Remington mezcaleria Clavel and local star chef Cindy Wolf are representing Baltimore on the list of semifinalists for this year’s “Oscars of the food world.”
The James Beard Foundation, which every year honors culinary professionals across the country through its annual awards, picked Clavel for its nationwide Outstanding Bar Program category. The W. 23rd Street taqueria, which specializes in cocktails made with mezcal, is among 20 bars across the country picked for the semifinal round.
Clavel, co-owned by Lane Harlan (W.C. Harlan, Fadensonnen) and chef Carlos Raba, posted on Facebook that its staff are “doing a collective happy dance over here,” and celebrated the bar staff’s innovation with cocktails, including making their own ingredients sans preservatives in the “lab”: “We do it all our way and we do it to raise each other to become the giants of hospitality and grit we know we are.”
It’s a repeat honor for Wolf, executive chef and co-owner of Harbor East mainstay Charleston. She’s been nominated for best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region eight times—each of the last five years, as well as in 2006 and 2008—and is now pursuing her ninth.
“I am honored and also excited for the country to understand what a great city Baltimore is—we have so much to offer here—our waterways, farmers, good people, museums, amazing ethnic neighborhoods, and well soul,” she said in a statement.
The foundation said the finalists will be announced March 27th, and a gala is planned for the winners on May 6.
