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At Wye Oak Tavern, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio are the dynamic duo behind the creative American menu in Frederick, Maryland.

March 20, 2025

In decades of cooking, brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio have managed to open six restaurants together, this despite the fact that they’re based on opposite coasts: Bryan in Frederick, Maryland, and Michael in Los Angeles. Their latest project, Wye Oak Tavern, opened in December in the siblings’ hometown.

Practice, practice, practice got them to what might be their best restaurant yet.

Wye Oak Tavern, ensconced in the Visitation Hotel in Frederick, is definitely their most divine. The lofty main dining room is decorated with an organ on the top floor, while the bar is flanked by statues of two angels, bowing before a life-size painting set in a gold frame. “The Presentation in the Temple” depicts a young Jesus being introduced to St. Simeon. (Forgive me if I say the scene has mass appeal.) The good bones of a former convent and Catholic girls’ school explain the design, which was tweaked to include references to the country’s largest white oak tree in Talbot County until the demise of the “quiet giant” in 2002.

The owners of the hotel asked for a steakhouse. The Voltaggios — Bryan is 48 and Michael two years younger — expanded on the request with seafood and some iconic regional dishes. The result is a menu that tastes both traditional and modern, and an experience that blends small-town charm with big-city ambitions. At Wye Oak Tavern, pot roast with carrots gets the same TLC as a shrimp-and-grits cocktail. (You read that right, and stick with me.)

The appetizers suggest the brothers had a blast dreaming them up. Chicken liver paté takes the shape of a drumstick, thanks to a mold Michael found online. The smooth, cognac-spiked spread is breaded with cornflakes, which make it look like fried chicken, and the accompaniments are card-size “waffles” fashioned from local sourdough milk bread pressed in a waffle iron. Cute, cute, cute. Coddies — Baltimore’s preferred way of eating cod and potatoes — taste regal but present playful. The snack is fried in tempura and crushed saltines, skewered with a Popsicle stick and brighter thanks to a turmeric-laced giardiniera. That white dollop atop the fritter is tartar sauce coaxed from cauliflower.

I like the crab cake, formed from pasteurized local crab until April brings fresh, but the reimagined shrimp cocktail steals the show. The shrimp, dusted with the expected Old Bay spice, arrive with squares of shrimp toast fashioned from shrimp paste and grits, fried and freckled with sesame seeds. The zingy cocktail sauce is green with tomatillo. Trust me. A shrimp-and-grits cocktail is more entertaining than straight seafood, no matter how sweet and plump.

Bored with beet salads? The tavern’s contribution stifles yawns. Sliced roasted beets are lightly crisp with pastrami spices, arranged on Thousand Island dressing and festooned with savory, caraway-touched twigs of funnel cake that prompt memories of fairs. The salad is equal parts fine and fun.

Among the chefs’ shared restaurants is Voltaggio Brothers Steak House at MGM National Harbor, their debut joint effort and a precursor of future fun times. Wye Oak Tavern sources good beef, which you want to order with some potatoes (mashed are superior to fried); creamed spinach that’s rich but still lets the vegetable shine; and (be still my heart) tiger sauce. The condiment — which marries mayonnaise and horseradish and gives lift to pit beef — is another shout-out to Baltimore and made modern with brown and orange stripes of balsamic-Worcestershire sauce and paprika and turmeric oil, respectively. Anything tiger sauce touches is made more exciting. After an initial taste, my posse applied it to just about everything but drinks and dessert.

Prime rib is everything a fan wants it to be: thick cut, crusted in garlic and mustard, blushing red like it just heard a blue joke. The accompanying cheddar cheese popover was DOA — deflated on arrival — but its collapse didn’t lesson its flavor or ability to sop. Pot roast is a surprise for the way it tastes like Mom’s if Mom had gone to Le Cordon Bleu. The components are prepared separately, so that the beef and carrots cook for their optimum times, before reuniting on the platter with tomato gravy and meat juices. “Perfect,” said a cooking teacher at my table. The rest of us, our mouths full, could only nod in agreement.

