There aren’t many places where customers can order Chinese food, a pizza and a steak, and have it all on one bill. With the opening of Wonder, now Annapolis has one of those places.
Walking into the food hall is unassuming. There’s a small dining area, item pick-up shelves and a couple of tablets.
On those tablets, customers will find a user interface similar to a food delivery app, featuring around 20 unique restaurants to choose from. At the food hall, each item from each restaurant is made to order in Wonder’s kitchen.
The restaurant joins GNC and Moby Dick in Beacon Square. Wonder, located at 2496 Riva Road, Suite 450, held its grand opening on Thursday.
This is the first Wonder in Anne Arundel County and the third in Maryland.
Wonder’s market operations director for the region, Kris Gobeil, said the chain has seen success because it does not adhere to the traditional restaurant mold. Wonder instead puts a focus on comfort and the ease of the experience, said Gobeil, who has spent 25 years in the hospitality industry.
“I have two young girls. I have a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old. They are very limiting on the food choices that they want to eat,” Gobeil said. “Having a place like Wonder where, truly, I can get a Gordon Ramsay steak, they can grab pizza or chicken fingers, everyone can truly be happy without someone potentially leaving the meal frustrated. To me, that’s where hospitality needs to be.”
Some of Wonder’s restaurants are branded and feature recipes from celebrity chefs. Others are real restaurants that might be too far for a customer to reach easily. For example, Annapolis’ Wonder features Maydan, a popular Middle Eastern restaurant in Washington, D.C.
The chain has expanded rapidly over the past couple of years. Gobeil said that it could only be found in New York and New Jersey 18 months ago, but now the Annapolis location marks the chain’s 99th. The 100th Wonder opened the same day on Long Island in Huntington.
Gobeil also said each Wonder restaurant tends to have different best sellers, and different restaurants are popular in different regions. The secret to doing so much, Gobeil said, is the massive kitchen.
“It’s because it’s a giant kitchen, right? And if we did not make these giant kitchens, we wouldn’t be able to house all the equipment, all the prep food, [handle] all the scenarios that have to come into a kitchen to line up what we do,” he said. “I think that’s what makes the magic happen.”
The restaurant has roughly 40 employees to start out.
The menu is ever evolving, and the chain aims to release a couple of new restaurants every year. Wonder is working on fleshing out its limited-time offerings.
The state’s first Wonder was in Baltimore’s Canton Crossing, and another location followed in College Park. The next site will open in Frederick, Gobeil’s hometown, in March. Locations will follow in Bel Air and North Bethesda in April.
Gobeil said Wonder isn’t afraid to tackle regional favorites, such as selling cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. Just across Riva Road, RegionAle, a restaurant that specialized in those regional dishes, closed down recently.
Have a news tip? Contact Benjamin Rothstein at [email protected], 443-928-1926.