With the dishes done and the champagne corks about to fly, it’s time to take a look back at the highlights – and some lowlights – of the Baltimore restaurant world in 2025.
During this year, we ate tons of pizza and Asian food, Old Bay returned to its old tin containers, and the Orange Crush finally got its due when it was named the official state cocktail.
But that’s not all. We dined at old favorites, tried new spots, and cheered when restaurants teamed up for festivals, dinners, classes and more.
We did say goodbye to some favorite restaurants and restaurateurs, but fortunately, there was more happy news than sad in 2025. So let’s get to it – here’s what happened this year:
Openings
January saw a flurry of openings, including Midlina in the new Poe’s Tower in the Canton area, a Kneads outpost in Cross Keys, The Undefeated in Fells Point, and Union Hill Kitchen in the old Blue Hill Tavern space, and in February, The Wren – a cool new spot from the owners of Le Comptoir du Vin – opened in Fells, and Forno opened in the former home of DiPasquale’s.
In April, Luna Oaxaca opened in Cross Keys and Pink Flamingo opened in the former home of The Dizz. In June, the Costa’s family took over operations of the restaurant upstairs at the Timonium Fairgrounds
July was another big month for openings, including the Tavern at the Admiral (after months of anticipation), Waiting to Oxtail, Bodega & Vino in Locust Point, Pusser’s Landing in the Canton space that formerly housed Bo Brooks, Bellini’s Harborview, a new Ovenbird location in The Rotunda, and Nine-Tailed Fox in Cross Keys, a Chinese restaurant from Atlas Restaurant Group.
In August, pizza place Raffy’s on 36th opened and in late September, Liv’s Tavern opened in the former home of Mother’s in Federal Hill.
October was another big month, including the openings of a new Spike Gjerde spot, La Jetée, in Harbor Point; La Maison, from the Café Dear Leon team, in the old JBGB’s space; a Kneads location in Canton, and Animal Boy in Lauraville.
November was busy, too, with the openings of Charm Thai Corner in the former Nana space, Vivian’s near Patterson Park, and Dimples in Locust Point.
Moving & Shaking
One of the biggest stories of the year was the January business split between Tony Foreman and Cindy Wolf. Together, Foreman and Wolf ran one of the area’s most successful restaurant groups. As of January, their company split, with Chef Wolf staying at Charleston in Harbor East, and Foreman retaining ownership of the company’s other restaurants (a few of which he co-owns with the properties’ executive chefs).
One of the city’s OG breweries, Heavy Seas, made waves in October with the announcement that it had joined forces with three other breweries (all out of state) to streamline operations and form B3 Beverage Company – though the Heavy Seas brand remains distinct.
This year also included some moves and spots settling into permanent homes, including Doppio Pasticceria and Equitea, which both moved into permanent spots in Remington, and Culinary Architecture, which is moving from its Pigtown home to Little Italy.
Big Birthdays
In January, Costiera turned one, Hampden’s Catalog Coffee celebrated a year in business in February and Love, Pomelo marked a year in April.
Also in January, Dutch Courage turned five, and celebrated with a spirit-free cocktail competition, facing off against their Old Goucher neighbors from Fadensonnen. Sally O’s had its fifth birthday in August and Kitsch Café celebrated five in November.
Several spots celebrated a decade in business this year, including La Cuchara in April; Clavel, The Local Fry, and Manor Hill Brewing, all in June; Blue Moon Too in October; and Old Westminster Winery, Baltimore Spirits Company, Snake Hill, and Silver Queen Café, all in November.
Miss Shirley’s rang in 20 years of business in May, celebrating with tons of specials and giveaways, and SNAC marked 20 years in September. In June, Petit Louis celebrated 25 with a big party.
Closings
Unfortunately, not all of the news this year has been rosy.
At the end of 2024, the Nacho Mama’s crew announced the upcoming closing of its Canton and Towson locations. The restaurants actually closed in early 2025 – and auctioned off their famous memorabilia.
January also saw a handful of other tough closing announcements, especially around the Fells Point area, including Riptide, Bondhouse Kitchen, and Cocina Luchadoras (which, fortunately, is still doing pop-ups around town).
In February, Lost Ark Distilling, which was one of the first distillers to open after state laws around distilling loosened, closed its doors. Also that month, Hampden lost a favorite spot when Paulie Gee’s closed its pizza operation.
In the spring, The Tilted Row closed after six years in business, Souvlaki in Hampden announced a “temporary” closure that then turned permanent, Sunset Cove announced it would not reopen for the summer season, and Nana closed – just after celebrating its first year in business.
In June, Café Campli closed its doors – but for a good reason, as its owners moved to Italy to pursue dreams of running a restaurant there. Later in the summer, Papi’s Cuisine and Mt. Vernon Marketplace closed, and Crust by Mack stopped its retail operations.
Some of the toughest closing news came in the fall, starting in September, when Teavolve closed after almost 20 years in business and in October, the Tersiguel’s team announced that the venerable Ellicott City restaurant would close after 50 years, so the family could retire.
Saying Goodbye
This year also included some sad farewells to beloved and important figures in the Baltimore restaurant world.
In late January, the culinary world lost Josef Gohring of Josef’s Country Inn in Fallston and early in February, the city received more bad news with the unexpected passing of The Smoking Swine’s Drew Pumphrey.
In March, Costa’s owner, Costas N. Triantafilos died. In August, Baltimore Farmers Market favorite Michael Alvin Shores, Jr., of Beef Barons, passed, followed by the September passing of football and BBQ great Andy Nelson.
Finally, in November, the city said goodbye to another giant in the food world when Pappas owner Mark Pappas died.
Collabs – who does a great job
One of the best things about Baltimore restaurateurs is their excitement around each others’ businesses. They’re always out and about, supporting each other – and finding new ways to collaborate.
