Restaurateur Tony Foreman and his team are spending nearly $2 million to open a dining spot where Café Hon used to be, making it one of the biggest investments made for a new business on The Avenue in Hampden and roughly four times what the liquor board requires.
Baltimore’s liquor board voted 3 to 0 last week to approve a ‘Class B’ Beer Wine and Liquor license for the proposed restaurant after attorney Caroline Hecker said how much the owner is investing and provided other details about the project. The city liquor board requires a capital investment of $500,000 for applicants seeking a ‘Class B’ restaurant license.
“The project represents a capital investment of nearly $2 million,” Hecker told the liquor board. “The restaurant, which will be called The Duchess, will be open for dinner service Wednesday through Monday and will offer lunch on Friday through Sunday as well. The restaurant is proposed to be closed on Tuesdays. The exact hours of operation are still being determined.”
The Foreman Wolf Group will operate the restaurant at 1000 W. 36th Street, where Café Hon closed in April of 2022. Hecker introduced Foreman, the applicant for the liquor license, and said Kelly Campanella would oversee operations at the restaurant.
The attorney argued that there is “a public need and desire” for the liquor license, as indicated by letters of support from the Hampden Community Council, the Hampden Village Merchants Association and about 50 area residents and business owners who support the project, and the fact that a restaurant previously operated at that address.
“The proposed restaurant is going to offer a unique dining experience of a British pub setting with food from the Mariana Islands, which is in the Pacific between Hawaii and Japan – a real unique concept that I think is going to be very exciting,” she told the board. “The head chef is from Guam and she’s really going to bring something unique.”
Kiko Fejarang, a native of Guam, will be the executive chef. Hecker is the managing partner of Rosenberg, Martin Greenberg LLP. The application included a sample menu with items ranging from $11 for “Street” Corn and several desserts to $50 for Pork Tomahawk Katsu.
Foreman is an engaging storyteller who spoke to the Roland Park Civic League several years ago about his years in the restaurant business, but he let Hecker speak for him at the liquor board hearing. In his application, Foreman requested that the board waive a requirement that the restaurant have 125 seats indoors. At the same time, he sought permission to provide outdoor seating and live entertainment.
Hecker stressed the unique nature of Foreman’s concept and said the operators don’t expect any negative impact on public health, safety or general welfare.
“The proposed menu from the Mariana Islands and the Guam area is unique, I think, in Baltimore, particularly in the concept of a British public house,” she said. “It really is something that has generated…a lot of interest because it is such a unique concept.”
Hecker noted that this is Foreman’s third restaurant license in Baltimore, after Petit Louis Bistro and Cinghiale, and in such instances, the liquor board has a “heightened” seating requirement over its normal request for 75 seats for a restaurant license. She said the floor plan for The Duchess shows that it will have about 106 indoor seats, 28 seats in the bar and an outdoor dining area along W. 36th Street with about 20 seats.
Hecker said the live entertainment will be “in the form of DJs and small bands, limited to Friday and Saturday evenings between 9 p.m. and midnight.”
The liquor board agreed to Foreman’s requests to permit outdoor seating and live entertainment and to waive the requirement for 125 seats indoors.
Other restaurants in the Foreman Wolf portfolio include Charleston and The Milton Inn. Foreman Wolf also owns Bin 604 Wine & Spirits in Sparks and Bin 201 Wine & Spirits in Annapolis.
The target opening date for The Duchess is early fall.
