No one tells the story of Faidley’s Seafood and Lexington Market better the legendary Nancy Devine, whose daughter Damye Hahn is opening Catonsville’s newest upscale, exquisite dining experience The Fishmonger’s Daughter on Frederick Road amidst spring Preakness and Crab Derby racing at the original location this week.

Nestor Aparicio interviews Nancy Devine and Damye Hahn about the history and future of Faidley’s Crab Derby and The Fishmonger’s Daughter in Catonsville. Nancy reminisces about the Preakness and the crab race, now in its 50th year. Damye discusses the new restaurant, which offers an elevated seafood experience with Maryland-sourced ingredients, extensive cocktail and wine lists, and a refined menu. The restaurant, housed in a 100-year-old building, features original plaster ceilings, restored wood, and art pieces from the old market. They aim to be fully operational by mid-June, emphasizing community and family values.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host a Baltimore Positive broadcast at Fishmonger’s Daughter next Thursday and feature the restaurant on-air (arrange guests and program details for that broadcast).
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Organize the Maryland Treasure scratch-off giveaway event at Fishmonger’s Daughter on the 21st (coordinate giveaways with Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and partners and confirm logistics).
• [ ] Appear on the next-Thursday broadcast and point out all elements in the new Fishmonger’s Daughter location that tie back to the original Faidley’s at Lexington Market (prepare talking points/artifact notes).
• [ ] Ramp up Fishmonger’s Daughter operations toward full service and aim to be in full operation by mid-June (complete staffing, menu rollout, and service readiness).
• [ ] Train all new front- and back-of-house staff so the team can operate smoothly together before reaching full operation (build teamwork and service routines).
• [ ] Ensure reservations are available and functioning through OpenTable and the Fishmonger’s Daughter website (verify booking links and monitor reservation flow).

Nancy Devine’s Return to Lexington Market

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to Baltimore Positive and introduces Nancy Devine, a long-time presence at Lexington Market.
• Nancy Devine shares her love for Lexington Market and mentions a group from Costa Rica who visit the market frequently.
• Nancy appreciates the crab cakes made by a young man who has been with her for many years, ensuring the quality remains high.
• Nancy reflects on the Preakness and the crab race event, which has been a tradition for almost 50 years.

Damye Hahn’s Vision for The Fishmonger’s Daughter

• Nestor Aparicio introduces Damye Hahn, who has been involved in the business for many years.
• Damye Hahn describes The Fishmonger’s Daughter as a refined, elevated seafood kitchen, a step up from the market location.
• Nestor Aparicio compares the new restaurant to an all-star show of family recipes, showcasing 150 years of culinary heritage.
• Damye Hahn emphasizes the focus on Maryland products, including farm-to-table offerings, Maryland craft beers, and a comprehensive cocktail and wine list.

Restoration and Artistic Elements of The Fishmonger’s Daughter

• Damye Hahn discusses the painstaking restoration of the 100-year-old building, preserving its original features like floors and plaster ceilings.
• The building’s charm and warmth are highlighted, with every piece of wood being recycled from the roof or other parts of the building.
• Damye Hahn describes the focal piece of art made from the building that was torn down, featuring original radiators and oyster shells.
• The restaurant aims to maintain the community feel of the old market, with large communal tables and a welcoming atmosphere.

Community and Family Ties in Catonsville

• Nestor Aparicio and Damye Hahn discuss their connections to Catonsville and Ellicott City, emphasizing the family’s long-standing roots in the area.
• Damye Hahn shares the story of how her husband found the perfect building in Catonsville, despite the extensive restoration work required.
• The family’s commitment to the community is evident, with plans to accommodate tourists and locals alike in the new restaurant.
• The restaurant aims to be fully operational by mid-June, with a focus on building a strong team and maintaining the high standards of service.

