About
At Rec Pier Chop House, Chef Andrew Carmellini brings his soulful, urban Italian cooking to an American landmark by specializing in prime steaks and chops. The menu features locally-sourced ingredients, sustainable seafood, farm-raised organic poultry, and some of the country’s best beef from James River, Virginia and Donnely Ranch, Nebraska along with the irresistible pastas that Carmellini is best known for. This Italian chophouse combines the flavor and feeling of a countryside rosticceria with a modern-day steakhouse experience in Baltimore’s Fell’s Point.
Andrew Carmellini
Chef, Restaurateur, Author
Andrew Carmellini's cooking is soulful and flavorful, rustic and refined. It's a personal style that reflects his American roots and Italian heritage, his work in some of the world's best fine dining restaurants, and his travels abroad.
Born and raised in Seven Hills, OH, Andrew credits his parents who loved simple, delicious, well-made food with his early appreciation for it. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Andrew became part of a generation of chefs who began their cooking careers in the heyday of era-defining institutions such as Lespinasse, L’Arpège and Le Cirque. Then in 1998, Andrew became the opening Chef de Cuisine of Café Boulud. During his tenure, he was awarded twice by the James Beard Foundation and named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s“Best New Chefs,” among many other accolades. Members of his kitchen brigade would also go on to become some of today’s brightest culinary talents, leaving Andrew’s own set of prints on the era that followed.
Outside of culinary circles, Andrew is known as a hit-maker synthesizing pertinent culinary culture with urban social dining scenes. His restaurants are often credited with cracking the code between fine cooking and fun dining. They currently include 10 restaurants, a live music and performance venue, a retail and wholesale bakery, three cocktail bars, a beer hall, two fast-casual concepts, and six hotel food and beverage programs across four states. No two are alike.
Andrew is also the author of two cookbooks with his wife Gwen Hyman: "Urban Italian" (Bloomsbury Press, 2008), which climbed to the year's "Top Ten Cookbooks" list on Amazon.com, and "American Flavor". (Ecco: Harper Collins, 2011).
The story continues every day at andrewcarmellini.com.