Charmed Kitchen: Doing it all!
The lucky locals of Upper Fells, Butchers Hill and those around Patterson Park have the recently opened, bakery, restaurant and bar, Charmed Kitchen. They are open 7 days a week from early 6:30 a.m. for takeout Ceremony coffees and the bakery’s offerings from croissants, bagels to Danish pastries. At 9 a.m., seated breakfast service starts (omelets, waffle, and more) and lunch kicks in at 11 a.m. The grueling schedule continues Wednesday through Sundays with happy hour, small plates, dinner service and full bar in the evening hours.
Passion is the word that best describes Christa Bruno (chef) and Shadee Holden (baker) and their combined visions for this small, urban corner restaurant-bakery-bar, Charmed Kitchen.
Bruno started her love of food by her Italian grandmother’s side. She continued the journey working in restaurants in Baltimore, Maine and Milan as well as a popular personal chef/caterer in Los Angeles. You may remember Christa from Pazza Luna Restaurant that was in Locus Point.
Holden, a Jersey boy, whose early restaurant apprenticeships started at 13 years of age and eventually garnered him a scholarship to Johnson & Wales University. His degrees both in Culinary and Pastry Arts and work experience in fine dining restaurants both in Philadelphia and Baltimore were foundation to move forward with his love of baking. Both chef and baker are alumni of Baltimore’s fine dining Italian restaurant, Sotto Sopra.
Christa says, “Shadee’s whole wheat, sour dough baguette is the neighborhood crack, we can’t make enough.” Also pictured in their photograph is the vegan loaf made of brown rice, red quinoa, flax seed and oats and the Sicilian loaf with tahini and sesame seeds.
I popped in mid-morning for their specialty croissant-of-the-day: ham and cheese. The golden exterior, topped with coarse salt was the tease; the real treat was the buttery, flaky interior. Top that off with my chai latte and it was perfect for my late morning breakfast.
Charmed Kitchen has two special events coming up:
February 26th Tequila & Mezcal Tasting Dinner and March 12th, An Art Opening – paintings by Adrienne Williams. Get more details at their Facebook Page /events
Like Christa’s nonna – Charmed Kitchen will always have something cooking.
Charmed Kitchen
123 South Chester Street
Baltimore Md 21231
443 627 8369
Social Media: @charmedkitchen
For Dara Bunjon if it is food, Dara Does It, in fact, that is the name of her company which offers creative solutions for the food industry the likes of public relations, marketing, social media, cookbook compilations, food styling, culinary events, networking and freelance writing. You will now find Dara applying her broad range of culinary skills as a food stylist for television chefs/cookbook authors the likes of Steven Raichlen, Sara Moulton, Nick Malgieri, and Nathalie Dupree. Dara Bunjon lives, eats, dreams and writes about food and isn’t hesitant to share her views and experiences about restaurants, culinary trends, recipes, cookbooks or even her childhood food memories. She has been on the food scene for too many years to mention. Known both in Baltimore and nationally, Dara Bunjon is a former member of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs’ national public relations committee.
In the past, she has written for Style Magazine, Foodservice Monthly, Mid-Atlantic Restaurant Digest, Urbanite and other sundry publications. Since 2004 she has maintained an award-winning food-related blog called Dining Dish. She co-authored her first cookbook Yum! Tasty Recipes from Culinary Greats in association with Studio Spear. And has written Baltimore restaurant reviews for Gayot.com
Dara believes food is subjective; everyone’s taste is different and she enjoys bringing you to her table to commiserate and enjoy lively discourse.
Considered one of Baltimore’s food influencers, you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @daracooks.