Take a Tour of Good Neighbor, the Café-Meets-Shop Peddling Small Bites and Cute Wares in Baltimore
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The idea behind Shawn Chopra and Anne Morgan’s Good Neighbor was simple: excellent café bites and drinks served on plates or in mugs that are also for sale. While COVID-19 may have put dreams of indoor gatherings on pause, the Baltimore-based café, which features a casual-yet-experimental small plates menu led by chef Durian Neal, is finding new ways to host its customers.
More than just a curated retail experience showcasing local artisans, socially-distanced events, like Good Neighbor’s “Chaat Hour,” offer a chance for the community to gather safely. The outdoor, ticketed snack times (live music included!) offer a much-needed hangout spot during an era otherwise marked by collective isolation. Here we chatted with Chopra about some of his favorite items in the shop.
“People kept asking to take home our chef’s version of a PB&J (which is served on fresh brioche bread from nearby Cunningham’s bakery, and sometimes finished off with garnishes like lavender), so we started bottling our housemade tahini butter and raspberry ajwain jam.”
“Our menu taps into our chef’s Jamaican heritage and me and my wife and co-owner, Anne Morgan’s respective Indian and Egyptian roots. For example, this toast is made with pomegranate, spiced chickpeas, and what we call ‘peach water,’ which is basically a gelatinous peach reduction. We also have a paneer grilled cheese, among other bites. Overall, we wanted the food to be fun while keeping it at an accessible price point.
Personal Best was the first ceramicist I approached for the shop; Whitney Simpkins’ work [like the plate pictured above] is beautiful. When it’s safe to do dine-in, we plan to keep some of the ceramics for service.”
“Keepwell does world-class fermentation and their vinegars are used by a lot of chefs in the Baltimore, D.C., and Philly areas. The ingredients are all sourced-locally and they make some lesser-seen flavors. We’ve used various ones in our cocktail menu, as well as in dressings during some of our ‘Chaat Hour’ events.”
“Whenever I went to India in my teenage years, I was fascinated by the stackable lunch containers; tiffins are a good way to separate your lunch so certain foods or flavors don’t mix, even if you’re just doing work-from-home leftovers. We dream of doing pop-up dinners at Good Neighbor with these.”
"In our backyard, we have a collaboration with local florists Amanda Fennell Andrews and Alyssa Zygmunt called Greenhouse at Good Neighbor. It’s a little different because there’s a dried flower bar where you can buy what we call ‘forever bouquets,’ which are bouquets that last for the long haul. Try them with this vase for a unique visual experience at home.”
