Open A Restaurant

Bucking Columbia's trend toward chain restaurants, two independently owned eating places -- Sonoma's Bar and Grille and Columbia Crab House and Raw Bar -- have opened in Owen Brown village in the past few months.Sonoma's, which serves seafood, salads and Southwestern-style dishes, opened in the village center about three weeks ago and had its grand opening Friday, said Steve Heintzelman, owner and operator.The 15-employee restaurant is in the space formerly occupied by Cover to Cover bookstore and cafe that was renovated during the past several months, Heintzelman said.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - In March 1977, Erwin and Carol Asam sold their home in Washington, D.C., along with their restaurant and packed their belongings in the family's station wagon to open a restaurant in Shepherdstown.Erwin Asam, a native of Munich, Germany, located in the region of Bavaria, named the restaurant the Bavarian Inn.Asam, 58, said when he and his wife purchased the inn only the living room of the Greystone Mansion was used as a dining room. Asam was the chef, and his wife, Carol, was the hostess when they first opened.

The Black OliveEven the name suggests that the Black Olive is something different. After all, it's one Greek eatery not named after an owner, a classical monument or an island.The new restaurant at 814 S. Bond St. (410-276-7141) in Fells Point has plenty of fresh, young style -- perhaps because it's run by a 26-year-old, Dimitris Spiliadis. "Somehow I convinced my parents to open a restaurant," he says with a laugh.It offers an open kitchen where you can watch the staff at work preparing grilled fish (the house specialty)

It is one of those fantasies that sounds utterly creative, fulfilling and fun, in other words everything your present career isn't shaping up to be. The fantasy? Opening your own restaurant.Sure, it's crazy, but after cooking the best meal of your life, or better yet, the morning after throwing a splendid dinner party, you imagine it could happen some day. You're Rick in "Casablanca," running the most popular night spot in town. Or Sam Malone on "Cheers," hanging out behind the bar with your buddies.

Several Baltimore eating places made it into September's Bon Appetit, a special issue devoted to the American restaurant.In "Chefs' Night Out," Peter Zimmer of Joy America Cafe tells where he goes to eat when he's not cooking. His favorites: Lexington Market; Purim Oak, a small Asian restaurant in Towson that Bon Appetit calls "Premium Oak"; and the pizza chain Bertucci's, a favorite of Zimmer's kids.The Wharf Rat near Camden Yards is prominent in another story, on the brew-pub craze sweeping the country.

Annapolis residents and business owners will have one more chance tonight to give McDonald's golden arches the boot.The city council will hold a public hearing in City Hall concerning two applications from McDonald's Corp. to open a restaurant in the historic first block of West St. and a second restaurant in Eastport.While city officials say McDonald's will help give an economic boost to the ailing Inner West Street corridor, business owners and neighbors have loudly voiced objections to the proposed restaurant since the application was filed in February.

Ronald McDonald can take his golden arches elsewhere as far as downtown Annapolis business owners are concerned.The McDonald's chain's permit application for a restaurant in the first block of West St., filed in February, has stirred protests from owners of nearby businesses, who worry that a fast-food restaurant wouldn't fit in the neighborhood of upscale small businesses and art galleries they are trying to develop."

When McDonald's Corp. wanted to bring its famous burgers and fries to historic Annapolis five months ago, area business owners and residents objected loudly and vowed to fight the proposal every step of the way.But those voices of protest were curiously absent last night as McDonald's made its pitch to the City Council, presenting its application to open an express restaurant in the historic first block of West St."There is no use protesting any more," said Tony Cipriano, as he closed his restaurant, Tony's Pizza-n-Pasta, for the night.

Thai-ChiPaul Chot, a native of Thailand, wanted to open a restaurant that specialized in both Thai and Chinese cuisines. He brought his Thai chef, Sam Ho, from Malaysia. His Chinese chef, Hong Lee, last worked at Joey Chui's Greenspring Inn. He had designer Rebeka Gurfinchel, known for her interiors at the Greenspring Inn and Liberatore, create a stylish dining room. The result is the newly opened Thai Orient in the Valley Centre in Owings Mills. Specialties include such dishes as fresh fish in lime sauce, shrimp in roasted chili sauce, Szechuan crispy chicken and Panang beef.

A California-based chain will open a restaurant Friday in the Columbia lakefront building once used to showcase the new town's model home plans and amenities.Fresh Choice, which bills itself as an "upscale, self-service-style restaurant" with soup, salad and pasta bars, is expected to hire at least 60 employees, said Stephen Robinson, general manager of the restaurant.The opening is part of the Rouse Co.'s plans to enliven downtown Columbia by bringing restaurants to the area around Lake Kittamaqundi, officials said.

