The Dish: He sold one brunch empire. Now he’s building another in Baltimore.

Pastry chefs slathered white frosting and creamy dulce de leche onto gooey cinnamon rolls in the kitchen. By the coffee station, two baristas practiced drawing hearts in lattes while Jamie McKeither lowered a strawberry vanilla matcha martini onto a tray.

“They’re really tedious,” the bar manager said of the beverages, which take around three minutes each to prepare.

Nearby, executive chef Sammy Davis Jr. sat before two dishes that will be on the menu at Sunday Social, an all-day brunch spot in the former home of Papi Cuisine. One was a platter of fried rice served in a takeout box with a lobster tail peeking out. “I don’t want to speak badly about people’s brunches,” he said. “But I think they forget to center the plate.”

That’s not the case at Sunday Social. “This is a food-focused brunch, not a vibe-focused brunch,” Davis said.

For Davis, a longtime chef and “Chopped” winner who’s made his name on the breakfast-lunch hybrid meal, it’s all about what’s on the menu. After leaving Yeiboh Kitchen, the Station North restaurant he launched in 2024, Davis is teaming up with the Washington, D.C., area’s Miskiri Hospitality Group on a new concept he plans to take nationwide after it launches in South Baltimore in early August.

“Sammy’s been a veteran in the game for a long time,” said Jeffeary Miskiri, co-founder of Miskiri Hospitality Group. Miskiri says he got to know the chef when they had restaurants on the same block in D.C. years ago. His company also owns Miss Toya’s Creole House, which has a branch in Northwood Commons.

Sunday Social sees Davis applying lessons from a career that spans a range of cuisines and cities, including Nobu and Roy’s. “I came up under Asian chefs, and so in all my food, you’re going to see me always lean back to the Asian cuisine,” he says. But he’s just as likely to get inspiration from his surroundings.

In the weeks before opening Sunday Social at 2 E. Wells Street, Davis collected suggestions from neighbors using a comment box outside. A recurring request was for eggs Benedict, which Davis put on the menu. Another ask was for a full espresso bar; Sunday Social will offer Lavazza espresso beans. Coffee service will start at 6 a.m., with breakfast and brunch dishes available later in the day. Barista Nora Parnell said the eatery will be a place to do everything from “hosting a Zoom meeting to hosting your birthday party.”

Davis also did his own research. “I’ve eaten cinnamon rolls at probably 30 different places,” he said, including a TikTok-famous New York City bakery called Sunday Morning. The versions sold at Sunday Social are “as close as you can get” to that bakery’s wares and will be one of its signature items, Davis said.

Davis, a Philly native, sees Sunday Social as the next Milk & Honey, the chain of Southern-inspired brunch spots he founded in Atlanta, which now has dozens of locations nationwide. Davis said he sold the chain to Thompson Hospitality “for millions” in 2020, an amount that “changed my life.”

The payday afforded him the ability to pursue the restaurant of his dreams, called OPP. Located just around the corner from Sunday Social, the speakeasy restaurant set to open in mid-September is a solo venture inspired in part by his love for celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, whose portrait will hang on the walls. The eatery’s name is an acronym, Davis says, and has two meanings: “Oysters, Pizza & Pasta,” to reflect the items on its menu, and “Other People’s Paintings,” a nod to its artful decor. (It’s also the title of a raunchy Naughty by Nature song, where the last ‘P’ stands for... something else.)

It’s yet another splashy arrival from Davis, who seems to prefer making a big entrance to sticking around for the long haul. He sold his share in Yeiboh Kitchen to move on to the next project.

“That’s basically how I do my business,” he said, adding that he generally tries to “cash out” of any new venture after two years. It’s a career path that plays to his strengths. “I‘m really good at laying the foundation” of a new restaurant and generating buzz and recognition. But he gets bored by the day-to-day minutiae.

“I hate cooking,” he said. Fortunately, others seem to like what he’s been cooking up.