With Prim & Proper, Baltimore restaurateurs collaborate rather than compete
A few years ago, when Chris Simon was looking to open his first restaurant, he put in an offer on a Fleet Street space that seemed to check all the boxes. It turned out another restaurateur — Berry Clark, co-owner of the already-popular Papi Cuisine — saw the same perks he did.
Simon ended up winning the lease for the building, and opened BLK Swan there in 2021. Though he and Clark would seem to be natural competitors, they didn’t hold any grudges.
Instead, three years later, they’re opening a restaurant together.
Prim & Proper, debuting Thursday at 206 E. Redwood St. in downtown Baltimore, will be a collaboration between OutKrowd Restaurant Group, which counts Simon and his wife Janeen among its members, and Clark Hospitality, run by Clark and his wife, Janell. The new dining spot mines the talents of two of Baltimore’s most dynamic Black restaurateurs, proving success doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game, Simon said.
“Sometimes there’s this level of distrust in working with others in your culture and community,” he said. “We can share information, we can help each other, but we can also work together to achieve success.”
‘Avid supporters’
Even though they once competed for restaurant space, the Simons and the Clarks have been supporters of each other’s businesses behind the scenes for years.
Chris Simon said he makes a point to dine at Papi Cuisine, which the Clarks own alongside partner Alex Perez.
The Afro-fusion restaurant has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Perez, who is not involved in the Prim & Proper project, started Papi Cuisine as a food delivery service in 2014, and four years later moved into the B-more Kitchen incubator in North Baltimore’s Govans neighborhood. Berry Clark, who has a background in search engine optimization, helped him grow the company’s online presence, racking up more than 130,000 followers on Instagram alone.
In 2019, the two opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in Fells Point. Just a year later, citing strong sales, Papi Cuisine moved into an even larger space in South Baltimore. Clark and Perez are now working to open a second location for the restaurant in Owings Mills.
Simon, meanwhile, already had a career in the mental health field before venturing into the dining scene. He’s the founder of BTST Services, which offers medication management, psychiatric rehabilitation and therapy to clients throughout Maryland.
The self-professed foodie decided to open a restaurant to bring home the kind of dining experiences he enjoyed on his travels to places like New York, Miami, Paris and Monaco. BLK Swan is known not only for its New American menu — signature dishes include a pasta pomodoro topped with gulf shrimp and lump crab, a dressed-up chicken box and a Caesar salad with preserved lemon dressing — but also for its see-and-be-seen, nightlife atmosphere, complete with live DJs and neon lights.
The Clarks have been “avid supporters” of BLK Swan from the start, Simon said: “We’ve always kept this mutual door of collaboration open in support. From the beginning, we knew that people would try to pit us against each other. We would remain committed that we’re not going to get caught up in that type of conversation.”
A new dining experience
With Prim & Proper, the Simons and Clarks are combining their expertise to create an elegant dining experience that they say will be more “elevated” than their other restaurants.
The new dining spot has taken over the former Chez Hugo space at 206 E. Redwood St., a pre-show stop for theatergoers headed to the Chesapeake Shakespeare Co. next door. Inside, with the help of interior designer Tiffany Megginson, they’ve transformed Chez Hugo’s rustic chic interior into something sleeker. The dining area, once decked out in wood accents and mustard booths, now features white walls, black-and-white checkered floors, chandeliers dangling from the ceiling and two pianos: a functional baby grand in the lobby and another at the bar that has been converted into a DJ booth.
The vision for Prim & Proper came from Janell Clark, a sommelier who is also responsible for curating the new restaurant’s wine selection. After announcing the concept in late 2022, she and her husband approached the Simons with the idea of joining forces.
“They’re excited about the success they’ve had at Papi, and they wanted to create a more elevated concept, as well,” he said. “I bring the marketing, I advance the idea, the aesthetic, the experience.”
The plans for Prim & Proper won’t end with the restaurant, either. In the coming months, the two couples will also open the Prim & Proper Social Club on the second floor of the historic building, which used to house the Merchants Club, a men’s luncheon society. The private club was the brainchild of Janeen Simon, who also curated the restaurant’s cocktail list.
“We want to restore that club feel and have a private, members-only club upstairs,” Chris Simon said. Memberships will be available on a monthly or quarterly basis, and will include access to the club, networking events and courses including wine tasting and financial literacy classes. Members will also get discounts at the restaurant.
A chef’s return
The Prim & Proper team has another secret weapon: their chef.
Calvin Riley worked as a sous chef at Chez Hugo, and when it closed he took over the kitchen to open his own concept, LoCal, which combined the French techniques of his culinary school training with global influences, resulting in dishes like duck confit hash and pan-seared scallops with Israeli couscous, pineapple and lemon beurre blanc.
Faced with staffing challenges and other hurdles ranging from theft to flooding, Riley closed the restaurant just eight months later in August 2022.
He took a job as a corporate chef at Under Armour and had hip replacement surgery. After years of strain, “my body was failing,” he said. But he wasn’t ready to give up on the Baltimore restaurant scene yet.
The offer to return to Redwood Street as the head chef at Prim & Proper came along “as soon as the universe caught wind I was feeling better,” Riley said. At the new restaurant, he’ll be serving a menu he describes as “modern French American,” with some Italian and Caribbean influences, as well.
Dishes will range from the luxurious, like deviled eggs with caviar, to the inventive, like jerk chicken with crepes. Some, like crab croquettes, will pay homage to Maryland, while others are inspired by Riley’s own culinary travels. He’s particularly excited to serve his version of a spicy rigatoni he tried on a trip to Miami: Riley’s take incorporates his own homemade hot sauce, which balances sweetness and heat.
Lately, he’s also been spending time tasting wines as Janell Clark works to pair drinks to his food. She’s assembling a list with plenty of American and French wines — “good Burgundies and Châteauneuf-du-Papes that won’t break the bank” — as well as bottles from small-batch wineries for a “personal feel.”
“I’m keeping up with him and making sure those wines match every single dish,” Janell Clark said. “All the way to the salads, all the way down to the desserts.”
Riley said it’s been a relief to focus on the food while the Simons and Clarks take care of the restaurant’s business side.
“I’m just buckling up and along for the ride,” he said. And as he gets back into the swing of things in the kitchen, he’s feeling like the third time will be the charm.
“I kind of feel like whatever’s in that building, I’ll be there,” he said. “I know that kitchen like I know the kitchen in my home. I come with the restaurant.”
Team effort
Behind the scenes, the restaurant team has involved other local Black business owners in the preparations for Prim & Proper.
Megginson, who owns interior design firm Elaborate Designs, was also behind the decor at BLK Swan. For Prim & Proper, she channeled “a mix of Black excellence and regal design,” with rich details like crystals, pearls and gold, rich, mustard-yellow pops of color and lots of “Instagrammable moments.”
The aim, she said, was to channel an old-school glamor that gives diners the feel of a special night out.
“You can put on a gown or your fanciest drop earrings and not feel like you’re doing too much,” Megginson said.
The Prim & Proper team also commissioned DifferentRegard, a Mount Vernon-based clothing brand, to design and tailor uniforms for all of the restaurant’s staff: tuxedo jackets for the servers, custom coats for the cooks.
The finished outfits emulate “luxurious, stylish evening wear but with a modern twist,” said DifferentRegard co-founder Steven White.
“A lot of times, especially with being a minority-owned business, we face a lot of different challenges,” White added. “We’ve now come together as one.”
“Hopefully this sets the precedent for more collaborations to come about.”
