As owner of the Rowhouse Grille, Patrick Dahlgren organized fundraisers for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, raising some $250,000 over the years for blood cancer research. Later, he helped raise money for a scholarship fund in honor of Alex “Albo” Wroblewski, a former Rowhouse Grille bartender and friend who was killed in 2017 .
Dahlgren’s latest fundraising effort is more personal.
The restaurateur, who now owns Avenue Kitchen & Bar in Hampden, was recently diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. At 43 years old, he said the news “came out of left field.”
“It was such a shock to me,” said Dahlgren, who got a diagnosis after several months of stomach issues and just completed his first round of chemotherapy over the weekend. His team of doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital is hopeful he can recover without surgery. “We’re definitely feeling promising,” he said.
Dahlgren is among a growing number of younger adults diagnosed with colorectal cancer, a disease that doctors until recently didn’t screen for in patients under 50 years old. Millennials — people born between 1981 and 1996 — have twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer compared with people born in 1950, according to a 2017 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Doctors haven’t identified a reason for this increase, though they’re looking into whether diet, obesity, tobacco or alcohol use might be factors, according to the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Institute. Dahlgren’s doctors asked if he’d be willing to join a study of younger adults with colorectal cancer, and he agreed.
“I’m 43, walking around, working hard, playing hard, whatever – if there’s something I can add, I might as well do it,” he said.
His past charity efforts got him thinking about what more he could do to help. He decided to organize a new fundraising series aimed at supporting colon cancer research, with proceeds heading to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
The series will start Aug. 7 with an event at Avenue Kitchen & Bar. Dahlgren is still working out the specifics, but plans to offer special menus, passed hors d’oeuvres, a signature drink and entertainment. Guests may be charged a small entry fee, and he hopes they’ll stick around for dinner, with 10-15% of proceeds slated for the Kimmel Center. Dahlgren hopes to organize an even bigger fundraiser in September; details will be posted on the restaurant’s website and social media pages.
Todd Yuhanick, a spokesperson for Avenue Kitchen & Bar, said the event — intended to be a recurring one — will “(turn) this challenging time into an opportunity to make a positive impact.”
“Patrick has given so much to our community, and now it’s our turn to give back,” he said.
For his part, Dahlgren said he plans to attend the fundraisers to rally support. He’s scheduling them to coincide with breaks in his chemo treatment.
The restaurateur, who has run Avenue since 2017, said he’s taking a break from the day to day of the dining business whenever he can to focus on his recovery. He still owns the former Rowhouse Grille building but is not involved in the business, which became Octobar in 2023. Close friends, meanwhile, are supporting him with meals and more.
“I’m stepping back as much as I can,” he said.
Black Restaurant Week returns
In my previous column , I noted the start of Baltimore Summer Restaurant Week. Here’s another good reason to go out for a bite: Black Restaurant Week is back.
The event, which puts the spotlight on Black-owned eateries in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Houston, New York, the Bay Area and elsewhere, will run through Sunday and feature several local restaurants.
Baltimore-area participants include Connie’s Chicken and Waffles, Rize and Rest Cafe, Peppa Flame and England Eatery. You can find the full list of participating restaurants at blackrestaurantweeks.com .
Some of the participants may run specials for the week, but the broader aim is providing publicity for Black-owned businesses, said founder Warren Luckett.
“COVID-19 changed the landscape since 2020. Now, the price of food is soaring,” Luckett said in a statement. “From being overlooked for revitalization funds to inflation, most Black-owned culinary businesses cannot afford advertisements/PR/marketing to build awareness and attract consumers.”
Call for displaced chefs
A Baltimore candy maker wants to lend a hand to chefs who have had to close their restaurants.
Natasha Wainwright, the owner of Natasha’s Just Brittle and the B’More Made with Pride commercial kitchen on Harford Road, felt she was noticing more restaurants shutting their doors than usual. Though exact closure numbers are hard to come by, local restaurateurs have said they’re still feeling the ripples of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and changing consumer habits.
She decided she wanted to do something to help. Wainwright, along with a group of other Black women in the food and lifestyle industries who call themselves the “Culinary Queens Collective,” are launching the “Displaced Chefs” project, which will give chefs a platform to prepare and sell their food on the last weekend of the month from August through December.
Besides a refundable deposit, Wainwright doesn’t plan to charge any fees to participate. “I just want the chefs to come in and use the space to make their lovely cuisine,” she said. “I just want them to be inspired and to realize their dream again.”
She’s soliciting applications now for the August pop-up, set to run Aug. 29-31 at the Cafe @ B’More Made with Pride. Application forms, due on Aug. 2, can be found at https://cafeatbmore.com/pages/displaced-chefs-requirement .
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