Open A Restaurant

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.

Night after night, touring the country for his one-man show, Chazz Palminteri searched for the perfect Italian meal, but 31 plates of linguine marinara gave way to 31 disappointments. Then, he walked into Aldo's , a mainstay of Baltimore's Little Italy, and found not only the pasta he'd been craving but the collaborators for his dream project. Two years later, and the Academy Award nominee is about to add a restaurant to a resume that includes "The Usual Suspects," "Bullets Over Broadway" and "A Bronx Tale," the 1989 one-man show that brought him fame, not to mention a lifelong friend and mentor in Robert De Niro.

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.

Frank J. Tamberino, a neighborhood pharmacist who won the confidence of the customers who referred to him as "doctor," died of kidney failure Friday at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Fallston resident was 72. Born in Baltimore and raised on East Eager Street, he began work as an 8-year-old, selling fruit and vegetables alongside his father on a produce truck. Mr. Tamberino attended St. James the Less School and was a drum major in its marching corps. He was a 1957 City College graduate and worked behind the soda fountain at the old Lake Pharmacy on Harford Road in Mayfield.

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.

The Iron Man may be tough on the field, but here's hoping he knows how to cook a tender steak. Baltimore Orioles third-baseman Cal Ripken Jr. is part of a group negotiating to open a restaurant at Green Spring Station, the tony commercial center at Joppa and Falls roads, just outside the Baltimore Beltway in Brooklandville. Ripken said his group made an initial inquiry about a month ago and expects an outcome shortly. "We've been looking for the right opportunity and were approached about this," said Ripken, who lives in nearby Reisterstown.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.)

The crab cake company that found stardom on the QVC cable television shopping channel now hopes to find similar success in the restaurant business. Chesapeake Bay Gourmet, the 25-year-old Rosedale company that became a household name after debuting on QVC a decade ago, opened its first restaurant, Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes & More, last week in Hunt Valley. In opening the restaurant, the first in what it hopes to become a chain, the company is entering a highly competitive market that includes large franchises such as Phillips Seafood Restaurants and dozens of mom-and-pop operations such as Obrycki's in Fells Point.

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.

As a teenager, Ray Lewis would occasionally enter his mother's tiny fast-food establishment in Memphis, Tenn., and vow that one day he would not only play professional football but own a restaurant larger than hers. Sometimes, after having flipped burgers for hours, Sunseria Smith made it clear to her son that she was in no mood for what she considered ham. "Boy, get out my face," she would scold. "You don't know what you're talking about." But he did know. Yesterday, Smith stood inside the Ravens linebacker's first entrepreneurial venture: Ray Lewis' Full Moon Bar-B-Que, a posh, 6,200-square-foot restaurant that represents a two-year, $2 million investment of which Lewis is the majority shareholder.

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.

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.

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.

Sure, the holiday party season is starting to hit full stride, but one of the most anticipated events isn't a party. It's this week's opening of Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman's new restaurant, PAZO. The owners of Charleston and Petit Louis Bistro have partnered with their longtime chef, Pete Livolsi, in this hip tapas restaurant/lounge set inside a Fells Point building that served as a machine shop in the 1880s. Tony says interior designer Patrick Sutton preserved a lot of the original timber beams and columns inside, and added dark "Gotham/Batman" gray metalwork.