The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore has scheduled a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 24 for Baltimore’s newest dining spot, the Day & Night Exotic Cereal Bar in the historic Women’s Exchange building at 333 N. Charles St.
This is the first of seven dining concepts that are opening with support from the Baltimore Culinary Exchange (BCX) grant program that the Downtown Partnership administers.
The exotic cereal bar isn’t in the first-floor Exchange space that for many years housed an unpretentious restaurant known for its tomato aspic, deviled eggs and waitresses sporting beehive hairdos.
It’s located around the corner on the Pleasant Street side of the building, where a dining spot called Jack and Zach’s used to be. The front door has been painted pink and turquoise, and a color-coordinated sign hangs above.
Founded in Santa Monica, California, Day & Night Exotic Cereal Bar is nationally known for milkshakes and desserts featuring more than 100 cereal varieties, along with cereal waffles, donuts, cupcakes, and ice cream bowls. The Woman’s Industrial Exchange building is the company’s first location in Baltimore. Noel Warner and Brandi Forte are the operators.
The Baltimore Culinary Exchange program is an economic development initiative that’s designed to fuel culinary growth and put feet on the street by providing financial support to new or existing restaurants, food entrepreneurs and culinary concepts within the 106-block business improvement district managed by the Downtown Partnership.
Last July, Mayor Brandon Scott and Downtown Partnership President Shelonda Stokes announced that 22 food-oriented businesses, including Day & Night Exotic Cereal Bar, had been selected to receive grants totaling $1 million from the program, which is funded through the Mayor’s Downtown Rise strategic plan, with support from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Woman’s Industrial Exchange, founded in Baltimore in 1880, was part of a national movement to help women become financially independent by selling their handcrafted goods, including sock monkeys that made good baby gifts. It provided a consignment shop where they could sell products and a restaurant known for its comfort food and friendly waitresses. Until it closed in 1999, the restaurant was a popular spot for people who worked or shopped downtown, a place for employers to take new hires out to lunch and give them a sense of Bygone Baltimore.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the five-story corner building was constructed in 1815 as a private residence and expanded by 1860 to become a boarding house. The Exchange bought it and moved there in 1899 and put its name on the building.
In 2020, the Exchange ceased operations after 140 years. The building, now renamed the Women’s Exchange, is now owned by an affiliate of the Marian House, a non-profit organization that serves women “moving from dependence to independence.” According to state land records, the owner is MH at the WIE LLC. The upper levels contain apartments.
The Downtown Partnership’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Day & Night Exotic Cereal Bar will start on Feb. 24 at 1:30 p.m.
