ROCK HALL — It’s a humid Tuesday evening in early July and the dining room at the Flying Decoy Bar & Grill on Rock Hall Avenue is filled with the sound of hungry patrons. To say nothing of the adjacent bar area, from which spurts of animated micro-conservations emanate.
One of Kent’s newer restaurants, this place, once home to the Bay Wolf Restaurant, was purchased last winter and updated to better reflect the tastes of its new owner and chef, Chris Golder, using a pleasing neutral palette to complement the colorful series of stained-glass windows that are synonymous with and grace this building’s main dining room.
Golder steps in as a seasoned entrepreneur to this restaurant space from his last full-time role in the kitchen of 98 Cannon Riverfront Grille in Chestertown. Taking a quasi-hiatus since its closing in 2021 due to a fire, Golder, who was a partner at 98 Cannon, says he had been looking into other opportunities, but was not content to proceed until the Bay Wolf property came on the market.
Not one to be a bulk restaurant supply shopper, Golder says he prefers to cook from scratch, and has crafted a menu that speaks to the seasonally appropriate and locally advantageous. For instance, his ‘Basic Burger’ is anything but, as it serves up as eight-ounces of the finest beef from Roseda Black Angus Farm in Monkton, served on a toasted, brioche roll.
Like its ‘decoy’ namesake, this item just flies off the menu along with the salmon BLT, the blackened local catfish, and the harvest pasta prepared in a squash puree with fresh veggies, a basil and walnut pesto, goat cheese, and finished with a dusting of herbed breadcrumbs.
“I think we do simple food and, hopefully, present it well,” said Golder. “I spent eight years on private yachts and got to travel around. So, I think when I was over in Europe, you got to see the simple food just done really well, just using really good ingredients. We maybe just take a twist on some things.”
Golder’s appreciation of scratch cooking has followed him since his solid start at Baltimore’s Brass Elephant Restaurant. Nearly every step along his culinary path since then could best be described as an experience in “Let’s see what we have to cook with,” as opposed to “Let’s order a bunch of this and cook it,” with time well spent at the Hyatt Regency and The Boathouse Canton where he was the general manager/chef.
“I guess it’s just the way that I was brought up,” explained Golder. “A lot of people sit there and tell me I could take shortcuts, but at the same time, it’s hard for me to do dishes that if you go to [a distributor] and you buy patties that are already made—frozen fish and stuff like that. It’s just not me.”
While the menu is certainly elevated in its purpose to be flavorful and offer a little something for everyone, Golder said he is also conscious to keep an eye on price points for the inflation-weary among us, and to source from as many local vendors as he possibly can. His list includes Lockbriar Farms, Nice Farms Creamery and Crow Vineyard and Winery.
The current menu includes three seasonal salads, including a roasted beet and goat cheese, an on-going crab cake special, and a respectable wine list that he says will be improved upon as he goes. Golder is also an accomplished pastry chef and offers nightly dessert options, including flourless chocolate cake and apple cobbler ala mode.
Something that he is currently doing is offering a special Thursday Steak and Lobster night that features $7 martinis, and a surf- and turf-based menu that includes an eight-ounce Marinated Grill Bavette Steak with sides for $29 and a Stuffed Lobster with Crab Imperial for $38. All dinners come with a house or spinach salad, and a baked potato, hand-cut fries, or whipped potatoes.
Currently open for lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday, Golder said he is pleased so far with the dinner traffic, and will give his lunch hours a chance to take hold over the course of the next year.
To that end he is currently offering a three-course lunch special for $14.
As for the future, Golder remains hopeful as he realizes the need for consistent, solid restaurant options persists in our small community and his plan to tweak the menu with a ‘let’s see what we have to cook with’ approach is one way he can see those needs are best served.
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