Woodberry Kitchen

Woodberry Kitchen is housed in a renovated 1870s foundry nestled in historic Clipper Mill in Baltimore, MD.  Owned by Spike and Amy Gjerde, Woodberry Kitchen offers a warm, rustic setting featuring an open kitchen and patio seating during the summer season.  The menu features ingredients that rely on longstanding relationships with Chesapeake area growers as a way to support local agriculture.

Keith and I drove up for brunch before a baseball game.  We were seated upstairs with a great view overlooking the below buzzing area.  The brunch menu featured traditional brunch items like pancakes, pastries, and egg dishes - but we decided to get something more lunch-like to hold us over.  We started with a small appetizer of Deviled Eggs topped With Bacon.  The filling was creamy and totally classic.

I ordered the Tilghman Island Crab Cake with red leaf salad with roasted sweet peppers and hash brown potatoes, served with ramp tartar sauce. The crab cake was all meat and very tender with great flavor. The hash brown was a shredded ball of potato - almost like a bird's nest - that also had incredible flavor. The roasted whole peppers looked like a whole spicy pepper, but were mild and very fresh.  I liked the charred flavor, but did not care for all the seeds inside.

Keith ordered the Soft Crab BLT with tomato, lettuce, bacon, basil, and mayonnaise, topped with a fried egg all on a benne seed bun. It was served with a side of roasted potatoes.  His soft shell crab was perfectly fried and overall provided a great brunch sandwich.

The food was farm-fresh and high quality, but the prices were a bit high ($7 for a cup of tea or a glass of juice).  Service was attentive, despite being extremely busy.  They had a lot of staff who would constantly walk up and down checking on tables.  Recognizing that our food was taking long to come out, our server even gave us a piece of complimentary peach coffee cake to nibble on.  Only valet parking is available, and the location is a bit out of the way, but the foundry architecture of Woodberry Kitchen is cool providing a popular venue for special events.

Total Rating: 3.88
Food: 4, Price: 3, Service: 4.5, Ambience: 4.5, Accessibility: 3.5