After 60 Years, Clyde’s Is Finally Expanding to Baltimore

Clyde’s, the long-running chain behind some of D.C.’s best-known restaurants, will break outside of the DMV for the first time with the early 2024 opening of Rye Street Tavern in Baltimore.

Clyde’s Restaurant Group just signed a long-term lease at Baltimore Peninsula, a 235-acre waterfront redevelopment project that’s home to the award-winning Sagamore Spirit Distillery. Along with lots of rye made next door, the American menu will feature familiar Clyde’s favorites like a juicy burger, reliable raw bar, and jumbo lump crab cakes. Rye Street Tavern, which originally opened in 2017 under NYC celebrity chef Andrew Carmellini, closed during the pandemic and turned into an events venue.

The 12,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant space (13 Rye Street) will be completely renovated with a redesigned kitchen and multiple bars, dining, and event spaces, all furnished with art and artifacts that pay homage to Baltimore’s history. A new oyster-slinging bar will be joined by a 75-seat outdoor drinking area overlooking the Patapsco River. Clyde’s says the opening will create 150 new hospitality jobs.

The first Clyde’s opened in 1963 in Georgetown and there’s now a dozen locations across D.C., Northern Virginia, and suburban Maryland, including the Tombs, 1789 Restaurant, Hamilton Live, and Clyde’s of Chevy Chase, Gallery Place, and Mark Center. Its top-grossing cash cow Old Ebbitt near the White House will expand for the first time in 2025 with a recently announced spinoff in Reston, Virginia dubbed Ebbitt House. Publicly traded investment firm Graham Holdings Co. acquired the Clyde’s portfolio back in 2019.

The revitalization of Baltimore’s Port Covington neighborhood includes the addition of over 1.1 million square feet of new office, retail, and mixed-income residential this year. The Baltimore Peninsula development team is led by MAG Partners, and one of its major investors is Under Armour founder Kevin Plank’s Sagamore Ventures group.

“Sagamore is the top selling rye in our restaurants,” says Clyde’s CFO Jeff Owens, in a statement. Rye Street Tavern will serve seasonal and classic cocktails, local beers, and international wine list, “be we will only stock one brand of rye whiskey,” he adds.