Easton, Maryland, Is A Small Town With Top-Tier Dining And Hospitality

Small-town attraction meets big-city eating in Easton, Maryland.

What’s one good thing about dwelling in a bigger metropolis? Having all kinds of top-notch eateries to select from with out having to journey far for them. It’s not usually that you just discover smaller cities with a bustling meals scene, however that’s not the case in Easton, Maryland, the place a culinary revitalization is going down that’s making the city a favourite weekend getaway — or new house — for big-city dwellers coming from New York, D.C., and Philadelphia.

About 70 miles east of Washington, D.C. on Maryland’s Jap Shore, you’ll discover Easton, Maryland: a small seaside city on the rise because of the efforts of Bluepoint Hospitality, which owns and operates quite a few eating places and companies all through city. Within the 1800s, Maryland’s Jap Shore was anchored by Easton. It grew shortly and have become the most important and most vital city on the Jap Shore. However with progress in neighboring areas and elevated tourism in these locations, particularly on the waterfront like Oxford and St. Michaels, Easton started to wane. Historic buildings had been empty till the Nineteen Eighties, when there was a push for transformation.

Easton’s renaissance is led by efforts from native entrepreneur Paul Prager, the founder and CEO of Beowulf Power and Bluepoint Hospitality, who first visited the world when he was within the Naval Academy in close by Annapolis. “This space turned my respite from navy faculty and the place I’d escape to each time I may,” Prager says. Later, whereas elevating a household in New York Metropolis, Prager and his spouse purchased a farm in Talbot County close to Easton, the place they spent weekends, holidays, and summers. Throughout the pandemic, Prager and his spouse, now empty nesters, relocated right here completely.

In days previous, Easton’s downtown space was thriving. Retailers crammed each storefront and streets had been bustling with life. Folks selected to dwell right here quite than in surrounding massive cities. There was a wealthy arts scene, and the financial system was booming. It was the kind of city that Prager needed to see alive once more. “Easton has nice structure and a wealthy historical past as a contemporary municipality,” he says. “My imaginative and prescient was (and stays) to revive its unique vibrancy by creating alternatives for younger individuals with nice colleges, extra residences on the town, and a wealthy arts scene.” Prager started revitalization efforts in 2014, and now owns about 40% of economic area on the town.

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However how did Bluepoint efficiently revitalize a small city and appeal to prime expertise from the larger cities? Sourcing native expertise and including within the mass exodus from cities that adopted the pandemic. Prager notes that as numerous eating places closed through the pandemic, Easton created a brand new alternative for hospitality professionals to create one thing new and go away the massive metropolis. “Our fast progress and success have attracted professionals from many cities,” he says. “This gives a novel studying alternative for each our transplants and the good homegrown crew that’s been with us since inception. Schooling is on the coronary heart of what we do, so studying from each other has by no means introduced a difficulty.”

Plan Your Go to

A should whereas in Easton is Bluepoint’s Bas Rouge, which brings traditional, European superb eating and old-school French hospitality to the highlight below the watchful eye of govt chef Harley Peet and chef de delicacies Phil Lind. It’s the kind of place you count on in New York, Boston, or D.C., however by no means a small city like Easton. Showstoppers embrace Osetra caviar and lump crab spatzle, plus guéridon service from an vintage silver trolley for a contact of tableside leisure. On my go to, I used to be intrigued to identify a particular Dover sole on the menu, and my server knowledgeable me it was caught in Brittany, France, solely two days prior and offered solely to 4 eateries within the U.S., together with French Laundry in Yountville, California and Le Bernardin in New York. Paired with a sauvignon blanc from France’s Loire Valley, I once more questioned whether or not I used to be actually in Maryland or a booming metropolis.

Down the road from Bas Rouge is the intimate and Scottish-inspired lounge and bar, The Stewart, specializing in single-malt scotch and classic champagnes. Darkish wood furnishings mixed with gilt-framed oil work of Highland scenes and refurbished 18th century interval furnishings create a comfortable environment that’s good for post-dinner cocktails or a particular night time out. Centering the room is an 18th century walnut and brass trumeau chimney, flanked by customized rawhide banquettes and customized George Smith chairs in tweeds and checks to create a comfortable environment for an intimate night time out or post-dinner drinks. A seat close to the fireplace is a professional transfer throughout chilly winter months, as is a range from the $700,000 scotch program. Varied areas of Scotland are represented in this system, together with a 1954 Glen Grant and a Gordon & MacPhail Speymalt Macallan from 1950. Classic champagnes are ample, too, together with a Dom Perignon from 2000 and Krug d’Ambonnay from 1995. I loved my champagne in a classic 1917 glass, as a result of Prager believes superb china needs to be loved, not put away in a cupboard, and paired it with the braised quick rib grilled cheese, truffle potatoes, and seasonal, purple Brussels sprouts ready by the under-the-radar talen of chef de delicacies David Kneller.

Prager’s gastronomic enterprises proceed to sprawl all through downtown, together with The Wardroom, an epicurean market, wine store, and restaurant providing a handful of home made pasta dishes, charcuterie, and connoisseur sandwiches. It even has its personal cheesemonger, Crimson, who works with native farmers and world-class cheesemakers to create a cheese program rivaling the very best within the nation. The Wardroom even has its personal cheese cave, plus 24 wines by the glass and over 1,400 bottled varieties. Inside strolling distance is the primary of the Bluepoint institutions conceived, Sunflowers & Greens, a salad bar specializing within the most interesting native and nationwide artisanal produce and meats. Right here, I selected my very own salad from an array of components, however you can too choose from the checklist of signature salads and each day specials. There’s additionally tiny Roma Alla Pala, specializing in Roman-style takeaway pizza; Climate Gage for espresso and boulangerie-style baked items; Bumble Bee Juice with wholesome, cold-pressed juices; and Bonheur Pie and Ice Cream, which is long-established after a Chanel jewel field room. Ice cream choices rotate and embrace gingerbread, lemon-curd oat milk, maple walnut, and black raspberry.

Past the culinary scene, Prager is slowly growing different storefronts on the town for retail areas. Benjamin is a sleek boutique that provides technique to Prager’s love for superb china and is taken into account among the finest collections of porcelain, crystal, and silver within the U.S. Store Nymphenburg items from Bavaria, plus Viennese and German glass, silver, and crystal. Close by Flying Cloud Booksellers focuses on fiction and non-fiction bestsellers, biographies, literary classics, kids’s literature, and extra. Its sister spot, Flying Cloud Superb Artwork Posters, just lately opened subsequent door with 800 unique classic posters of masterworks from the Golden Age. 

Prager and Bluepoint plan to proceed sharpening Easton and making a vacation-worthy vacation spot with extra eateries and leisure within the works. The just lately restored Ebenezer Theater hosts live shows that includes Grammy Award-winning artists. Coming this winter is the sweetest of outlets, P. Bordier, a creperie and patisserie multi functional. 

Getting There

Easton is about an hour and a half from Washington, D.C., and an hour and quarter-hour from Baltimore. The downtown space could be very walkable, however if you happen to’re seeking to discover surrounding areas such because the Blackwater Nationwide Wildlife Refuge or the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Customer Heart, you’ll must lease a automobile.

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