Aspic Alert: Woman's Industrial Exchange to reopen

"This will be a living history museum celebrating Maryland women," says Smith, who is planning menu items honoring Maryland women like Barbara Mikulksi and Nancy Pelosi. Smith is confident she will able to recruit the kind of waitress that will fit into the program -- "they have to be sassy and motherly." Asked whether a man would qualify for the job, Smith said, "as long as he's sassy and motherly, yes."

Since 1880, the mission of the Woman's Industrial Exchange has been to "provided opportunities for local craft artists to refine, market, and sell their handmade goods to supplement their income." The gift store, which operates on a consignment basis, has remained in operation. The Exchange moved into the building at 333 N. Charles St. in 1887 and purchased it in 1889.

UPDATE, Oct. 18, 8 p.m. The lunchroom's recent history is complicated. It shut down in 2002, and reopened 18 month later, in December 2003, after an extensive renovation with an outside operator named Rozz DuPree who ran it as a close facsimile of the orginal. The lunchroom closed again in January 2005 only to reopen that same October with a new operator, Jerry Edwards, a new name, Chef's Express, and a new concept - at this pont, there was no longer table service. Bridget and Galen Sampson of The Dogwood assumed the lunchroom's operations in late 2008 and lasted there just about a year.

Meanwhile, a Sofi's Crepes operated on the lower level for several years until recently, when Ann Costlow moved began a relocation to Belvedere Square. The Exchange's board is very close to naming a new operation to go into that space.