Glen Burnie's Old Sunset Building Is Being Rebuilt to Launch Other People's Restaurants
The building at 625 Greenway Road SE has a new owner, and her plan is a shared kitchen where up to 50 small food businesses can cook. On October 23, citybiz reported that Gretchen Moran's company, CSQ Holdings, bought the former Sunset Restaurant property for $2.125 million. She plans to turn it into The Culinary Square, a health department-certified commercial kitchen for food trucks, caterers and specialty food brands.
For most of the past 64 years, this address held one restaurant with one name on the sign. Under the new plan, the tenants are expected to move on to their own storefronts. The plan also lands in the same month the Anne Arundel County Council voted down the bill that would have written food truck rules into the zoning code. So the kitchen is coming before the rules for many of its likely users have been settled.
Many people in northern Anne Arundel County have a Sunset memory. In 2015 the Severna Park Voice described it as the place for birthdays, anniversaries and after-prom dinners. The building has changed hands several times since.
The kitchen made it through every one of those changes, and the property's price went up along the way. The Mike's group paid $1.5 million in July 2023. Just over three years later, the property sold for $2.125 million. The MoCo Show reported that it was marketed as a restaurant with furniture, fixtures and equipment included, and that the improvements made under the previous owners were a key factor in the sale. The renovated commercial kitchen is a large part of what the new owner bought.
The 13,000-square-foot building fits the new plan well. According to citybiz, about 6,000 square feet of restaurant and storage space will be used for food production. The rest is set aside for cooking classes, networking and special events.
The business model is what sets it apart from the building's past. Operators join as members and are expected to stay about 18 to 36 months before moving to their next step, which is often their own storefront. A full roster of 50 operators would be 50 small businesses in some stage of growing, with new ones arriving as others leave.
The Culinary Square's own site adds mentorship, pop-ups, business support and connections to buyers. Moran spent 25 years building software companies in Maryland, and she told citybiz why she chose a kitchen:
"Local food makers are the answer to that, but too many of them don't have a place to produce, grow, and reach customers. At the same time, consumers here don't have enough places offering better, locally made options."
Her company describes the opening date two ways. The Culinary Square's website says "early 2027," and the citybiz announcement says "next spring." The Capital Gazette reported that the kitchen will open in the old Mike's Inland at Sunset space.
Food trucks top the list of businesses The Culinary Square plans to serve. This fall, operators across the county spent weeks at council meetings over the rules for where they can park and sell.
In September, WMAR reported that operators were pushing back on restrictions tucked into Bill 61-26, a broad rewrite of the county's zoning code. Food truck owner Rosa Gargano said the proposed limits would cost operators sales.
On October 6, The Baltimore Banner reported that the council had approved an amendment addressing those concerns. It would have allowed food trucks on private property until 9 p.m., up to four days a week, and made them a permitted use in several zones. Brad Oswald, owner of Tiki's Tuk Tuk, told the council that operators wanted "clear, reasonable rules," the Banner reported.
Two weeks later the whole bill failed. On October 19, the council voted 7-0 against it, according to the county's legislative record for Bill 61-26. The Capital Gazette reported that the vote followed protests from business owners.
The Banner's follow-up explained that the bill was meant to clean up a code last overhauled in 2005. Because it did not pass, food truck rules have not been added to the county zoning code.
The schedule matters for anyone following what happens next. The October 19 meeting was the last for this council. The council does not meet in November during election years, and the new council will meet in December. Any new version of the food truck language will go to a new set of council members, around the same time The Culinary Square is getting ready to open.
The kitchen won't open until 2027, and Glen Burnie's own outdoor season has already ended. WMAR reported in June that the Glen Burnie Farmers Market ran Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. through September 24 this year. The GBIA Fall Fest on Crain Highway South was October 3. For the next few months, the nearest regular gatherings of local food vendors are a short drive south.
The caterers and small brands at these markets this winter are the kind of businesses The Culinary Square is being built for. If the plan works, some of them could be cooking at 625 Greenway Road SE next year, in the same kitchen that once turned out the Sunset's cream of crab.
If you have your own memories of the Sunset, you probably also care about what happens to the places around it. When you want to know how changes like this one on Greenway Road affect your home's value, the team at VSells & Associates can walk you through it. Get Your Free Home Valuation.
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