Look to the water here, too. Rockfish is crisped on one side and bookended in its pan with two perfect golden hush puppies. A faint crackle gives way to an uncommonly fluffy center. Dredge a bite into the pan juices and let it sponge a broth that tastes of the sea and tomato. Juicy swordfish piccata is almost as good. What’s to stop capers, lemon, fried sage and butter from throwing a party for every bite?

Then there’s a pork chop: thick, juicy, well-seasoned and subtly smoky, accompanied with grits made with heirloom Jimmy Red corn and topped with cheddar cheese foam. We polished off the chop but left the à la carte broccoli behind because it arrived cool. (The kitchen is a floor below; servers ferry food via stairs. Tip appropriately, but also because they know their stuff.)

Set off with dividers that resemble confessional screens, marble tables and tufted blue banquettes cocreate an upscale tavern. The capacious main dining room is livelier than seating in the rear, although the back walls benefit from tranquil, green-tinted wallpaper that depicts woods reflected into water.

Locals, or those who ate here when it was a school, might delight in seeing apple dumplings for dessert. The confection, updated with a custard flavored like cinnamon toast, made occasional appearances on the menu at the onetime Visitation Academy of Frederick. A fool for lemon meringue pie, I was charmed by the vivid DIY version whipped up by the Voltaggios. The sunny lemon shapes on the plate split to reveal tangy curd, a lovely contrast to the nearby tufts of torched meringue and scoops of creamy coconut ice cream. A coconut crumble keeps the beauty from shifting. In contrast, tres leches cake is stolid.

Young as the restaurant is, Wye Oak is consistent, a detail aided and abetted by executive chef Zach Long, 39, who has worked with the Voltaggios for about six years, at projects including their steakhouse in National Harbor, the late Aggio in Baltimore and the onetime Family Meal in Ashburn. “We finish each other’s sentences” and ideas, he says. The novelties from the kitchen extend to the bar, which makes, among other good drinks, an intriguing martini infused with carrots, espelette pepper and celery bitters. In-the-know cooks will understand why the cocktail goes by “Mirepoix.”

Michael says he used to feel his hometown was “off limits to me, Bryan’s market,” asking himself, “How do I fit in if I live in L.A.?” The truth is, work obligations sometimes find Michael on the East Coast and Bryan on the West, and the brothers are older and wiser now.

Wye Oak Tavern, says the younger Voltaggio, is “us sharing our story through the restaurant.” It’s a terrific tale.

211 E. Church St., Frederick. 240-931-1120. wyeoaktavern.com. Open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Prices: Appetizers $17 to $79 (for a sampler of three seafood appetizers), main courses $21 to $89 (for 16 ounces of prime dry-aged steak). Sound check: 77 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: An outdoor hotel elevator can take diners from the parking lot to the main dining room; restrooms are ADA-compliant.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Frederick County Bancorp (MD)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

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Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 32.2% of Frederick County Bancorp (MD) shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Citizens Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Frederick County Bancorp (MD) pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Citizens Community Bancorp pays out 27.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Risk and Volatility

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Frederick County Bancorp (MD) has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Frederick County Bancorp (MD)”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Citizens Community Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Frederick County Bancorp (MD).

Summary

Citizens Community Bancorp beats Frederick County Bancorp (MD) on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens Community Bancorp

(Get Free Report)

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Citizens Community Federal N.A. that provides various traditional community banking services to businesses, agricultural operators, and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, including demand deposits, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also offers various loan products, such as commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, agricultural real estate, agricultural operating, and consumer loans; and one-to-four family residential mortgages and home equity lines-of-credit. In addition, it maintains a portfolio of investments comprising mortgage-backed, corporate asset-backed, U.S. Government sponsored agency, and corporate debt securities. Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

About Frederick County Bancorp (MD)

(Get Free Report)

Frederick County Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Frederick County Bank that provides various banking services to individuals and commercial enterprises in the Frederick County, Maryland. It offers deposit products, including personal checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, and health savings accounts; and business checking accounts, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposits. The company provides home equity, home equity fixed rate, mortgage, installment, vehicle, and unsecured loans, as well as home equity line of credit and lines of credit; and commercial loans, such as term loans, lines of credit, letters of credit, and real estate finance. It also offers cash management services comprising automated clearing house, wire origination, remote deposit capture, and zero balance account services. In addition, the company provides mobile deposit capture, overdraft protection, debit and credit card, automated teller machine, and night depository services; and business courier and merchant processing services, as well as online banking and bill pay services. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Frederick, Maryland.

