With his Fells Point eateries Duck Duck Goose and Osteria Pirata currently shuttered, Chef Ashish Alfred has gone south to take on a new challenge in Howard County.

The restaurateur, who came under fire for closing his eateries due to alleged safety concerns in the Baltimore neighborhood, will be leading the new “creative direction” at the Columbia location of The Walrus Oyster & Ale House.

The craft beer and seafood purveyor’s “relaunch” involves a redesigned menu with jumbo lump crab cakes, pan-seared scallops and shrimp fra diavolo, a dish of shrimp and spiced red sauce, according to a statement by Kelsey Kindall, a spokeswoman for the business.

The Walrus, at 10300 Little Patuxent Parkway, first opened at National Harbor in 2014. The previous menu was heavily centered on the Chesapeake Bay, serving 15 varieties of oysters, seafood towers and fried fish, alongside self-described “over-the-top” frozen drinks like the pineapple, rum, ginger and lime Coco Motion and bourbon, grenadine, mint and ginger beer Kentucky Smash.

Alfred referred to the new direction as a more elevated approach that he was able to pull from his experience as a French chef.

“We went from seafood shack to seafood bistro,” Alfred said in a Wednesday evening phone call. He added that the new menu includes a grilled branzino, a New Orleans-style “shrimp ducky” — a dish with roasted duck and sautéed shrimp — as well as a crab Dijonnaise. Walrus owner Desmond Reilly remembers being in awe of Alfred’s ability to pull from varied flavor profiles and build an expansive menu on his first visit to Duck Duck Goose.

Working with Alfred was “something I always wanted to do,” Reilly said. The Walrus Oyster & Ale House opened its eatery at The Mall in Columbia in 2018 with 280 seats, a patio and a shucking bar. Columbia is growing competitive: more restaurants are moving to the area and surrounding counties are taking notice, he said.

There’s a demand for excellent cuisine, he added, meaning it was time for the eatery to invest in a larger, coastal menu to appeal to a broader audience. Sales had plateaued, and both guest-in-the-door and financial returns weren’t “very exciting,” Reilly said.

Howard County is increasingly building restaurants that would be found in a major metro area, from the notable eateries lodged in “way-out” strip malls like Walker’s Tap and Table to buzzworthy offerings by famed chef Peter Chang heating up the Merriweather District. The shift to the suburbs has proven profitable for some restaurateurs eager to grow in an underserved market.

“The timing was perfect,” Reilly said of bringing Alfred on as a consultant.

“It’s no secret I got away from my own restaurants,” Alfred said. “I operated with as much integrity as I could and things didn’t work out.”

In a June interview with The Banner, Alfred alleged that the poor perception of Baltimore contributed to the decline in revenue at his two Fells Point eateries and his bar, the Anchor Tavern. At the time, Alfred had lent his voice to a public outcry over crime in the neighborhood, which came shortly after a teenager was shot and injured about a block away from his business.

Alfred attributed the declining sales to people “not feel[ing] safe to walk into his restaurant.”

He had operated eateries in the Baltimore region since 2012. Yet despite his passion for the area — “I was very much a mascot for the city,” he said — Alfred watched the local industry grow more difficult with each year. “These issues were not of my own,” Alfred said of the factors leading to his restaurants’ closures. “I was the sole operator and not everything went to plan.”

The chef didn’t deny that his businesses incurred financial hardships unrelated to crime in the area. Alfred allegedly owes money to vendors and distributors, who’ve filed claims against his restaurant group — one of which, Moe Greene LLC, was granted a June judgement of nearly $60,000 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Another lawsuit filed in Baltimore City District Court last week by a former distributor to Alfred’s Duck Duck Goose restaurant is suing the restaurateur’s hospitality group, alleging more than $12,000 in unpaid services. Last month, a Baltimore judge ordered Alfred and his mother, who is a part of his restaurant group, to pay Fells Point Wholesale Meats over $19,000 for unpaid services and an added $119,000 to be paid by Alfred alone.

Alfred was unaware of the recent lawsuits, but said he still “had a legal mess to clean up” following his businesses shuttering. “Closing a business is tough, and until you’ve been in that position you don’t know what it looks like.”

Reilly said he had no apprehension over bringing Alfred into the business, despite controversy. “I don’t know an operator that’s worth their salt that hasn’t owed money,” Reilly said of the recent claims against Alfred. The Walrus owner added that his first eatery in Federal Hill closed in 2012, leaving debts unpaid and people out of work.

The experience was “not pretty,” Reilly said. “It’s not an indicator of what we can be. … I don’t let that dissuade me from working with people.”