It’s been a big week for local restaurants in the national media. First Del Campo made the cut for
Esquire magazine’s Best New Restaurants in America. Now Baltimore’s Woodberry Kitchen,
a constant on our 100 Very Best List since 2011, is one of the honorees in the food
category for Martha Stewart’s American Made awards (take that,
New York Times travel guide).
Owners
Spike and Amy Gjerde are included among the winning “tastemakers,”
artisans in various fields across the nation who stand out for “pushing the American-made
movement forward.”
Stewart credits the husband-and-wife team with using more carefully sourced ingredients
than most others who claim local allegiance, using only 1 percent non-local foodstuffs.
Other signs of their “farm-to-table on steroids” approach: various partnerships with
Chesapeake-area growers and producers and an in-house canning program that preserves
about 50,000 pounds of produce annually.
Most of the pickling and canning will soon move to Shoo-fly,
the Gjerdes’ locally minded diner opening this Friday. In addition to the preserving
operations, the 75-seat restaurant with serve riffs on comfort classics, such as sourdough
pancakes and creamed chipped beef with air-cured-beef gravy. Stay tuned for a menu
and more details closer to the opening.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