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Cancer Treatment (OTCMKTS:CTHZ – Get Free Report) and BrightSpring Health Services (NASDAQ:BTSG – Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

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Risk & Volatility

Cancer Treatment has a beta of -2.37, indicating that its share price is 337% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BrightSpring Health Services has a beta of 2.21, indicating that its share price is 121% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Cancer Treatment and BrightSpring Health Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cancer Treatment and BrightSpring Health Services”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Cancer Treatment has higher earnings, but lower revenue than BrightSpring Health Services.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Cancer Treatment and BrightSpring Health Services, as provided by MarketBeat.

BrightSpring Health Services has a consensus target price of $21.67, indicating a potential upside of 27.75%. Given BrightSpring Health Services’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe BrightSpring Health Services is more favorable than Cancer Treatment.

Summary

BrightSpring Health Services beats Cancer Treatment on 7 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cancer Treatment

(Get Free Report)

Cancer Treatment Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in providing IT-enabled services; the exploitation of an invention related to the on-site production of chlorine gas and related compounds; and providing radiation therapy, diagnostic imaging, and other medical related services. The company, through a 50% interest in a joint venture, offers IT-enabled services, including medical transcriptions, billing and collecting, bookkeeping, and claims processing services. The company enables users to manufacture chlorine on-site and when needed through its device. It has a 51% interest in a radiation therapy center located in Logan, West Virginia. In addition, through its wholly owned subsidiary, CTI Management Corp., the company’s president provides management services. The company was incorporated in 1986 and is based in Carson City, Nevada.

About BrightSpring Health Services

(Get Free Report)

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. operates a home and community-based healthcare services platform in the United States. The company's platform focuses on delivering pharmacy and provider services, including clinical and supportive care in home and community settings to Medicare, Medicaid, and insured populations. It serves patients through clinical providers and pharmacists. The company was formerly known as Phoenix Parent Holdings Inc. and changed its name to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. in May 2021. BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Last week we let you know that Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was making waves in Maryland as he filmed television series, “Kitchen Nightmares” (or a show with a similar premise) in Frederick, MD. The restaurant he was filming at, Callahan’s Seafood Bar & Grill (1808 Rosemont Ave. in Frederick, MD) has announced that it will be reopening on Tuesday, March 11th.

Callahan’s wrote the following on social media on Monday evening, “We are happy to announce that we will be reopening tomorrow Tuesday March 11th. For the time being we have introduced a limited menu as we begin to implement a slow rollout of a new and improved Callahan’s! Don’t worry, your old favorites aren’t gone forever ???? We appreciate your love for Callahan’s ❤️”

Several sources confirmed to us last week that Ramsay is in Frederick to film an episode of the series (or one with a similar premise). The casting call went out for a show referred to as “Restaurant Refresh,” but those we spoke with last week believed it would be Kitchen Nightmares or a show with a similar premise and “Restaurant Refresh” was just a working title. Callahan’s itself has yet to make any mention of Ramsay.

“Kitchen Nightmares” is a popular reality TV show where Ramsay visits struggling restaurants across the country to help turn them around. Known for his fiery temperament and culinary expertise, Ramsay works with restaurant owners to revamp their menus, improve service, and reinvigorate their businesses. The show combines intense drama with inspiring transformations, showcasing Ramsay’s ability to bring out the best in both people and their establishments.

Beyond his television endeavors, Ramsay has also made a mark on the D.C. dining scene with the opening of three restaurants– Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips, Street Pizza, and Hell’s Kitchen.

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