The kids will do the same thing they always do on the Avenue: hit the shops for candy, then gather near Holy Frijoles for the costume contest that Hampden has run for something like fifty years, judged the same loose way it always has, in categories like scariest, prettiest, and most original. That part hasn't changed. What has changed is what's behind the storefront glass they're trick-or-treating past. Since last Halloween, three kitchens on or just off 36th Street have opened under owners who weren't serving anyone in Hampden a year ago, and one longtime shop closed its doors for good this spring. The ritual is fixed. The block underneath it keeps moving.
The Walk Hasn't Moved. The Storefronts Have.
Hampden Merchants, the association that backs more than 140 small businesses along the corridor, is the reason the candy still gets handed out and the reason the Kiwanis-judged costume contest still has prizes to give away, this year donated by shops like Atomic Books, Golden West Cafe, and NV Salon Collective. That continuity matters, because everything else about the Avenue's food and drink scene has been in motion for most of 2026. Three storefronts changed hands with new kitchens inside them. One closed for good. None of that shows up if you only look at the neighborhood from a festival calendar. It shows up if you walk the block twice, a year apart.
What's New Since Last Halloween
Hana Hampden opened January 10 in the space that used to be Souvlaki. It's a sushi and sake bar from owner Tina Chen, who also runs Yama Sushi in Ellicott City, and general manager Andrew Liang has described the vibe as high-end technique without the stuffiness, whole fish broken down in-house rather than bought pre-cut. For the first month it ran reservation-only, a small detail that tells you the kitchen wanted to get its footing before the Avenue's usual foot traffic found it.
Seppia opened April 2 on the corner of 36th and Elm, and it's the more consequential arrival of the two. The owners are Ben, Amy, and Jake Lefenfeld, the same family behind La Cuchara, Hampden-Woodberry's long-running Basque restaurant, which had been closed for repairs after a January fire. Seppia is their pivot east, from the Basque coast to the Italian one, in a 250-seat space built around an original terra cotta wall that the team restored and now showcases behind the bar. Ben Lefenfeld has said the point of a second restaurant was to give his own staff somewhere to grow into, rather than watch them leave for bigger kitchens elsewhere. The pasta program is the center of the menu, and Ben has talked about fresh pasta as something you can't reheat, something that only works in the moment it's made.
Viale Pizza is the newest and the strangest path to Hampden. Its owners, Kate Shotwell and Mack Fowler, used to run Key Neapolitan by Verde and Crushed Velvet out of a converted gas station on Key Highway in Federal Hill, a seasonal setup limited to six months a year because it had no real walls. This spring they closed that location and moved the whole operation into the former Paulie Gee's space on Chestnut Avenue, inheriting two wood-fired Neapolitan ovens the previous tenant left behind. The name changed to Viale Pizza, but the format didn't: pizza up front, Hawaiian-style shaved ice near the door, ping pong and pool in the back. The bigger shift is that they can finally run twelve months a year instead of six, which is a meaningful change for a business that spent three years watching its own calendar cut in half every winter.
Here's what that turnover looks like laid out by address:
| Location | Previous Tenant | New Tenant | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Avenue, former Souvlaki space | Souvlaki | Hana Hampden (sushi, sake) | January 2026 |
| Corner of 36th and Elm | Vacant commercial space | Seppia (Italian, 250 seats) | April 2026 |
| 3535 Chestnut Ave | Paulie Gee's | Viale Pizza (pizza, shaved ice) | Summer 2026 |
What Didn't Make It
Not every change on the Avenue this year was an opening. Maillard Patisserie, the pastry shop known for its sea salt chocolate chip cookies, closed both its Hampden and Hamilton-Lauraville locations this spring. Owner Caitlin Kiehl said running a small business full time for five-plus years had become mentally and physically exhausting, and that she needed time away from it. It's worth sitting with that alongside the three openings above, because a neighborhood this size doesn't gain three kitchens without losing something else. Hampden's commercial turnover isn't a story about growth outpacing decline or the reverse. It's a story about a fixed number of storefronts changing hands faster than most residents notice.
What Still Anchors the Block
Not everything moved. Hampden Yards, the outdoor beer garden tucked behind the Avenue near Hickory Street, reopened for its 2026 season on March 26 with a redone bar, covered seating, and full-time food from Raffy's on 36th, plus a hot dog cart from Glizzys. It's the same backyard-off-the-Avenue concept it's always been, just with better shelter over the bar. A few blocks over, Nepenthe Brewing Co.'s taproom keeps running its Halloween weekend the way it has for years, a full changeover into a haunted hangout with a themed menu and horror movies on the wall.
And then there's the Avenue's actual Halloween tradition, which has outlasted every restaurant mentioned above. Hampden Merchants will be out along 36th Street handing out candy the way they do every year, and the costume contest will run near the old Bank of America building next to Holy Frijoles, judged in the same loose categories it's used for decades. That contest predates Hana Hampden, Seppia, and Viale Pizza combined. It will likely outlast whatever comes after them, too.
The Route If You're Walking It This Year
If you're taking kids down the Avenue this Halloween, or just want an excuse to see what's changed, here's a sequence that covers the new openings without doubling back:
- Start near the Hampden Yards courtyard entrance and grab a snack from Raffy's on 36th before the crowds build.
- Walk west along 36th to check out Hana Hampden's storefront, even if you're not stopping for sushi with kids in costume.
- Continue to 36th and Elm to see Seppia's restored terra cotta wall through the windows, one of the more striking pieces of interior work to land on the Avenue this year.
- Cut over to Chestnut Avenue for a look at Viale Pizza in the old Paulie Gee's space, especially if you remember what that storefront looked like a year ago.
- Loop back to the Avenue for trick-or-treating and the costume contest near the old Bank of America building, the one part of the night that hasn't moved in fifty years.
Turnover Is the Point, Not the Problem
None of this is a complaint about change. Hampden has been trading one tenant for another since the mills closed and the artists moved in during the early 1990s. What's useful for anyone who actually lives here is having the turnover named specifically, rather than filed under a vague sense that "things keep changing" on the Avenue. Three kitchens. One closure. A beer garden with a new roof. A costume contest that doesn't care what year it is. That's the actual shape of 2026 in Hampden, and it's worth knowing before you're standing outside Holy Frijoles wondering why the corner three doors down looks different than it did last year.
If you've lived through a few of these cycles and started wondering what they mean for your own house on one of Hampden's side streets, that's a different conversation, and one Brian Dinardo has been having with Baltimore buyers and sellers since 2001. Let's Connect whenever you're ready to talk through it.
