With one-of-a-kind concepts like Clavel and Parts & Labor on the rise, and a highly anticipated communal food hall coming soon, Remington’s dining scene is seeing serious growth.
Last summer, in an effort to highlight the community’s creativity, a group of young entrepreneurs established The Remington Chop—a foodie event that combines a pop-up beer garden with interactive workshops led by local chefs and brewers.
Now celebrating its second year, the get-together is returning on Saturday, June 11 from 12-5 p.m., introducing additional seminars and a live music lineup. This summer, the food fest is moving to R. House, the W. 29th Street incubator space that will house 10 micro-restaurants when it officially opens this fall.
The Remington Chop is the brainchild of Peter DiPrinzio, who is an alumnus of Venture for America (VFA)—a national organization that sends college graduates to different cities to work for budding startups. This year, DiPrinzio passed the torch to a new wave of local VFA fellows, including Jamie Norwood who works for Hungry Harvest.
“[DiPrinzio] started the event with the goal of celebrating chefs and makers in Baltimore,” says Norwood, a Montgomery County native, “and having a day where people with shared interests in the community can come together.”
The new organizers are focused on maintaining that mission, while also implementing some upgrades this time around.
The list of hour-long workshops, for example, has doubled in size, including classes on lamb butchery led by George Marsh of Parts & Labor, the history of mezcal with Clavel owner Lane Harlan, pasta and ricotta making with chef Ben Sawyer of Fork & Wrench, fish cleaning and crudo prep with Bella Kline of Pen & Quill, ramen making with Ejji Ramen, and hydroponic farming and juice pressing with Urban Pastoral, one of R. House’s newest tenants.
Fittingly, other soon-to-be R. House inhabitants BeBim and Stall 11 will also be included in the event, peddling Korean rice bowls and vegetarian hummus wraps in its outdoor beer garden.
“Having it there is so great because R. House and The Remington Chop are essentially celebrating the same things,” Norwood says. “They’re putting Baltimore chefs in the spotlight and getting more people involved in the food community.”
Before and after attending their chosen workshop, guests are encouraged to hang out in the beer garden to peruse summer-inspired eats and drinks such as blackberry mojito ice pops from Pop Couture, cold soups and salsas from Big Bean Theory, and beverages from Union Craft Brewing and Charm City Meadworks.
The festival will also boast live music performances for the first time this year, with a lineup—featuring The Lushpockets, Surf Harp, and Hollywood Blanks—hand-picked by the team at The Ottobar.
The $45 price of admission includes three drink tickets and access to a workshop of your choice. Beer garden-only tickets are $25.
Norwood says that, while expansions to other neighborhoods are definitely possible in the long-run, the organizers are excited to focus on the rise of Remington for now.
“There are so many great things happening there,” she says. “It’s already such a fun area, and with R. House opening soon everything’s just going to snowball.”