Clyde’s Restaurant Group to take over Baltimore Peninsula’s Rye Street Tavern

A Washington D.C. restaurant group is expanding to Baltimore with plans to take over a waterfront tavern in the Baltimore Peninsula development.

Clyde’s Restaurant Group announced Monday it has signed a long-term lease to take over Rye Street Tavern, which first opened in 2017 as part of the Sagamore Spirit Distillery complex. The restaurant group will make improvements to the 12,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant and will create a large outdoor dining area with a projected early 2024 opening.

The restaurant is located in the 235-acre South Baltimore project formerly known as Port Covington and had struggled to find its footing in the wake of the pandemic. Rye Street closed in the early days of the pandemic but reopened in July 2020 with a focus on its outdoor seating. The restaurant then closed again in December 2020 and said in May 2021 that it would remain closed in order to “reimagine” its role in the development. It reopened for private events a few months later in September of that year.

Now Rye Street Tavern will get another overhaul, with Clyde’s planning to rethink the existing restaurant alongside Washington-based Grizform Design Architects. Renovations will include a redesigned kitchen, oyster bar and an outside waterfront venue, which will have a 75-seat island bar as the centerpiece. The new restaurant will employ 150 people, according to a release.

The restaurant will feature Maryland cuisines along with seasonal and classic cocktails, local beers and international wines. It will only stock one brand of rye whiskey – Sagamore Spirit Rye, Clyde’s executive Jeff Owens said in a statement.

“Clyde’s Restaurant Group is an ideal partner for us, with their emphasis on high quality food and service in a fun and active environment,” Kevin Plank, CEO of Sagamore Ventures and founder of Under Armour, said in a statement. “We expect the new Rye Street Tavern will be tremendously well-received by residents, businesses, and visitors. We anticipate Rye Street Tavern will become the heart of the neighborhood.”

The planned reopening of Rye Street Tavern comes as the Baltimore Peninsula development continues to gain momentum. The project got new master developers, rebranded, signed its first office tenants and started leasing its first apartments all within the last year as the first phase of the 1.1 million-square-foot development wraps up.

For Clyde’s, Rye Street Tavern marks its first Baltimore location. It has other restaurants in Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland, including Clyde’s of Chevy Chase, 1789 Restaurant, Old Ebbitt Grill and The Hamilton.

Rye Street was previously run by New York-based NoHo Hospitality Group, which also runs Rec Pier Chop House at the Sagamore Pendry Baltimore in Fells Point, and was designed by Baltimore’s Patrick Sutton.

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