Visitors to Hunt Valley Town Centre are spoiled for choice when it comes to restaurants to choose from. Home to more than 20 different restaurants, from popular chains to independently run operations, there’s something to suit every visitor’s taste.
But this wasn’t always true. In 2011, the area was primarily home to chain restaurants, and the Town Centre wasn’t the community hub it is today. But that year, Barrett’s Grill opened there and helped to usher in a new wave of restaurants.
Over a decade later, Barrett’s Grill is still a popular spot for casual lunches, family dinners and private business events. It’s the longest-operating independently owned restaurant in Hunt Valley Town Centre.
“The mission statement of this restaurant is ‘Great, consistent food, great, consistent service, clean restaurant,’” says Nick Moliunaro, the general manager of Barrett’s Grill.
“When you have all three of those things, you can have a very successful operation. You don’t need a master plan or a menu of 40 pages; you just have to give your guests what they need.”
That mission statement was referenced many times during Molinaro’s interview with Baltimore Style, and has always influenced how the restaurant is run.
Barrett’s Grill was the first restaurant under the Stonebridge Restaurant Group, the parent company that continues to operate it to this day.
The company was founded by restaurant namesake John Barrett and his business partner Mike Sipes, who are still active in the group’s restaurants and their day-to-day operations.
“They took their knowledge from other businesses and decided they wanted to do something new on their own,” recalls John Linderman, general manager of Glyndon Grill. “They had the expertise and they had the commitment, and they wanted to start their own restaurant. So Barrett’s grill was the very first iteration of their vision.”
Its sibling restaurants include sister location Barrett’s on the Pike in Bel Air, Glyndon Grill in Glyndon and Full Moon Pub and Grill in Reisterstown, though the latter is currently undergoing renovations and rebranding.
While these restaurants each have their own, distinct identity, they share some common traits that unify them as being part of the same group.
“You’ll find some similarities between some of the restaurants, and common menu items that are popular throughout the company, so guests can get a similar feeling as soon as they walk in,” Linderman says. “Most guests know that they’re at a Stonebridge restaurant concept when they walk in, because there are some similar menu items. In terms of the culture, feel and commitment, we’re all on the same page there.”
The name of the game at Barrett’s Grill is “upscale casual” food that feels classy but doesn’t take a long time to prepare or eat.
“I have more businesspeople coming in for lunch,” Molinaro explains. “They want to be in and out the door in an hour. So I have to have items that I can execute very consistently and very well in that timeframe, which is one of the things I think we do very well here.”
But that commitment to timeliness doesn’t mean that the chefs at Barrett’s Grill take shortcuts like using frozen or pre-prepared ingredients. The restaurant has a scratch kitchen, so ingredients are either made in-house or delivered fresh from local vendors.
One of the best examples of this from-scratch approach is also one of the restaurant’s most popular desserts: the Berries Napoleon, a signature item that appears at all Stonebridge restaurants.
Named because of its layered structure, the Berries Napoleon incorporates handmade whipped cream, which has a richer and more complex flavor than store-bought whipped cream. Linderman notes that customers are often surprised to learn that the whipped cream is made from scratch.
The menu at Barrett’s Grill changes twice a year, with more of a focus on light fare and seafood in the summer and an emphasis on richer comfort food in the winter. But some items are so popular that they’re year-round staples.
The restaurant’s best-selling appetizer is Shrimp Cargot, which is shrimp cooked in a similar style to escargot and served with French bread for dipping. And the Mango Mandarin salad, which incorporates seasonal fruit, has been on the menu since day one.
Barrett’s Grill also tests out new menu items during Baltimore County Restaurant Week, an event it has been participating in for several years.
“We will introduce some new items on [Restaurant Week] menus and see how they’re received, and if they’re received well, they might make it on the main menu,” Linderman says. “It gives our culinary team the opportunity to interject some new items and play with the menu a little bit.”
At the time of writing, the Barrett’s Grill team is preparing for an influx of guests that come in to watch the Friday Night Live: Summer Concert Series, which takes place on the Town Centre’s upper deck.
“We have a tremendous amount of people that like to come in and eat dinner, and they sit on the patio and get dinner and a show,” Molinaro says.