Turning a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Glen Arm into a part luxury-car garage, part social club is new territory for chef Zack Trabbold.

Park + Social, imagined as a car lover’s country club, was born out of a collaboration with White Marsh-based car-detailing service Detail Solutions. Trabbold said the venture will be “less food-forward” than his Evolved Hospitality Group’s other eateries, such as The Local on The Avenue in Nottingham and The Local and Natalie’s Seafood Kitchen in Fallston.

The new concept, which he is working on full steam ahead despite being in a court battle over his other restaurants, is set to open in the spring. Park + Social will serve the American-style steak and seafood found at Trabbold’s other eateries, but it won’t be the main selling point. A $250 membership will buy customers access to golf simulators, a dart room, a VIP lounge and a showroom for custom cars. Detail Solutions will have a second location at the facility for luxury-vehicle maintenance.

Detail Solutions owner and Park + Social collaborator Kurt Felmar did not respond to requests for comment about the venture.

Starting up a new business like Park + Social will be tricky, Trabbold said, but he’s proud of the team behind the project and feels ready to try a concept outside the traditional restaurant service.

His customers have changed their dining habits amid tariffs and rising costs, which led him to lower the price of nearly every item on his menus. So far he’s added a new brunch menu and smaller plates to The Local in the hopes it will inspire people to dine out twice a week instead of twice a month.

“Does [The Local] still make as much money? No,” said Trabbold, who was named Baltimore magazine’s best chef in 2022, 2023 and 2024 readers’ polls and the Restaurant Association of Maryland’s chef of the year in 2023. “But it’s not all about money for me.”

The Park + Social club is a passion project for Trabbold, who recently purchased a Corvette and whose family worked for General Motors in Delaware. But the new venture comes as he is suing several minority owners of his Local restaurants and catering company — a suit in which his Corvette is a point of contention.

In a Nov. 6 filing in the Circuit Court for Harford County, Trabbold said his reputation was harmed because of an accusation by a minority owner of his restaurant business that he misappropriated company funds to purchase two cars, including the Corvette, and open Natalie’s Seafood Kitchen. Trabbold denied that accusation and the minority owners’ claims that he wired about $64,000 from The Local in Fallston to purchase his home, pay loans, pay a personal court settlement and make unauthorized transfers within the company.

The claims by the minority owners are part of an ongoing legal dispute that began in early April, when Trabbold sued over an alleged “hostile and illegal” takeover of his businesses. In his petition, Trabbold accused the other owners of forcing him to sign a document that would give them the power to make decisions about his businesses and lock Trabbold out of finance and operating systems. Trabbold would stay on as executive chef without pay or any managerial control. He alleged the owners accused him of embezzling company funds and theft and threatened him with federal prison time.

In court documents, he said he believed the takeover was a response to efforts by him and Natalie Trabbold, his wife and business partner, to open another restaurant.

Trabbold denies all the allegations and said the minority owners’ financial concerns are based on a “fatally flawed, partial analysis of a small portion of the companies’ records,” according to the April 3 petition. Since then, the defendants have filed a countercomplaint, accusing Trabbold of failing to manage his companies and saying he has “illegally strong-armed his way back into control.”

Trabbold is currently managing his Harford County restaurants, but not The Local on The Avenue.

Attorneys for the six minority owners — Scott Nortman, Robert Windsor, Randy Packett, Vincent Piccinini, Howard Neivod and Kenneth Kosko — did not respond to requests for comment.

Trabbold said the lawsuit will not impact the timeline or finances of Park + Social. He also said he doesn’t believe the case will alter how he runs his eateries.

“We operate everything,” he said, referring to himself and his wife. “The lawsuit won’t change that and it never will.”