If you panicked when The Chesapeake, the recently renovated, recently reopened Station North restaurant shut down last week, never fear– the historic restaurant at the corner of Charles and Lafayette streets will be reopened. And this time, the Karzais will be in charge.
When I first heard the news, I was confused because I thought the Karzais had run The Chesapeake all along. Not so, the Baltimore Sun’s Richard Gorelick reminded me: While the family had originally been slated to operate the restaurant just down the street from Tapas Teatro (another Karzai restaurant), the developer ended up operating the restaurant himself. That didn’t necessarily work out so well; despite all the fanfare surrounding The Chesapeake’s reopening last summer, reviews have been kind of meh overall.
So for those of us who love the food the Karzais provide, this is great news. Even better: the plan is to open the renovated Chesapeake in time for Artscape on July 18.
Good that such an important location will be run by a seasoned operator. I beieve the previous managers had only run cafes, and Chesapeake was inconsistent from the beginning
What a shame the BDC handled the “sale” of this building so improperly. They buy it for $2.5million in 2010 and resell it for $500k in 2012. Another example of corruption in Baltimore city. The developer wasn’t even able to get bank financing! Why was such a prime spot basically given to someone without the resources to develop it? This could have been the gem of Station North. Hopefully Karzai can help turn this spot around.