Future Plans and Community Engagement

• Damye Hahn and her team are working on training new staff to ensure the same level of service and teamwork as the old market location.
• The restaurant will offer a variety of dishes, including seafood, chicken, and steak, with a focus on elevating traditional recipes.
• Nestor Aparicio highlights the importance of community engagement, mentioning local politicians and other community leaders who have supported the new venture.
• The Fishmonger’s Daughter aims to become a destination for both locals and tourists, offering a unique dining experience that showcases Maryland’s culinary heritage.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Faidley’s Crab Derby, Fishmonger’s Daughter, Nancy Devine, Damye Hahn, Catonsville, Maryland seafood, crab cakes, Preakness, Lexington Market, restaurant renovation, community dining, Maryland craft beers, elevated kitchen, family recipes, artisanal cocktails.

8

SPEAKERS

Nancy Devine, Damye Hahn, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are, W, N, S, T AM, 1570 tasks. Baltimore. We are, Baltimore, positive, positively here in one of the great places in Baltimore, we’re lexing the market. We’re faintly seafood. And I have brought the Queen onto the program today. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. GBMC and our friends at foreign Dermer Nancy Devine stares at me on the wall here, right next to parks fried chicken and Lexington market. And I always say when I’m here, you’re smiling at me. But if I start to use bad language, I start saying anything bad about Baltimore, if I start talking about my cholesterol level being up, that you’re going to start pointing at me the wrong way, give me a hard time. Howard, so good to see you. It’s been a while. Yes,

Nancy Devine  00:45

it has been a while. I was coming down more frequently, but as I’ve gotten older, it’s a little bit more difficult. But I love being here. I love seeing there was a group here just a few minutes ago from Costa Rica that stopped in and said, This is one of the first places they come to when they come back to this country. So all of that is music to my ears. I love it. I love being around the people, and I appreciate still that wonderful crab cake that we have here. And thank goodness the young man that Danelle you’ve met over the years that stood by my side for so many years is still here, still making the crab cake exactly the way I wanted. So I appreciate that. So I have to come in and check on him every now and then, but it was a special day today with the Preakness and the crab race that we’ve been doing for now almost 50 years or more, I’m really not sure, and it’s been a fun experience, and it just seems to get better every year. And we enjoyed so much you being here and and helping us out with it, because it

Nestor Aparicio  02:03

8

here comes Dami, it on over here. Keep going.

Nancy Devine  02:06

It makes it even more fun. So we had a great crowd today, and the weather held off and a little bit breezy, but that was fine. Maybe it helped the crabs a little bit more to move around. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  02:23

Shalonda Stokes, with Downtown Partnership, her crab made it, you know, to the finish line for damians here, her mom, Nancy, the purveyors of fine crab cakes and seafood. And I haven’t seen you in months. I have gone over to Catonsville, you know, I’ve been doing business State Fair and Evan and Beaumont, and I’ve, you know, saw the outside, then I saw the inside, then I knew you were in there, and then you’re texting me things, and there’s dust. And finally, I get this phone call about a month ago. She’s like, Hey, we’re opening soft Friday. Come on out. Just for friends and family. We’re testing everything out, and we couldn’t stop smiling. I mean, for the minute we walked in, it’s not this. It’s, it’s, I would say, completely different. It’s got the elements of what this is. It’s appropriate. This

Damye Hahn  03:12

is a, it is a

8

Nestor Aparicio  03:13

market location.

Damye Hahn  03:14

Next step

Nestor Aparicio  03:15

that is a refined, elevated kitchen, a seafood kitchen, welcome. And that’s what I would call it. Is that? Right?

Damye Hahn  03:24

8

Yes, yes, yes. It’s all the best parts of this. Just a little elevated.

Nestor Aparicio  03:30

You know what I said to her when I she stopped by to see me, and I’m on like, I had some oysters. I had some this. Had a delicious drink, and I looked at the menu and I said, this is your family. If you ever went into business with a nice high end restaurant, not a fish marketplace, that you would have taken all of your family recipes, all the things you love to eat, all the things you ate somewhere one time. And said, Oh my God, I want to add that to a menu, but I can’t do it at fayley’s at the market, right, right? It felt like an all star show for your family for 150 years worth of recipes all channeled into one thing. And I think everybody’s having that experience the first time they come to fishmonger’s daughter.