A few local spots are especially big on collaborative efforts. During 2025, Clavel hosted numerous joint dinners, including with the crew from Ekiben (another big collab fan), and expanded beyond restaurant operations on new products like a coffee blend made in conjunction with Sophomore Coffee and a wine created in partnership with Old Westminster Winery.
HEX Ferments also maxed out its collaborative efforts this year, with classes and events like May’s Baltimore Fermentation Festival, which featured a bunch of local experts in fermentation, cheesemaking, and even cocktails (courtesy of the Clavel team).
Golden West and The Land of Kush have also long made an excellent team with one another – and with other restaurants interested in championing Baltimore’s vegetarian and vegan scene with events like Maryland Vegan Month and the Maryland Vegan Eats Summer Fest at Power Plant Live!.
Ekiben is another excellent organizer that brings together food businesses from Baltimore and beyond, for one-off collabs (like a recent dinner with Café Dear Leon) and for bigger events, like the Night Market the Ekiben team hosted on Thames Street in August.
Other top-notch collaborators include The Corner Pantry, Blacksauce Kitchen, Cane Collective, True Chesapeake, Foraged, Black Ankle Winery, Baltimore Spirits Company, and The Charmery. When you see any of those businesses organizing an event, you can bet they’ll get their friends involved.
Heading to the Country
The city and close suburbs offer a tons of excellent dining opportunities – but this year also provided good incentive to drive out of the city to dine.
Starting in April, Roseda Farm hosted a series of Sunday suppers, teaming up with other businesses like Ryleigh’s Oyster, Old Westminster Winery, and Farmacy Brewing.
Speaking of Old Westminster: the winery hired Chef Tae Strain as its Culinary Director and opened a new venture, Burnt Hill Farm, providing extra incentive for wine and food lovers to hop in the car for a country drive.
Another farm supper series, the To the Table events, moves from farm to farm but is consistently intriguing, with partnerships like Zack Mills (of True Chesapeake) popping up at Loveland Farm.
Throughout the year, Juniper Farm hosts an ever-changing lineup of seasonally-driven picnic brunches, like the tomato brunch in July and a fig picnic in early autumn.
Foraged, which already handles food at Black Ankle Winery in Mt. Airy, is also about to take over culinary operations at Patowmack Farm in Lovettsville, Virginia – which means there will be even more events that are worth the drive in 2026.
Getting Creative
The Baltimore restaurant calendar consistently features tons of wine, spirit and beer dinners, food-focused festivals, and classes, all of which sound fun. Baltimoreans are also a creative lot, which shows throughout the year, with certain events that take these dinners to the next level.
Woodberry Kitchen’s Spike Gjerde has been the mind behind some of the city’s most intriguing events for years – and in 2025, he reprised his Origins series, which features dinner and discussion with interesting players from the food world, from Maryland’s Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks to food historian and Old Line Plate blogger Kara Mae Harris.
Additional history and culture events that rose to the forefront this year include H3irloom Food Group’s pop-up at Nordstrom Café for Black History Month, and Alma Cocina Latina’s introduction of Diasporas at the Table and numerous cross-cuisine collaborative dinners.
The team at Cinghiale spiced things up this year with a few cool events, like a masked dinner for Carnevale and the introduction of Opera Nights (something that Sotto Sopra also does well). Also in Harbor East, Azumi introduced a series of whole bluefin tuna carving dinners – a spectacle that is also tasty.
Down the road a bit, into Fells, Pierpoint Restaurant continued its longstanding tradition of fun theme dinners, like a Cowboy Dinner event in August, featuring steaks, sauces, and rolls inspired by the one and only Texas Roadhouse.
And heading even farther east, Sally O’s wins a mention for its highly specific holiday brunches, including brunches commemorating the birthdays of the Notorious BIG and Anthony Bourdain.
Unsurprisingly, Hampden restaurants are also great at offering something a little different, like Boujee Junk Food dinners at The Food Market and elaborate tea services at The Verandah Kitchen.
Gertrude’s Love
The local restaurant community has always been great about giving back in every way – while many restaurants are very generous, one rises to the top: Gertrude’s.
The BMA restaurant regularly hosts events like the Regel Keg Party, a benefit for Moveable Feast, Mulberry Madness benefiting Baltimore Orchard Project, and Flavors of Maryland in support of TasteWise Kids. Nearly every month, Gertrude’s has at least one charitable event on its calendar (if not more) – and for that, they deserve many thanks.
Baltimore in the News
Throughout this year, Baltimore’s food scene got several big shoutouts from the national press.
Late in 2024, Barstool owner and pizza aficionado Dave Portnoy dropped into Baltimore for a few slices. In January, he released reviews of several local spots – including one especially glowing (and well-deserved) report on Frank’s Pizza and Pasta.
In June, Baltimore made a big splash at the James Beard Awards, when Charleston won the prize for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverage Program.
In July, BLK Swan executive chef Saon Brice made the city proud with a win on Guy’s Grocery Games and in September, The Wren gained national notoriety when it made an appearance on the New York Times’ 50 best restaurants list.
The Times gave the city some additional love in December when it included the shrimp and corn patties at The Duchess on its list of the best dishes in America.
What’s Next
As busy as 2025 has been, there’s even more to look forward to next year – including the opening of Café Fili in Anthem House; the launch of a members-only supper club, Rosewater, from Atlas; Bar Alice Anne (from the owners of The Local Fry); and the opening of a Baltimore outpost of the Philly cheesesteak spot, Geno’s, which is slated to open in Power Plant Live! next year.
Plus many more openings, collaborations, and interesting takes on breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the snacks in between. We’ll close this year with a big thank you to all of the restaurant staff and owners who have fed us in 2025 – and we will stay hungry for what’s to come.
