Taste of Frederick
How the Voltaggio brothers continue to connect farm to fork
BY Natalie Flynn
It’s Thursday morning, and chef Bryan Voltaggio is working with two craftsmen to redesign a partition between the bar and the dining room. Attention to detail and Voltaggio’s connection to the community define each aspect of his newest venture, evident from the custom dining room tables to the vinegar in which he brines his vegetables. Everything is considered, and like the building in which the restaurant resides, almost everything has its roots in Frederick.
Opened in December of 2024 in the chapel of a former all-girls school, Wye Oak Tavern is the heart of the newly renovated Visitation Hotel, downtown Frederick’s first in decades. A landmark with nearly 200 years of history, both the hotel and the restaurant are careful to honor this legacy and pay homage to the past while reimagining the space for the present. Frederick natives Bryan and Michael Voltaggio were tasked with opening the hotel’s restaurant.
“I knew I had to be a part of this project as soon as I heard about it,” says Bryan.
The two brothers have had a massive impact on Frederick since 2009, when Bryan opened fine dining destination VOLT. That concept was followed by farm-to-table Thacher & Rye in 2019, which now operates as The Ordinary Hen under Voltaggio’s former chef de cuisine, Bradley Butts.
“My first restaurant, we didn’t have distillers, growers, all these producers in downtown Frederick. Now I think this is the next chapter, and we wanted to have an impact and be a community driver, to work with the local people as much as possible to help celebrate Frederick,” says Voltaggio.
Roughly an hour outside DC, Frederick is no longer a sleepy suburb but a destination in its own right. The last 20 years have seen a proliferation of farmers, artisans, and producers. Voltaggio lists many examples, such as Ovoka Farm and McClintock Distilling, while discussing the different elements that comprise the dishes on his menu.
“If I have people’s attention for one night a week, or one night a month, I want them to be inspired to think more about where their food comes from,” explains Voltaggio, himself an active forager and home gardener. “If we can send them to those sources and help support that, then I think we’re doing our part to bolster the community and bolster small farming.”
Wye Oak Tavern serves as a full-circle moment for the brothers, who began their careers at the Holiday Inn just outside of downtown. “We started there as busboys and cooks, so to come do this in our backyard, a mile from where we went to high school in the community where we grew up, this is a milestone moment.”
It’s that sense of community that Voltaggio hopes patrons will recognize when they visit Wye Oak Tavern. Lumber JAKKSS is one such local business. Located on a 24-acre farm about a half hour from the hotel inside a dust-filled garage, these woodworking experts are the craftsmen who made the custom tables and wine cabinet for Wye Oak Tavern.
Head craftsman Matt Nauman touched on how the renovation of the hotel was a labor-intensive collaboration among the community. “It was great to see how passionate the people behind Visitation were when it came to all of the details.” Working with a local team meant that they were able to make many revisions until everyone felt each element was just right.
Inside Wye Oak Tavern, it’s this attention to detail that defines the space. A table base might not be the first thing to catch a patron’s eye when walking into the soaring dining room, yet each one was handcrafted by local artisan Carl Hammond.
A Frederick native and metal fabricator from the age of 16, Hammond was approached by Visitation in an attempt to keep as much of the artistry local to Frederick as possible. All 68 steel table bases were handcrafted by Hammond, requiring at least two hours per base.
“I was honored to be a part of this historic downtown project. It was a significant amount of work, a lot of energy and effort, and we really made sure that it was done to perfection.”
With a Maryland-focused menu, Voltaggio has returned to his roots, relying on local purveyors and produce from the Mid-Atlantic. One such purveyor is Daniel Liberson of Lindera Farms, with whom Voltaggio has had a nearly 20-year relationship, extending back to when Liberson was a cook at VOLT.
Now with a vinegar company, Voltaggio enthuses about Liberson’s latest venture, “One of my favorite ones he’s making right now is called ‘gardener vinegar.’ It’s basically all the remnants and smells you would find in a garden. There’s tomato, there’s cucumber, there’s peppers; it just tastes like the garden.”
At Wye Oak Tavern, Voltaggio uses this to pickle the cucumbers that accompany the Surryano ham appetizer, served with tavern rolls, benne seeds, and pimento cheese, describing them as “beautiful little spears of cucumber.”
An unexpected menu item is the beet pastrami. Served over a Gruyère cheese funnel cake with house-made thousand island dressing, the combination hearkens back to Voltaggio’s memory of the Frederick Fair, encapsulating in one dish the playful risks he’s willing to take.
But it’s Voltaggio’s take on coddies that exemplifies his approach to dining. Traditionally a white potato and salted cod fritter served with yellow mustard and saltine crackers, Voltaggio chose to reimagine this Baltimore dish for Wye Oak Tavern.
“It’s a cool little nod to the Mid-Atlantic, and we wanted to bring in a different version in a fun way.”
Rather than serve the coddies with saltines, Voltaggio’s version is a house-made cod brandade, which is breaded in saltines and then fried. The star of the show here is actually the nod to mustard, by way of the house-made cauliflower tartar sauce. Starting with a base of cauliflower cream, Voltaggio adds in cornichon, capers, minced pickled shallots, and lots of dill, parsley, and cracked pepper. Vegetables from Earth N Eats, a Mennonite co-op in Southern Pennsylvania, comprise the giardiniera, typically made with turmeric and mustard seed, another way Voltaggio is reimagining the dish while paying homage to tradition.
“This project is something that was missing for a lot of people downtown. It’s bringing new excitement for how we are growing as a community, now that we have this cool spot in this building that’s been renovated into something special that everyone can be a part of, and I’m proud to be a part of that,” says Voltaggio.
Wye Oak Tavern
211 E. Church St., Frederick, MD
240-931-1120
wyeoaktavern.com
Natalie Flynn has worked in the food and beverage industry for 20 years. She is passionate about all the hidden gems and new spots that continue to grace our city and surrounding counties