Damye Hahn  04:13

I like that. I like that analogy. I like the All Star show. The All Star show of everything we are and everything we’ve been for 140 years,

Nestor Aparicio  04:21

is your menu even online yet? Yeah, I don’t I put tell everybody what the menu is about, because I found that to be like I expected, oysters in your crab cake and some of the things you have here. But I had no idea what I was going to see when I opened the menu, until I walked in.

8

Damye Hahn  04:41

Well, I wanted to showcase what Maryland has to offer. So we are so we are so ingrained in this state. Everything about the state, we love it. Everything about the Chesapeake Bay. We love it, our farms. So we have a lot of wonderful we’re going to have a lot of the farm to table stuff all the. All the Maryland craft beers. My every tap is filled with a craft beer.

Nestor Aparicio  05:06

I had a refined cocktail. I don’t know what the heck it was, but I ordered it, and it was so good that we ordered two more, like my wife got one, and we it was some fancy Schmidt. It had tequila in it, but she had I had a sip. I’m like, yeah, let’s get one. And she’s like, well, you’re driving. So now all of a sudden she had to say, but it was, it the cocktail find place. Yes,

Damye Hahn  05:30

the cocktail list. We have an extensive cocktail list. We have an extensive wine list, our wines by the glass, our wines by the bottle. We have a beautiful, beautiful wine list. So our food and our our food and beverage management is Sterling. We’ve got, we really do have an all star show there. So Maria Bell is our pastry and beverage manager, and her, her ability to create, create cocktails and and desserts and the breads, we’re making our own breads there. It’s, it’s, it’s amazing. And then we have, we have a great, all star chef. And so we’re, we’re, we’re putting out what I have always known that we could put out on that at that level, with the freshest, the best quality, and then putting a little twist on it. So we’ve got a great seafood menu, but we’ve also got chicken. We’ve got a great steak, you know, a beautiful prime steak on there. We’ve got, you know, everybody, it’s funny, when you were there, the crab cake wasn’t on the menu. I said the crab cakes perfect. We don’t need to, we don’t need to perfect the crab cake. We need to perfect these other dishes that we haven’t had on our menu before. So

Nestor Aparicio  06:49

8

crab cake will be on the menu.

Damye Hahn  06:50

Oh, it is now. It is now crab cake. We’ve got a crab Imperial on the menu. Yesterday, we had a soft crab on the menu that was to die for with this pork belly salad on top of it. So we are going to be featuring all of what Maryland has to offer at a little bit of an elevated level.

Nancy Devine  07:07

No Nestor, there is nothing ordinary. There. Everything is elevated. Elevated. Nothing ordinary. Everything is special. Everything is very creative. There’s and everything is artistic, and everything tastes well,

Damye Hahn  07:26

I’m an artist. Taste

8

Nancy Devine  07:28

she is an artist.

Damye Hahn  07:29

I can’t help it

Nestor Aparicio  07:30

well. I mean, when you the old place and brought it over here, even smile, your smiling face, and the Baltimore magazines, the sign, the John W fateley, yes, all of this came over here, and I know was painstaking for you, yes, on it, yeah. And these are all like artifacts of your family for 150 years, some of these old digital, literally, the old newspaper pieces that were here. Yeah, your place over there doesn’t have weathered newspaper and stuff. It has like these pieces of art on the wall, like the mirrors with the pictures

Damye Hahn  08:05

8

of my great grandfather stall in the mirror. Yeah,

Nancy Devine  08:08

right in the mirror.

