How a West Baltimore food hall is bringing community back to North Avenue

Deborah Wilson, who grew up in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood during the 1980s, could never find a deli in West Baltimore. After church near Walbrook Junction along West North Avenue, she and her grandmother would drive across town to Attman’s Deli for a corned-beef sandwich. It was a luxury many of her friends didn’t have.

“They’ve got to catch the bus to the grocery store just to be able to grab some lunch meat,” Wilson said, noting that some stores were over three miles away.

Now she’s bringing her own deli to the neighborhood.

Wilson and her D&B Deli co-founder, Bianca Tabbs, have joined six other vendors operating out of The Mill on North, a new food hall at 2636 North Ave.

The lineup is filled with start-ups and well-established Baltimore businesses: soul food spot Next Phaze Cafe, Caribbean eatery 3 Chefs, Double Stack Burger shop, seafood purveyor Dream St. Cuisine, Krazy Sweet Desserts and a new bar, Cocktails at the Mill. The 10,000-square-foot space abuts Coppin State University and anchors the shiny new Walbrook Mill apartment complex that’s been years in the making.

It comes as part of a longstanding effort to transform West North Avenue — a highly traveled corridor marred by decades of disinvestment — and infuse more resources and amenities into the surrounding communities. About 300 people visited Thursday to celebrate the food hall’s grand opening.

Dan Ellis, chief executive of the Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore, said he hasn’t seen a project like The Mill before on West North Avenue. His nonprofit, dedicated to the development and housing concerns of West Baltimore communities, sank millions of dollars into the space, taking on about $2.75 million in debt.

It’s a worthwhile risk, said Ellis. He hopes the success of the hall, in a building that sat blighted and empty for more than two decades, will bolster property values and lead to more investment in vacant housing. Previous efforts have sputtered out over the years, despite westside neighborhoods having some of the highest vacancy rates in the city.

Fundraising for the $5 million project began in 2018 after a community meeting at which people said they wanted a place to take their families to dinner in West Baltimore. Significant contributions from nonprofits like Neighborworks Capital, state grants and Coppin State made redeveloping the space a possibility.

Plans for the project were considered “transformative” by developers in 2020. Efforts were put on ice less than a year later during the pandemic. After that, the development faced supply chain issues, funding delays and skepticism from community partners.

“This is why we exist,” Ellis said of his organization’s push for the project. “It’s not about having a huge balance sheet; it’s about using the privilege of the balance sheet to help the community you’ve promised to serve.”

Some people don’t believe the area deserves nice things, said April Richardson, a consultant and project manager for the food hall who has also lived in West Baltimore. She oversaw the design of the trendy new space, decorated with brightly colored murals and funky-shaped couches, along with the selection of vendors and their menus.

Richardson said the hall needed to be both fresh, fun and an extension of the surrounding community: showcasing work by local artists, stocking the bar with Maryland-made beverages and platforming vendors with ties to West Baltimore. Each business’s lease requires it to participate in three community events a year and offer at least one menu item that meets the U.S Food and Drug Administration’s new guidelines for healthy food.

Rent is below market rate to keep vendors’ food prices low, she said. Every stall has its own kitchen, and each menu is meant to fill a void in neighborhood offerings. Richardson, who says she can’t find smoothies or lattes along West North Avenue, said she usually drives at least 12 minutes to the nearest Royal Farms for her morning coffee.

Fresh produce and cold foods eligible for SNAP benefits are rare finds among the pre-packaged aisles of neighborhood corner stores. Students at Coppin State can also use their campus Eagle Cards to pay for meals.

Richardson said that while there are many corner stores in the area, it can be expensive to eat healthy and find a variety of foods because much of West Baltimore is considered to be a “healthy food priority area,” or food desert.

“There’s nothing but corner stores, liquor stores and churches, so I can get some chips, a drink and some Jesus,” Wilson said. “That’s all.”

It’s not an easy area in which to open up a business, Wilson said. She brings 20 years in the food industry operating bakeries in Baltimore and Prince George’s counties and Washington, D.C.

Still, when she approached suppliers about putting a deli on North Avenue, they didn’t take her seriously. “I wasn’t talking about getting chicken by the case. I was talking about: Can I get fresh produce?” she said. “They didn’t really buy into the idea.”

She jumped at the chance to join the food hall as a vendor. While Wilson had her doubts about the project and faced years of construction and other delays, she said those concerns pale in comparison to the payoff of bringing corned-beef sandwiches on house-baked bread to West Baltimore. She also makes homemade garlic mayo and mustard and will serve acai bowls and a range of blue raspberry and hibiscus mango-flavored lemonades.

“My argument is that North Avenue is no different from putting a food hall in Remington or downtown,” she said.

Since the food hall opened, seniors have showed up to play dominoes, and students to study. Community members volunteered to clean up the space and help with parking.

Wilson remembers a time when West Baltimore was filled with small parks and places for people to gather, but said those faded over the years.

It’s unclear yet whether The Mill on North will be successful in bringing back that sense of community, but in the meantime, she hopes it will save the next grandmother and granddaughter a drive across town.