10 most anticipated restaurant openings

restaurant’s home with its cuisine.

The new take on the harborside restaurant is expected to open on Feb. 9.

Urban Axes might be the only venue in Baltimore where patrons can hurl hatchets and sip beer when it opens this spring.

“Totally agree it sounds dangerous,” said Krista Poll, one of the company’s four co-founders. “Once you do it, you realize it’s not that dangerous.”

The 10,000-square-foot Baltimore facility will have six throwing areas, similar to batting cages, with a painted wood target at the end of each 14-foot-long aisle.

Groups will be able to sign up for 2½-hour sessions, where they learn how to throw properly and take turns tossing 14-inch hatchets under an instructors’ supervision.

The facility allows two people in a group to throw at once, while the rest watch from behind a bar-height counter.

Serving Korean fried chicken to the sounds of jazz tunes, this restaurant is a spinoff of New Jersey’s Roosterspin.

Owner Michelle Min likened the food to an upscale version of the Korean fried chicken at BonChon, housed in a high-end, industrial-themed space.

As the name suggests, the restaurant will also serve soju, a traditional Korean alcohol. Prices will range from $10 to $30. The Locust Point restaurant will be housed in the Anthem House apartment complex.

This trendy Annapolis-based restaurant will open an Inner Harbor location this fall. Blackwall Hitch, which specializes in steak and seafood, also has restaurants in Alexandria, Va., and Rehoboth Beach, Del.

The 10,000-plus-square-foot restaurant will have a mezzanine, two bars, outdoor seating and approximately 350 seats, said Derek Fink, COO of Mid-States Management Group, which manages Blackwall Hitch. Blackwall Hitch plans to host live music three to four nights per week, including a jazz-themed Sunday buffet brunch, according to Fink.

A common theme throughout Blackwall Hitch restaurants is striking décor, Fink said, which he described as “coastal themed” and “modern chic.” The Baltimore location will be no different.

“Our décor is a big part of who we are, and what we’re doing,” Fink said.

When this brewery from husband-andwife team Judy and Rob Neff and friend Steve Marsh opens in South Baltimore this spring, the taproom will also incorporate a kitchen.

The brewery aims to produce 1,000 barrels in its first year. When the taproom opens, Neff said, Checkerspot will regularly carry eight or nine beers on tap, plus one or two cask beers.

“The goal is to have something for everybody,” Neff said.

Checkerspot is on track to open in March.

This vegan soul food restaurant based in Midtown is opening a second location in the Middle East neighborhood.

“There’s a lot of development going on over there, and because we already cater for Hopkins, it makes a lot of sense,” said Naija Wright Brown, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Gregory Brown. “We were already on the west side, and we wanted to open another location on the east side.”

The new restaurant will serve some of the items from the original Land of Kush as part of an expanded menu.

“Hopkins is over there and growing, and it’s just a growing area, and so we wanted to be part of that and also provide something for … the people in that community as well,” Gregory Brown said. “We like the mix of professional and residential, longstanding Baltimore citizens, and we want to be able to offer them healthy food.”

Look for the doors to open in early fall.

While it’s not exclusively one bar or restaurant, the Union Collective will house a number of food and drink purveyors when it opens its doors this spring. They include the collective’s namesake Union Craft Brewing Co., Vent Coffee Roasters, ice cream shop the Charmery, Baltimore Whiskey Co. and Huckle’s hot sauce.

Union Craft will anchor the 10½-acre manufacturing and retail complex. Union has partnered with Seawall Development Co. — the company that developed R. House food hall and other new developments in Remington — on the project.