More details emerged Friday about the Hot Dry, a new Chinese-inspired eatery that will take the place of Minnow following a quick transformation of the South Baltimore restaurant.
Minnow served its last meal Aug. 24, and the Hot Dry will open in its place Saturday. Co-owner Ben Lefenfeld and friends refurbished the restaurant’s interior in just a week. "We were very concerned about closing for a while and losing some of the staff,” Lefenfeld said, commenting on the rapid turnaround of the space.
Lefenfeld worked with Minnow chef Sarah Murray to write a new menu inspired by the cuisine of China’s Hubei province. Highlights will include soup dumplings and house-made knife-cut noodles spiced up with Szechuan peppercorns.
The restaurant’s name is a reference to “hot dry noodles,” a popular street food in Wuhan, China.Lefenfeld admitted he had yet to visit the city.
“We’re not trying to say that this is authentic cuisine or that this is exactly what you would find in Wuhan,” Lefenfeld said. “In my opinion the most important thing is we are just making everything from scratch as far as the noodles and dumplings.”
Minnow opened in April 2017 in the first floor of an apartment building on East Wells Street.
Lefenfeld and his wife, Amy, and brother, Jake, are also the proprietors behind La Cuchara in Woodberry.