The Choptank, Atlas Restaurant Group’s first venture into Anne Arundel County, serves up seafood with a view – Capital Gazette

Alex Smith had his eye on the constructing at 110 Compromise St. for the higher a part of a decade.

The Atlas Restaurant Group CEO began speaking with the house owners of the previous Fawcett Boat Provides property in 2016, however a deal didn’t come collectively immediately. It took six years earlier than Atlas opened The Choptank, an upscale seafood spot, final summer time on the location.

The Baltimore-based restaurant group has launched greater than a dozen eateries in Attraction Metropolis alone, however the Annapolis restaurant’s debut impressed a complete new degree of enthusiasm, Smith mentioned.

Diners from Anne Arundel County and past are flocking to the waterfront spot, which began serving clients on July 11: “We’ve by no means had a restaurant opening like this within the historical past of our firm,” Smith mentioned.

A part of the attraction is a major placement on Ego Alley. Pull up a seat nearly anyplace within the restaurant, and also you’ll discover a view of the water. Hydraulic doorways open inside eating areas to the outside when the climate is sweet.

The restaurant focuses on basic seafood fare, alongside some land-lubbing choices like New York strip steak and fried rooster.

An Jap Shore Cobb salad, certainly one of The Choptank’s signature dishes, is stacked excessive with beneficiant parts of fried oysters, shrimp, crab meat and candied pork. Fish — all the things from Chilean sea bass to Dover sole to branzino — might be blackened, pan seared or broiled, and topped with a alternative of sauces like lemon butter, piccato and ponzu shiitake brown butter.

Oysters, in the meantime, might be eaten any variety of methods: fried and served with a easy remoulade, slathered in leeks, spinach and truffled pecorino cheese a la Rockefelller or combined with blue crab and a garlic chili butter. The restaurant serves a few thousand oysters a day, says Smith.

Entrees vary in value from $18 for a spicy rooster sandwich to $99 for a 28-ounce, dry-aged porterhouse steak. The restaurant’s crab cake platter, served with a chili remoulade and fries, prices $32.

“I feel we introduced one thing extra elevated to the waterfront right here,” mentioned Invoice Tserkis, an working accomplice at The Choptank who has additionally partnered with the Atlas Restaurant Group on Baltimore eating places like Watershed, the Admiral’s Cup and the Waterfront Lodge.

Tserkis mentioned Atlas needed to create an “upscale” ambiance for the restaurant, whereas holding it accessible to vacationers and locals.

“We didn’t wish to make it tremendous unique,” he mentioned. “An on a regular basis boater or Annapolis particular person can come out right here and luxuriate in lunch.”

Talks to deliver The Choptank to the Annapolis waterfront could have proceeded at one thing of a gradual burn, however Smith, a former Main League Lacrosse athlete who spent 4 years taking part in for the Chesapeake Bayhawks, mentioned he knew his restaurant group would finally land in Annapolis.

“This was not one thing that simply popped up,” he mentioned. “I at all times needed to be in Annapolis, however was ready for the suitable alternative.”

For him, that meant discovering a spot for outside eating . The Choptank’s constructing went by means of an in depth renovation earlier than the restaurant opened, including an outside crab deck and an upstairs patio with ample waterfront views.

Inside, designer Patrick Sutton labored with a palette of darkish wooden, white partitions, navy accents and nautical touches like hanging lamps wrapped in fishnets and life preservers on the partitions.

The restaurant group already has plans to broaden. Smith is hush-hush on the main points, however says Atlas is working to open two extra eating places in Maryland’s capital metropolis.

“We’re 100% going to do extra in Annapolis,” he mentioned.

Choptank

110 Compromise St, Annapolis. 443-808-1992. thechoptankrestaurant.com/annapolis