Bits & Bites: 5 Lexington Market eateries to try for Baltimore Winter Restaurant Week

The holidays are in the rearview, the new year is getting older by the day and there are still weeks to go before the first hint of spring. That big batch of soup you made at the start of the week is starting to get boring. What’s a foodie to do?

It’s easy to succumb to the winter doldrums. Restaurants typically see a drop in business this time of year as more diners stay home, inspired by resolutions to cook more of their own meals or to save some money.

That’s why I always look forward to winter restaurant weeks, which offer some motivation to leave the house and try a new dining spot, or return to an old favorite.

Dining deals are already in full swing in the Baltimore area: Harford County Restaurant Week runs through Jan. 28, and Howard County Restaurant Weeks stretch until Feb. 4. (Baltimore County’s winter restaurant week wrapped earlier this month.)

In the city, Baltimore Winter Restaurant Week is Jan. 26 to Feb. 4 and features fixed price brunch, lunch and dinner deals starting at $15, $25 and $35, respectively. The promotion, organized by Visit Baltimore and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, has 85 participating restaurants so far this year, according to the event’s website.

You can use restaurant weeks as a way to get a discounted taste of some of the city’s finer dining options, like Ammoora, Cinghiale and Duck Duck Goose — which are all serving three-course dinners for $55 — or to check out some of the newest additions to the local restaurant scene. The Empanada Lady and Zander’s in Downtown Baltimore; Bunny’s, Prima Dopo and Osteria Pirata in Fells Point; and Octobar in Federal Hill have all opened within the last year.

What caught my eye as I perused this winter’s restaurant week list, though, was another category of new participants: Vendors at the recently renovated Lexington Market. If you haven’t been yet, maybe a $15 lunch deal is worth the trip.

“By joining our expansive list of eatery participants across our city, the addition of these vendors shines a light on the many lunch options we have here in downtown,” Susan Brown, the Downtown Partnership’s vice president of communications shared in a statement after I reached out about restaurant week. “Our hope is that those working downtown take advantage of these amazing lunch specials, and choose to meet in person, over lunch at Lexington Market.”

I paid a visit to the five participating vendors to get a taste of what they’re serving.

Blue Island Malaysian Cuisine

This legacy vendor will be familiar to regular customers of the old Lexington Market. Owner Feilan Chen has been running her market stall since 2000, serving heaping portions from a buffet-style display of options including shrimp fried rice, lo mein, orange chicken and beef and broccoli.

For restaurant week, you can build your own platter, starting with a base of shrimp fried rice or lo mein, then adding two sides and a small drink. I loaded up on beef lo mein, orange and curry chicken and a half-and-half mix of iced tea and lemonade for a filling meal that yielded leftovers for lunch the next day, too.

Just Elbows

This new Lexington Market stall focuses on macaroni and cheese, with plenty of toppings. Owner Sharlot Owens layers the elbow-shaped pasta with slow-roasted beef or creamy Cajun shrimp and crab for a hearty lunch that feels home-cooked.

Owens was inspired by her own family to launch Just Elbows, using her Aunt Inee’s mac and cheese recipe. She started out as a caterer, serving pasta in martini glasses at special events, before her daughter secretly submitted her name for a spot at Lexington Market. At the Just Elbows booth, combos are named after family members, whose illustrated portraits accompany the menu display: The Inee — a tribute to the aunt who started it all — is a plate of classic mac and cheese, while The Queen, a sweet-and-spicy shrimp-topped mac, is a tribute to Owens’ mother.

I opted for The Deb, topped with slow-roasted beef. “This tastes like Sunday dinner,” a Just Elbows employee told me, and he was right. The thick and creamy pasta gets an added dose of comfort from tender pulled beef that transported me right back to my own grandmother’s kitchen.

Sunny Side Cafe

If you follow foodie TikTok, you may have already been exposed to one of Sunny Side Cafe’s signature dishes, the salmon egg and cheese. The croissant sandwich, stuffed with cheesy eggs and a maple-glazed salmon and sausage patty, went viral last year and is still bringing in new customers, owners Charles Miller and Kristian Knight-Miller tell me.

Before TikTok, the couple had already amassed a legion of regulars who have followed them from a brick-and-mortar near Johns Hopkins Hospital to another in Mount Vernon, and most recently to the market, where they continue to serve up creative breakfast and lunch options in generous portions. For restaurant week, check out their viral salmon breakfast sandwich or the “Hawt Hon-nay,” two fried chicken tenders on a cornmeal waffle.

And if you go, say hello: The pair say they’ve always had an open kitchen so customers can see them hard at work at the grill.

“Our volumes have been very high,” Knight-Miller said. “This helps our customers have more grace with us. Our whole thing now is making sure that quality, over quantity, stays the same.”

Tio G’s Empanadas

Giving back drove Gerdyn Mojica to get into the food business. Mojica, AKA “Tio G,” the force behind this Lexington Market stall highlighting Dominican street food, quit a lucrative job as a property manager for a large corporation in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in favor of cooking for the community.

At Tio G’s Empanadas, customers can donate a dollar or two towards a “pay-it-forward” fund that the restaurant uses to serve meals to those in need. The stall has also organized free lunch events and a Thanksgiving giveaway that sent 100 people home with a free turkey last year.

The food at this stall is also well worth paying full price. For restaurant week, sample several of Tio G’s offerings with a Dominican platter combining seasoned rice, sweet plantains and your choice of meat. Try the pernil, or pork shoulder, marinated for 72 hours and roasted for another eight, until it’s so tender it falls off the bone with a gentle tug of the fork. The chicken — marinated for 24 hours and roasted for three — is another winner, especially with a splash of Que Lo Que sauce. The deal comes with a 32-ounce lemonade, ensuring there’s no chance you’ll go thirsty after all that food.

Tossed Together

Tselanie-Danielle Holloway’s Lexington Market stall just celebrated its one-year anniversary last month, and she plans to use the start of restaurant week to mark the occasion.

“We never had a ribbon cutting or anything, so we’re taking Jan. 26 to relaunch,” she said.

Holloway created a special restaurant week menu for the festivities. In addition to Tossed Together’s build-your-own salads and wraps, the booth will offer a grilled three-cheese panini, a brown rice, chicken and broccoli bowl and a brown-bag lunch special featuring a chicken panini, a bottle of water and a side of sweet potato chips or veggie straws, among other options.

The restaurant week menu hadn’t yet made its debut when I visited, so Holloway freestyled a custom salad for me instead, mixing chicken with a spring salad mix, fresh blueberries, dried cranberries and shaved cheese. Everything at the health-conscious stall is grilled and sodium-free, and I left feeling nourished and revitalized.

That’s the goal, says Holloway, who long dreamed of opening a Lexington Market stall and was inspired by her late grandmother to take the leap: “I want to give people a different way of looking at food and salads, especially in a food desert.”