From the way eating places are opening up along Harford Road in the Hamilton/Lauraville neighborhoods, you would think every chef in the region had moved to the area and decided to open a restaurant or tavern there. This section of Harford has become a restaurant row to rival any in Baltimore, with Clementine (new this spring), Chameleon Cafe, Big Bad Wolf's House of Barbeque, the Alabama BBQ Company, Koco's Pub and Zeke's Coffee being among the best at what they do in the city. "It's a convergence of several things," says Lorrie Schoettler, executive director of the Neighborhoods of Lauraville.

A lot happened on the local restaurant scene this year, but the biggest trend wasn't a happy one. Let's call it entree creep. At the beginning of the year I was still talking about places trying to keep their main courses under that magic $20 figure so they would be considered moderate. That now seems long ago and far away. Consider yourself lucky if the entrees on a restaurant's menu are priced under $30. Of course, there are exceptions; but when a bar in Fells Point has entrees starting at $19.95 and ending at $28.95 (I'm thinking of the last restaurant I went to, John Steven Ltd.)

Arcos is unusual for a restaurant because the food seems to be something of an afterthought. Luckily, it's a good afterthought. When Nicolas Ramos, a Mexican native who is in the construction business, decided to open a restaurant in Upper Fells Point, its looks -- of course -- were important to him. He did the renovation himself, predominantly out of recycled materials from places being torn down in the area, like doors from the Munsey Building and...

Oakland Mills Village Center has another opportunity to fill an empty building, a key piece to its rejuvenation. A liquor license application submitted this week by a prospective restaurant operator moves the village center a step closer to filling the void left by the closing of Last Chance Saloon, a 23-year-old neighborhood pub and restaurant. Vaughn Ennis, one of the three partners in the venture, said the establishment would be "a standard American family restaurant," serving a variety of dishes, including seafood.

It takes a lot of guts to open a restaurant. Owners choose a location, fine-tune their recipes, hone their wine lists and tinker with their interiors. Then they hire staff, open their doors and hope for the best. You've probably heard that 90 percent of restaurants go out of business before they are a year old. Several studies have found that the number is closer to 30 percent the first year, with 60 percent of restaurants closing before they reach their third anniversary. Here are some of the new Baltimore-area restaurants reviewed this year that seem likely to beat the odds.

It's no mystery why Amicci's has been so popular for so long. Open a restaurant with good, basic Italian food served in heaping portions and at reasonable prices, and people will come. This Little Italy stalwart has changed quite a bit since it opened in 1990. Back then, it had 43 seats and a casual, sandwich-driven menu. Today, with a new dining area that opened in May, the restaurant seats 220, and the menu is mostly Italian entrees like lasagna, chicken parm and shrimp scampi, plus several pasta vegetarian dishes.

Should a restaurant be supported because of where its owners have bravely decided to locate it? If you're like me, a city dweller, the answer may very well be yes. Center City is an agreeable restaurant on a not-so-agreeable block of East Preston Street just off North Charles. As you approach the entrance, you'll probably be dismayed by the seediness of the other businesses nearby. I was. You'll notice the trash and the cigarette butts on the sidewalk and the general lack of curb appeal for the restaurant itself.

Annapolis already has two Joy Luck Chinese carryouts. Now the Joy Luck Emperor, a fine-dining restaurant, has opened at 177 Main St. The food isn't like what you'll find at other Chinese restaurants - no kung pao chicken or sweet and sour pork. Instead, says manager Catherine Chen, "It's authentic, but we're breaking traditions." She describes the food as French-Chinese. Sushi and Japanese specialties are also on the menu. The Joy Luck Emperor is open every day for lunch and dinner. Entrees range in price from $8.50 to $26.95.

A week hence, Baltimore diners will begin speaking a strange new language, bending their tongues around opakapaka and onaga, which is not to omit furikake and lilikoi and so much seared shutome. And you thought it was tough to say Yuri Temirkanov. The name this time is Roy Yamaguchi, member of a burgeoning club of celebrity chefs to appear on television, publish a cookbook and open a restaurant or two. He serves Hawaiian/Asian/Euro- pean-fusion food, featuring fish (opakapaka, onaga and shutome)

Visitors to Centre Park Drive in Columbia may soon be able to dine again in the space where the Tavern at Centre Park once was. Greg Carey, vice president of JPB Enterprises, which owns the building at 8808 Centre Park Drive, said yesterday that the company expects to have a new occupant sign a lease to occupy the space within a month or two and open a restaurant. The tavern will not be coming back, however. The old restaurant, which also was owned by portfolio holding company JPB, was closed in January after executives decided to divest themselves of their restaurant ventures.