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A Culinary Tour of Booming West Street
 | | David A. Colburn | | Tsunami brings a bit of the slick Soho look to West Street in Annapolis. |
Feel like some bangers and mash, or enchiladas and refried beans? Maybe it’s a martini you’re after, accompanied by a star anise-seared tuna with coconut Thai basil risotto.
Whatever your culinary preference, you’ll find plenty to please your palate along the rejuvenated West Street, which draws a growing number of locals and adventurous tourists.
Less than a decade after the area emptied with the close of business each night, it’s no accident that restaurants and the accompanying nightlife have arrived along West Street, just off Church Circle. The city devised a plan to revive the neighborhood in 1985, but zoning controversies and the recession of the early 1990s stalled the effort. Today, West Street’s booming with new restaurants, bars, a few funky shops and tens of millions of dollars worth of new development.
From Church Circle west for a half-mile – to a new traffic circle called Westgate Circle – banners declare “it’s happening” here. The new West Village complex will transform a group of houses into two more restaurants, a day spa, a woman’s fashion shop and a gift shop. Preliminary work has begun on the seven-acre Park Place, a $165 million-plus development with a 225-room, four-star hotel, a 1,200-seat performing arts center, a 200-unit condominium building, two office buildings and a 1,400-car underground parking garage. Retail shops will line the first floor of the office buildings and hotel.
Tourists can’t help but discover the street. The city’s visitor center – formally known as the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitor’s Bureau - is inside a white brick Georgian at 26 West Street. A contemporary arts-and-crafts gallery, ARTFX, and a fun store full of intriguing musical instruments, Acousticopia, have opened here in the past year. And the new O’Callaghan Hotel Annapolis has opened near the Loews Annapolis Hotel.
Lisa Culver, Loews’ sales and marketing director, says some of the hotel’s guests – mostly those in town for a wedding or business – never make it as far as City Dock. “You find there’s enough to keep them entertained and pleased,” she says.
Here’s a guide to the restaurants and nightlife along West Street:
 | | David A. Colburn | | Dining al fresco is popular at West Street restaurants in warm weather. |
The Ram’s Head Tavern, home to the Fordham Brewing Company, has grown from its early days as a basement pub – for years, West Street’s lone nightspot. Now, it’s a restaurant and entertainment venue that draws regional and national acts such as Aaron Neville, Lyle Lovett and Bo Diddley up to five nights a week. Botanical prints cover the tablecloths, and brass rings hold the half-curtains in clubby dining rooms and two bars. Visible through the archways in the main bar are the sturdy copper vats – “the largest six-pack in Annapolis,” as they’re called – where Fordham beers are brewed. Seven are served here, including Copperhead Ale, Oyster Stout and Fordham Light, along with a seasonal brew. The menu focuses on pub-style grub, like a Fordham beer-battered shrimp entrée, reubens, burgers, fish and chips and a shrimp salad sandwich. Jambalayas, chicken and seafood dishes dominate the entrée list. Local musicians play the pub rooms and, in good weather, the garden patio, many nights during the week. Call for ticket info. 33 West St.; 410-268-4545.
Sean Donlon’s Irish Pub & Restaurant was sold not long ago to Irishman James Finlay and his wife, Pam, who operate a Washington bar called the Sign of the Whale that’s known for celebrating things Irish. Worn wood floors and dark wood dominate the dining areas, which seem like a cozy refuge from a Celtic chill. Here, you’ll find bangers and mash (a traditional Irish sausage, served with mashed potatoes and vegetables) along with other hearty Irish fare, and more exotic dishes like sautéed veal scalloppini and wild mushroom pasta. Goldfish swim in the dining patio’s pond out back; the dartboard’s
 | | David A. Colburn | | Gary Robertson pours a pint at Sean Donlon's Irish Pub & Restaurant. |
alongside the front entry. Donlon’s features Irish music Tuesday to Sunday 9 p.m. to closing. 37 West St.; 410-263-1993.
At a mere seven months old, Lotsa Pasta is the baby on the block, having moved in where Tony’s Pizza stood for eons. The Mediterranean blue of Amalfi coast scenes brighten white stucco walls. The 14 tables extend the color scheme with cobalt-blue bread plates atop white linen. Choose from pizza, zuppas, antipasti, insalatas and pastas. 36 West St.; 410-267-9950.
For a Mexican meal at a good price, try El Toro Bravo. Hanging philodendrons ring the two dining rooms, tendrils linked into a living frame for the bright murals of Mexican village life. Settle in at an aqua booth and order from a mix of tacos, enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, tamales and fajitas that dominate the menu. For lunch, the combo specials, numbered one through 10, could not be more reasonably priced. 50 West St.; 410-267-5949.
49 West Coffeehouse & Winebar brought art openings and jazz to West Street with its December 1995 debut, all in an establishment serving the sort of food and drink you might encounter in a Florentine café-bar. Nobody minds if you want to settle in at a corner table to read. Or watch the street life pass from one of the window nooks. Artists’ work hangs from the walls. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served; look for healthy and creative sandwiches like the pesto tuna steak, along with quiches, salads, soups and a handful of entrees, including pastas. 49 West also is a popular dessert stop in the evenings. There’s live music Tuesday to Sunday evenings. 49 West St.; 410-626-9796.
 | | David A. Colburn | | You can see the huge copper vats where the beer is brewed at the Ram's Head Tavern's Fordham Brewery. |
Gavin Buckley and Jody Danek, who opened the Pan-Asian restaurant
Tsunami in 1999, understand their hip, fast-forward fare brought something new to the street. “Our object is to try to get a foothold in here,” says Buckley, seated at the sleek, stainless steel bar that dominates Tsunami. Buckley and Danek, with their wives, Julie Williams and Kristin Lewis, respectively, along with other partners, are behind the restaurants and other businesses that will open at West Village. The hip factor is high at Tsunami, where open ceilings show ductwork painted white. The sushi’s good, but don’t overlook the entrees with creative sauces like rockfish en papillote with coconut curry sauce. A late-night sushi bar is open nightly. 51 West St.; 410-990-9868.
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Allison Blake is the author of The Chesapeake Bay Book: A Complete Guide. Click to purchase The Chesapeake Bay Book.
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