Damye Hahn  08:10

So we and we restored everything about that building. So one of the reasons we landed on that building is because the of the building’s age, it was 100 years old, and our family’s business is 140 so it made sense for us to restore something like that. Not, you know, go into a strip

Nestor Aparicio  08:26

not knowing what you’re

8

Damye Hahn  08:26

good, yeah. So not when I Well, let me tell you something I kind of knew. I just didn’t know it was going to take me six years. But we restored everything the right way. The floors are original, the plaster ceilings are original, the plaster, all the plaster moldings, had to

Nestor Aparicio  08:43

be like it’s been there 100 years.

Damye Hahn  08:45

It does.

Nestor Aparicio  08:46

8

It feels nice and new, but it doesn’t feel Vegas New, right?

Nancy Devine  08:50

It has charm and warmth.

Damye Hahn  08:53

Yes,

Nestor Aparicio  08:54

I agree with that.

8

Damye Hahn  08:54

Yeah,

Nancy Devine  08:55

just like this place has that warmth and that invite I feel, feeling,

Damye Hahn  09:02

the warm tones, the inviting feel, the all the you know when you sit down that you’re sitting in history, and because the whole building wraps you in history, and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t clear it out and do all new No, every piece of wood in there has been recycled. You know, I either pulled it out of the roof, or all the tables are made out of the the wood that I took out of the roof in order to put the kitchen in in the second floor. All the the our big piece of art, our focal piece of art, is made from the building that I had to tear down. People,

Nestor Aparicio  09:38

8

apparently, I’m going to be broadcasting from,

Damye Hahn  09:40

yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  09:41

like table like overlooks Frederick road, and it had some thing.

Damye Hahn  09:46

It’s the radiators, the original radiators that were around the columns in the in the old heidelbach grocery store where the base built in 1920

8

Nestor Aparicio  09:54

radiate Baltimore positive. There you are, right from there. So we

Damye Hahn  09:58

use that as the base. For this wonderful table that I made out of wood from my dad’s property. And then it we the Wood had split, so we put a river of oyster shells, and the oyster shells came from this raw bar. We served oysters on go to our customers on this raw bar. I cleaned them off, and then we embedded them in the tables. So it’s

Nestor Aparicio  10:19

literally moving Lexington market.

Damye Hahn  10:21

8

I got Lexington market right in there, and I do have a lot of large tables. I wanted the large tables because I wanted some communal tables. And what you’re going to experience there is, when we start getting busy, you might be a two top, then I’m going to set you next to another two top on a big table, and it’s next to another four top. You may not know the people that you’re sitting next to, because that’s the way it is here at fadeleys, and that’s the way it’s been for the past 60 years. And I wanted to take that with us, because it’s that feeling of community. Can you get a table by yourself? Yes. Can you get be with others? Absolutely, because that’s what fadeleys is about.

Nestor Aparicio  10:59

Catonsville, come on out and see him. I’m down here, Lexington market. Nancy Devine is here. Dami Hahn, the mother daughter team, just like, just like Cherie DeVoe winning the derby. The ladies are doing, listen, I don’t want to talk too much of next week I’m gonna be with you. Yes, I’m gonna be on the 21st at a fishmonger’s daughter we will have the Maryland treasure scratch offs to give away from the Maryland lottery. Also, our friends at GBMC and foreign and Durham are putting us out on the road. I have some great Tom quirk’s coming out. Some other people are coming out that live in the neighborhood. Mandy remmel, who’s running for office, is to stop Pat young, who’s running for county executive. A lot of you have sort of invigorated Catonsville in this bill’s music way. And I know Evan stride and open all these places. I was over Morse burgers, and they’re doing live music the other night. The bakeries come in two doors down from you as well Catonsville. And your investment in Catonsville, you’re an Ellicott City family, though, right? Correct? Is it my credit? I

Nancy Devine  11:55

grew up in Catonsville,

Nestor Aparicio  11:56

so you are. You feel like I consider Dundalk?

