The restaurant’s name was strategic: “You’d drive right past it if you didn’t know it was there,” Mitchell says with a laugh. “I want to create that feeling of it being this secret society for people who are really in-the-know.”

Mitchell realized his love for cooking after spending four years travelling the world in the Navy, and received an Advanced Culinary Arts degree from Stratford University in 2002.

Though he has since bounced around the country—providing personal chef services and heading up kitchens everywhere from Los Angeles to Richmond, Virginia—he started to become more involved in the local food scene last year, hosting pop-ups at Federal Hill spots Liv2Eat and Blue Agave.

Mitchell explains that the landlord who owns the Ryder’s property also operates the space in Butchers Hill, so the two buildings came as a package deal: “Our first priority was to open up Ryder’s,” he says, “But Butchers Hill Society was always the big fish.”

The new spot’s downstairs market highlights light fare like breakfast sandwiches, butternut squash soup, roasted pear and prosciutto flatbread, and a caprese sandwich with house-made mozzarella, as well as shelves stocked with local produce, cheeses, charcuterie, spices, nuts, fruits and vegetables, and prepared meals to-go.

In a neighborhood with a lack of supermarkets, Mitchell is enthusiastic about providing locals access to healthy food.

“We’re trying to be a cornerstone in the neighborhood,” he says. “It’ kind of like coming over to your next-door neighbor saying ‘You got any milk?’”

Upstairs, the 42-seat Butchers Hill Society space has an industrial feel, with sleek woods, stone accents, and tables made out of repurposed sewing machines.