Singer Olivia Dean thinks it’s so easy to fall in love ... with Baltimore’s dining scene

Carmen Coles danced around her house to Olivia Dean as she got ready for work Tuesday. A few hours later, toward the end of her shift at Baltimore Seafood in Canton, Coles was loading glasses of water onto a tray. She did a double take when she saw one of her next customers, seated at a table of about 10 people.

“I’m like, ‘I think that’s Olivia Dean,’” Coles told a coworker. “And they’re like, ‘No, no way, no way.’”

Coles was right: The guest was Dean, winner of this year’s Grammy Award for best new artist, who stopped by the restaurant the night before her concert at CFG Bank Arena. The rising British star and “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” singer was decked out in a simple white T-shirt and jeans, her normally voluminous curls slicked back in a bun, Coles said.

In the midst of a week during which Baltimore restaurants have gotten a boost from legions of fans and even members of K-pop band BTS, who performed Monday and Tuesday at M&T Bank Stadium, staff at Canton restaurant Baltimore Seafood said they were caught off guard by a visit from another famous performer, who arrived with her band and background singers.

“We were mostly aware we’re going to be busy,” manager Blanca Romero said. “You know, BTS was in town, so that’s where our focus was.” General manager Colin Leung said he was disappointed to miss Dean’s visit altogether; it was opening night at Baltimore Seafood’s new Federal Hill location and the place was slammed.

Dean ordered a seafood boil with snow crab and shrimp, topped with Old Bay sauce. She and a friend also ordered steamed crabs to share, all washed down with some Stellas. “They didn’t know the difference between snow crab or Dungeness crab, though, so I was giving them the whole spiel about that,” Coles said. (Snow crabs are longer and thinner, while Dungeness are wider and meatier.) It wasn’t exactly a Maryland feast — seafood boils are a Louisiana tradition that has found a foothold in Maryland only recently — but we’ll take it.

While some famous people seem to have their own gravitational pull, Dean wasn’t like that, Coles said. “She didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself,” Coles said. While a spokeswoman for Dean could not immediately be reached, the “Man I Need” singer was “very normal, very chill, very sweet as well,” and remembered Coles’ name, which Coles thought was sweet.

“She kept saying, ‘Thank you, Carmen.’”

Dean even asked about a gold-and-silver angel pin that Coles wears to honor her late cousin, Jael. “I told her the story behind it, and she was like, ‘That’s beautiful,’” Coles said. “And she showed me a bracelet of hers that she wears for someone who also passed.”

Dean’s group was celebrating a birthday; Coles said they requested Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” to play. “We brought out cheesecake,” Coles said. While Baltimore Seafood charges an 18% automatic gratuity, Coles said Dean’s party “did leave an extra tip.”

Dean even took time out of her show Wednesday night to offer some effusive praise for the restaurant where she said she had “one of the best meals I’ve had in a really long time.” While Dean didn’t name the spot where she indulged, fans noticed that Dean had posted a photo of a friend wearing a bib that said “Baltimore Seafood.” They quickly put two and two together.

Coles, who graduated this spring from Morgan State University with a degree in political science, said she’s been hearing from giddy friends ever since.

The restaurant has been giddy, too:

Banner columnist Kyle Goon contributed to this story.