A smoked pork loin chop served with barbecue caramel and jimmy red corn grits. | Nicholas Castro Wye Oak opened within the brand new Visitation Hotel on Thursday, December 19 The Voltaggio brothers have come home. Three decades ago, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio were a couple of high schoolers, just beginning their culinary careers in the kitchen of a local hotel. And now, after James Beard accolades, Top Chef appearances (and wins), and around a dozen restaurants, the duo is ready to start a new chapter at Wye Oak Tavern, the on-site restaurant of Visitation Hotel Frederick, a former convent and Catholic school just blocks from their childhood home. “This is our first project together since we were teenagers in our hometown,” says Bryan Voltaggio. While they’re frequent collaborators on other projects (like the recently updated Voltaggio Brothers Steak House at the MGM National Harbor), this endeavor is special. “It’s phenomenal to bring our experiences, our travels, and everything we’ve done over the last 30 years to share with our childhood friends and neighbors,” he adds. Those three decades have culminated in the former chapel’s whimsical menu that is at once technically impressive and deliciously inviting. For example, a Savory Pumpkin Pie is exactly what it sounds like — a homemade pie crust filled with roasted honeynut squash, then topped with whipped ricotta (in palace of whipped cream), and pumpkin seed pesto. Steak tartare is fresh ground at the start of each service, then served alongside a potato hashbrown and horseradish bavaroise. Nicolas Castro Bryan Voltaggio stands against the church’s old pulpit stage, where Wye Oak Tavern’s bar now presides. Nicolas Castro The transformed chapel is full of stained glass and there’s even an organ on the balcony. The menu represents a compilation of what customers have asked for over the years. “We’ve dug into what people have said when they’ve eaten at our restaurants, and wanted to emphasize dishes that really resonate with our diners while still allowing us to have fun and be surprising,” says Michael Voltaggio. As such, while you’ll find seemingly standard fare on the menu, rest assured that it’ll have “that Volt thing we do,” especially in the shareable section of the menu. Take their version of chicken liver pate, which neither brother wanted to serve in a jar or as a schmear on a plate. Instead, they’re serving Cold Fried Chicken Liver Pate. “It’s one of those dishes where you laugh when you say it out loud,” says Michael Voltaggio. Newly purchased molds shaped like chicken drumsticks get filled with their chicken liver pate, which then gets breaded and fried. Waffles hail from a local sourdough baker, he adds. The resulting dish may closely resemble fried chicken and waffles, but of course, looks can be deceiving. Nicolas Castro The fluke crudo with benne seed chili crunch, blood orange, and a salt and vinegar sweet potato chip on the side. Similarly, coddies — a traditional mid-Atlantic salt cod fritter traditionally eaten with saltine crackers and yellow mustard — gets a serious makeover at Wye Oak Tavern. “We took whipped brandade and molded it on a popsicle stick then breaded in a light tempura batter with saltines to keep that classic profile,” Bryan Voltaggio explains. It’s served with a giardiniera that has “a lot of turmeric and mustard seed to preserve that mustard flavor,” he says. Their tartare sauce, uniquely made with cauliflower instead of mayo, calls for classic ingredients like dill, cracked pepper, parsley, capers, and cornichon. Nicolas Castro The pastry case at Acorn, the hotel’s all-day cafe and lunch spot. The Surryano Ham, featuring Virginian Surryano ham, is served alongside a pimento cheese that is carefully pressed into a Swiss cheese mold. “You can take some of that cheese, some of that ham, and make yourself a little ham and cheese sandwich with tavern rolls,” Bryan Voltaggio says. “We think of Wye Oak not as a departure from what we’ve done in the past, but really a continuation and maturation of our craft,” Michael Voltaggio notes. As such, the brothers aren’t shying away from serving simpler food alongside some of their more daring inventions. “We have a great hamburger with dry-aged beef, alongside locally sourced cuts of beef, pork, and chicken,” Bryan Voltaggio says. “We’ve taken a lot of care to curate everything that we put on the menu,” he adds. The brothers are also running an all-day cafe, called Acorn, at the new Frederick hotel. The food menu consists of classic chocolate croissants or bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches, but also fun takes on simple breakfast and lunch dishes, like a praline doughnut, pecan ginger cookies, and even a beet Reuben sandwich. Nicolas Castro One of the four martinis sold at Wye Oak Tavern. Even the full restaurant’s cocktail program showcases that careful curation, with Wye Oak becoming the first of the sibling’s spots to feature the Voltaggio’s tequila brand, Marcado 28. But beverages are by no means tequila-centric. “We’re really leaning into classics and building up from that, so for example, we have five different takes on martinis,” Bryan notes. The Mirepoix is especially unique, featuring carrot-infused Ketel One Vodka, Plymouth Navy Strength Gin, Espelette pepper, some celery bitters, vermouth, and a house-pickled red pearl cocktail onion. “We’re grown-ups now, and in some ways, so is Frederick,” says Michael Voltaggio. “Across the country, we’re seeing people spending more time in suburbs rather than actual cities, and Frederick is no different — when we opened Volt, we didn’t have half the number of local suppliers or distillers or brewers that we have today, and that evolution is what has made this possible.” And with this new opportunity in a new restaurant in a new hotel, the Voltaggios feel as though they have an entire world of possibilities. “It’s just crazy to think that a few decades ago, we were walking up and down these same streets with a skateboard and a beer in our backpack,” he reminisces. “At this point, it’s not about how many awards we can win — it’s just getting back to having a restaurant where you can cook great food for great people in a community.”