Spike Gjerde
Woodberry Kitchen | Baltimore, MD
October 2019
Iowa-born and Baltimore-raised Spike Gjerde holds degrees in philosophy and Chinese, but it was an 18-month apprenticeship in pastry at Pâtisserie Poupon in Baltimore that laid the ground for a career in food. Gjerde burst onto the Baltimore food scene in 1991 when he opened Spike & Charlie’s with his brother. That restaurant was the first expression of Gjerde’s belief in cooking with local, seasonal ingredients. It was an idea way ahead of its time and set the restaurant, and its chef, apart.
Gjerde continued setting trends with the neighborhood bistro, jr., the emphatically fresh seafood restaurant Atlantic, and pan-Latin Joy America Café. A partnership in Vespa even allowed Gjerde to explore the Italian side of his creativity. Remaining hands on and true to his principles as his empire expanded, he opened Woodberry Kitchen in 2007, where his matured, refined cuisine continues to broadcast an enduring commitment to sustainability. He followed Woodberry with Artifact Coffee, the sustainably comfortable Shoo-Fly Diner, and the whole animal butcher shop and restaurant, Parts & Labor.
In 2015, Gjerde took home the James Beard award for “Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic.” Gjerde reached Washington, D.C., in fall 2016, when he opened A Rake’s Progress in the equally young Line Hotel. The restaurant received critical acclaim, including 2.5 stars from Tom Sietsema in the Washington Post, for Gjerde’s seamless and ambitious extension of his zeroed-in local sourcing to the hotel scale. Gjerde’s realm may be ever expanding, but his cooking remains as rooted as ever.
