Hampden’s Corner Restaurant and Charcuterie Bar is shutting down after tonight, the eatery’s owner announced on Facebook Monday afternoon.
In a post, chef and owner Bernard Dehaene cited personal health reasons, including several upcoming surgeries, as reasons behind the shutdown.
“Due to my deteriorating health I have decided that today, Monday will be my last day opening Corner,” Dehaene wrote. “I need the time to prepare for knee, hip and back surgery as well as mind body and health.”
Dehaene thanked “everyone that has been a part of this adventure the past eight years”—adding in an aside, “of course not everybody, there were a few exceptions”—and called the bar and restaurant’s tenure “one hell of a rollercoaster ride not to be forgotten.”
Baltimore Fishbowl left messages with the business by phone and email. The restaurant isn’t scheduled to open until 4 p.m. today. No one answered the door at around 2 p.m.
Dehaene opened the Corner restaurant (later renamed Corner BYOB) in 2011, and added a bar cheekily dubbed The Other Corner Charcuterie Bar in an adjacent space in 2013. By 2015, the establishment had adopted its longer given name.
Dehaene, born in Belgium, brought his European influences to the menu, eventually shifting it to offer more small plates, as reported by City Paper in 2015. The restaurant has acquired a loyal happy hour crowd, offering cheap, but higher-end snacks as stuffed peppadews ($3), duck leg confit ($7) and charcuterie plates ($8).
In February, the chef converted The Other Corner Carcuterie Bar into a members-only cigar and martini bar dubbed the Elmwood Social Club.
Dehaene has attempted to sell the business, and put his building on the market in 2016 for $750,000, as The Sun reported. The Baltimore Business Journal reports he recently sold the space for $450,000.
