Downtown Frederick’s Thacher & Rye from “Top Chef” alumnus Bryan Voltaggio is set to close Sunday and will become The Ordinary Hen, according to a post on the chef’s Instagram.
The new restaurant, led by Chef Bradley Butts, will serve Appalachian-style cuisine as opposed to Thacher & Rye’s more traditional mid-Atlantic fare. It opens for business July 5, said Beeya Trivedi, a hostess at the restaurant.
“Embracing this new identity under Bradley’s leadership means continuing our tradition of culinary excellence, infused with fresh enthusiasm and innovative approaches,” Voltaggio, a “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Masters” finalist, said in a statement on Instagram.
This is the second redesign of Voltaggio’s 228 North Market Street eatery. What started as VOLT in 2008 and turned into Thacher & Rye in 2020 after the pandemic led VOLT to shutter gets a new twist in 2024 as The Ordinary Hen.
The Ordinary Hen’s menu features southern classics like collard greens, cornbread with jalapeno, cheddar and chives, summery flavors with pineapple, coconut sand and banana hummingbird cake and chess pie with lemon, buttermilk ice cream and ginger crumb. The cocktail menu includes variations of Old Fashioneds plus drinks spotlighting lavender, lemon and pomegranate flavors.
Voltaggio, who grew up in Frederick, according to The Culinary Institute of America, will begin a new venture at the soon-to-open Visitation Hotel Frederick with details forthcoming, he said in the post.
“Thacher & Rye was a great addition to Downtown Frederick and a concept and idea I was certainly proud of,” he wrote.
Voltaggio briefly had a diner in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, The Family Meal, but closed it in 2016. A Italian spot he owned in the Inner Habor, Aggio, shuttered in 2018.