8

Damye Hahn  12:00

Yes,

Nancy Devine  12:00

I was grew up in Catonsville, and when I got married, we moved to Ellicott you were born

Nestor Aparicio  12:10

in Gainesville,

Damye Hahn  12:11

8

yeah, until I was seven years old. Well, I was seven when we moved out to Ellicott City. But when we talk about Ellicott City, we’re talking about the Baltimore County, Howard County line right over the bridge by like, a quarter mile, right, right? Not even a mile. I mean, you could, you know, it’s a crow’s fries. It’s probably on your feet. If

Nestor Aparicio  12:26

I would have met you 30 years ago in a bar, we’re having a beer, and I said, Davey, where are you from? You would say,

Damye Hahn  12:35

I’d probably say Ellicott City. Because we were from, we were Main Street. We were literally means you

Nestor Aparicio  12:40

were to say you were from Catonsville.

8

Damye Hahn  12:42

She would have said Catonsville

Nancy Devine  12:43

And originally, but yes, Ellicott City. No, I Well, we’ve been there for 60 years because I’m so old, so, but we’re up at the top of the

Nestor Aparicio  12:54

so why? So, I guess. Why’d you pick Catonsville? Well, because of the building, the building

Nancy Devine  12:59

8

my husband walked into the building, and she has been looking at, we have been invited Nestor, to Washington, to New York, to restaurants for the past airport. Yes, they wanted us to open a restaurant, and they were inviting us people that were putting in strip centers. But she never, she found something wrong. Never what wasn’t right, what we was never right. Heels, sure. And my husband walked in there and said, this might be it. And he loved those radiators that went around that thing. And he said, I think this is it. And she felt,

Damye Hahn  13:40

my daddy, do you have any idea how much work this is going to be? So six years later, we’re here. But he was right. It’s, it’s just an extraordinary building, and my, my son will who is our next generation in the business. He He lives in my, my mother and grandmother’s old house in Catonsville, on the

Nestor Aparicio  13:59

street,

Damye Hahn  13:59

up the street. So we Yes, yes. So the house that mom grew up in will is now living in with his children.

8

Nestor Aparicio  14:06

That, I mean, that’s what I wanted to get as a storyteller, is the root of Catonsville, and why you picked that, why you picked that hellish location that took you six years, because you could have gone in the business on roof, well, in Catonsville, taking over a failed restaurant anytime you want

Nancy Devine  14:20

it, right? Nestor, when my husband saw it, he thought, oh, this, this will never fall down. This is built like, Oh, it is with the steel and the plaster brick. However, she didn’t realize, or we didn’t realize, I should say, how much had they had let it

Damye Hahn  14:38

deteriorate,

Nancy Devine  14:38

8

deteriorate. And this is what we ran into. And when she started operating or trying to do things, she’d look into it. And instead of a small problem, it was a big problem. So it took a lot more money, a lot more time to deal with it. And this is what we ran into, where you’re here now, though

Damye Hahn  14:59

we’re here in. Now. We’re here now, and we’ve got this, we got this sensational event space and everything. So it’s going to be good. It’s going to be good for

Nancy Devine  15:06

us. I think, not only that that, I think it we there are a lot of people that come through Ellicott City from Washington and from Columbia and I, and we’re right off the beltway,

Nestor Aparicio  15:17

right off the airport as well.

8

Nancy Devine  15:19

And yes, and we would have people that would fly in here to come to faidleys. They can go now and say, maybe want to sit down to dinner, as

Damye Hahn  15:30

opposed to do the quick serve?

Nancy Devine  15:31

Yes, that would be different than this. And she’s going to be accommodating those people. You

Nestor Aparicio  15:37

8

can come get a crab cake in Catonsville soon. You got to make reservations right now. When do you think it just becomes normalized sometime in June, like it that way,

Damye Hahn  15:45

where that’s what we’re shooting

Nestor Aparicio  15:46

for. You’re ramping up, but you got new staff, new everything,

Damye Hahn  15:49

new everything, every single person has to be trained, you know, from start to finish. So, and it’s going to take a little bit of time, so we’re hoping that we’ll be in full operation by mid June.

