokes he “took some time off to get a nose job” after announcing plans to open the restaurant in 2022. In reality, the restaurateur was dealing with congestive heart failure that landed him in the hospital last year for a double organ transplant. The risky surgery, performed at the University of Chicago Medicine, gave him a new heart and kidney as well as a renewed zest for life.
Foreman said opening The Duchess will be an “ecstatic” moment after those health hardships. Though he’s known for his involvement with the Foreman Wolf restaurant group — a joint venture with Chef Cindy Wolf that operates fine dining spots like Charleston and Petit Louis Bistro — the Hampden restaurant will not be under the umbrella of the hospitality company.
Foreman said he and Fejarang, a graduate of the Art Institute of Seattle’s culinary program who previously worked in Foreman Wolf restaurants, reconnected after she returned to the East Coast from a stint at Michael Mina’s PABU Izakaya in San Francisco. The restaurateur had his eye on taking over the former Cafe Hon space at the corner of 36th Street and Elm Avenue, and Fejarang dreamed of launching a project of her own.
“What’s in your heart to cook?” Foreman asked her, and the chef spoke of her family’s culinary traditions.
“The more we talked about it, the more it made sense,” he said.
A sample menu from earlier this year teases dishes like fish and chips with yuzu tartar sauce and grilled skirt steak with miso butter and soy-pickled shiitake mushrooms. Though The Duchess won’t be a Foreman Wolf restaurant, Foreman says diners can expect a similar experience.
“I’ve written every menu and trained all the staff,” he said. “The quality of the care, quality of the cooking and quality of the attention to the space will be the same.”
From Noona’s to Angeli’s
Bolton Hill recently lost Noona’s Pizza, but another local restaurant is stepping in to fill the pizza void.
Angeli’s Pizzeria Bar is slated to move into the Noona’s space at 1203 W. Mount Royal Ave. in December, according to a press release from landlord MCB Real Estate. Angeli’s already has three locations, in Little Italy, Federal Hill and Govans.
“We have an incredible and loyal consumer following, a tremendous relationship with MCB Real Estate due to our location in Harborplace, and are proceeding with this new location with full confidence,” Angeli’s co-owner Juniet Ozturk said in a statement. “Bolton Hill is extremely well-known throughout the Baltimore area and beyond, and the nearby demographics and steady stream of visitors and college students are more than enough to sustain us.”
Noona’s closed earlier this month after almost six years in business. The pizzeria, opened restaurateur Phil Han of Dooby’s and Sugarvale, later sold to K and K Group, according to filings with the liquor board.
A new Vessel
Baltimore Peninsula now has a tiki bar.
Vessel, a bar, lounge and event space, recently opened inside the growing neighborhood’s Roost extended-stay hotel, developers MAG Partners and MacFarlane Partners said.
Accompanying tiki cocktails like Painkillers and Mai Tais and “a menu inspired by ports all over the world” is a nautical decor with old-school maritime touches like mahogany wood and porthole motifs, according to a news release. The lounge also has an indoor-outdoor bar, pool table and outdoor cabanas.
Vessel joins Little Wing, a cafe and general store that opened in the hotel this summer.
Have a news tip? Contact reporter Amanda Yeager at ayeager@baltsun.com, 443-790-1738 or @amandacyeager on X.