Jackie Mearman has sailed along 25-foot swells on a catamaran in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, making her way from Annapolis to Bermuda. Conquering Baltimore’s dining scene almost seems easy in comparison.

The corporate pastry chef turned entrepreneur started Kitsch Cafe during the pandemic, when she put her life savings into an eatery on the first floor of her apartment building. “I didn’t have any concept,” she said. She landed on breakfast sandwiches, an underserved niche in Baltimore at the time.

In the five years since, she’s added two new locations: one in Remington’s R. House and a satellite branch on the Johns Hopkins University campus. Her staff has grown from five employees to 40.

And she’s not done yet. Mearman sees Kitsch’s future outside of Maryland as well as in hospitals and universities. “The goal is to really establish ourselves as a mid-Atlantic brand,” she said.

Early next month, she’ll launch Vivian’s inside the former Rize + Rest Cafe near Patterson Park.

Vivian’s, tentatively set to arrive Aug. 6, is part of a natural evolution for Mearman, whose existing eateries recreate the feel of “grandma’s basement,” she joked. The Patterson Park spot, which will serve cocktails, coffee and brunch as well as small bites and charcuterie boards, will feel like “grandma’s sunroom.” The décor includes assorted vintage knickknacks, including decorative plates and an array of green vases and bottles.

Standing inside the space at 3100 E. Baltimore St., Mearman poured drinks that will be on Vivian’s menu, like an iced Irish coffee and watermelon agua fresca garnished with mint.

“It’s giving grandma without the frump,” said Jenny Kessler Klump, creative director for Kitsch Hospitality.

The restaurant is named for Mearman’s paternal grandmother, a larger-than-life character who mowed the lawn in a bathing suit while the Baptist church across the street held Sunday service. Mearman hopes to suffuse the space with her grandma’s cheeky, can-do spirit.

Before starting her own business, the Millersville native spent three years as Atlas Restaurant Group’s corporate pastry chef, traveling between their properties. It’s a job she sometimes gets questions about, given the company’s polarizing reputation in the community.

“A lot of Baltimore has opinions, and that’s fine,” Mearman said. Hers is that the company brings in tourism and other out-of-town business and is a net positive for the city. “I can’t just wash out three years that I spent there,” she added.

Prior to that, she worked at the Four Seasons Hotel, where she got to know chef Randall Jovan Matthews. Matthews opened Rize + Rest in Patterson Park in 2023, but closed the business this spring. He still owns the building, though, and will be Mearman’s landlord.

From the bar, customers can see into Vivian’s small open kitchen that features a sink, an oven and not a whole lot else. It’s a restaurant design Mearman said is taking off in New York. Without having a dedicated food prep space, she said, “it makes it a lot easier to start up and go.”

Mearman is used to working out of small spaces, though — on land and at sea. The original Kitsch, on the ground floor of the Carlyle Apartment Homes on West University Parkway, is 400 square feet with no real kitchen.

“We have three induction burners,” she said. “We cook with magnets and witchcraft.”

Kitschenette, Mearman’s concept at Hopkins, has a 200-square-foot footprint. The company’s largest branch is currently at R. House, where it takes up 500 square feet.

Four years ago, a fellow Culinary Institute of America grad and former Four Seasons coworker asked if she would be interested in cooking for a chartered yacht he was captaining. It was the beginning of a yearslong love affair with the water — and with Michael Howard, her soon-to-be husband and the aforementioned captain. Since then, she and Howard have sailed from Annapolis to as far south as the British Virgin Islands. Mearman typically cooks in the boat’s kitchen.

They’ve had some harrowing experiences. As the couple were leaving Charleston, South Carolina, for Florida one night, Mearman was jolted awake by the sound of the boat’s boom swinging across the vessel, a dangerous incident in sailing known as a jibe. Plates crashed to the floor of the room where she was sleeping. “It was terrifying,” she said. “But we made it.”

Mearman says her appreciation for the water — and those intense moments while sailing — grounded her perspective on small business.

“You kind of have to check yourself and remind yourself that even if all this goes completely ass up, you can still go get a job, right?” she said. “Nothing happening here is going to be life-ending or life-changing.”

In the end, she’s just making breakfast — and sometimes lunch and dinner, too.