8

Nancy Devine  16:00

And Nestor. As you realize we’ve had been in coming here all these years, we have people that have worked here a long time, like 25 and 30 years and 20 years, and they’ve learned how to work together as a team. You know, years ago they started out with fish sandwiches at the old market, that’s the first thing that my father made, and there would be a line around the block, and three people could handle that line. But it takes time to build this teamwork with when you have a lot of individuals that haven’t done it and haven’t worked together. So this is something she’s working on to build this teamwork and with her staff and that kind of thing, so that you can look at somebody and know what they need, and that’s the kind of thing we have here, and that she’s building that there, so that it works just as comfortably for her as it does here, and for the people that come And they’re going to get to know the staff and the people that are there the same way they say hi to you because they recognize you from coming in. And she wants that same feeling right there to build this family community kind of thing. And of course, we get tourists, because people read about us all over the

Nestor Aparicio  17:19

continue to tell them about you over there. I don’t know if I want to tell you this, but we went in fishmonger’s daughter, we looked at the whole menu. My wife looked at all of it. You know, my wife’s not fishy in a general sense. She ordered a burger and it was delicious. Yes, it was delicious. Everything

Nancy Devine  17:35

is going to be delicious. Like I said, everything is going to be

Nestor Aparicio  17:39

8

you don’t have to order the crab cake and fish mongers are, you know what? You can order anything you want.

Nancy Devine  17:45

Oh, yes, and something wonderful fish that she’s providing. Oh, it’s wonderful. People have never tried and it’s going to be wonderful. I mean, the fish comes out, the plates are beautiful. I mean, there it’s it’s artistic, it’s creative. It’s, it’s, it’s

Nestor Aparicio  18:03

Damien.

Nancy Devine  18:03

It’s Damien. This is my artist, and years ago, she was the Schuler’s favorite student.

8

Damye Hahn  18:13

That’s, that’s coming from a mother. You say,

Nancy Devine  18:16

yes, she was, she was their favorite, and they treated her like she was one of theirs. Her daughter

Nestor Aparicio  18:23

there, she’s a fishmonger’s daughter,

Nancy Devine  18:24

8

yeah, well, and the artist’s daughter. So you’ll see the artistic value in this place too. I don’t think you can help but see it. It’s like no other place. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  18:35

I’m doing the show there next Thursday, and I’m gonna have you on next Thursday,

Damye Hahn  18:39

okay? And

Nestor Aparicio  18:39

you’re gonna point out all the things,

8

Damye Hahn  18:42

yep,

Nestor Aparicio  18:42

in the new place that have the ties to the old place in the market. I gotta let you guys go, because you got to get to Catonsville. Okay, she was on her she had her purse. Look at it. Look at what’s going on here.

Damye Hahn  18:53

I know, aren’t they great?

Nestor Aparicio  18:54

8

Put your little hats on which ones, which they for you. Put that right over top to see this is, this is the kind of spirit we get with the girls of fadeley. That’s right.

Damye Hahn  19:07

That’s right. We’re celebrating the Preakness, crabby style,

Nancy Devine  19:10

right? Yes,

Nestor Aparicio  19:11

and congratulations to Shalonda Stokes for winning the crab Derby here this year. It’s all brought to my friends at the Marilyn lottery, GBMC and foreign and Dermer. Get out to the fishmonger’s daughter anytime visit them. Make a reservation right now, yes. Way to do it this week, right?

8

Damye Hahn  19:25

Yes,

Nestor Aparicio  19:25

call, email. What do we

Damye Hahn  19:27

do? Open Table or through our website. Easy enough, yes, yes. So fishmonger’s website, or faintly, they lead to each other. So

Nestor Aparicio  19:35

8

back from orphan, faintly selects into market. Right after this, we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with

Damye Hahn  19:39

us. You.