Spike Gjerde Talks New Restaurant, Baltimore Scene

Eater National has an in-depth interview with Spike Gjerde, the chef behind such restaurants as Woodberry Kitchen and the upcoming Shoo-fly in Baltimore. Gjerde dishes on the new place, how he defines "farmhouse diner," the expansion of the restaurants' canning program and more. On Shoo-fly's look:

Yeah, it's a diner with a lot of rusticity. It's the first time that we've gone into an existing restaurant space since we opened Woodberry. It was very slick and we really had to scruff it up a lot to feel comfortable. It's part of our approach. Part of me is modernist at heart, but I'm also very wabi-sabi at the same time. This place needed to get roughened up.

Work on a butcher shop will begin in September, and there are plans to join the Baltimore Food Hub as well. This is what Gjerde has to say about Baltimore's food scene: "I think you're right about Baltimore being kind of under-appreciated. What we lost in the last decade, unfortunately, is some of the great old restaurants. Virtually all of them. The Marconis and the Haussner's... Nothing really filled the void. Nothing really stepped up as we lost our great dining houses. That's something that's not coming back. But I feel like finally the energy is returning to the dining scene."
· Spike Gjerde on His New Restaurant, the Energy of Baltimore, and Chesapeake Cuisine [-EN-]
· All Previous Spike Gjerde Coverage [-EDC-]