Bluebird Cocktail Room owners to open Sassafras restaurant

Paul Edward, of the Bluebird Cocktail Room, organizes hand-mixed cocktails bottled for sale at The Pub, located below Bluebird on Hickory Avenue in Hampden. staff file

A new fine dining restaurant on the Eastern Shore is slated to open from the co-owners of Bluebird Cocktail Room in Baltimore.

Husband-and-wife team chef Paul Edward, formerly known as Paul Benkert, and Caroline Benkert are opening a supper club called Sassafras atop a cliff in Betterton Beach, a Kent County town situated on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay. The couple relocated to the Eastern Shore two years ago.

Sassafras officially opens for weekly seatings of 20 guests at the start of June. However, the restaurant is taking reservations for a “chef’s series” sneak peek beginning May 1.

With a regional flavor that Edward calls “modern Chesapeake cookery,” the prix fixe, multicourse menu changes daily based on the availability of local ingredients. Eggs come from a flock on his Eastern Shore property, and the menu has a strong emphasis on locally and regionally sourced wild-caught seafood, such as aged yellowfin tuna, snakehead and catfish.

The restaurant takes its name from the Sassafras River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay nearby. The venue offers views of the bay from an outdoor deck.

The couple previously owned a pizzeria in Urbana called Manina, but it shut in January 2023.

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