Key Neapolitan and Crushed Velvet Move to Former Paulie Gee's Space in Hampden

After three years of running a seasonal pizza-and-shaved-ice operation out of a renovated gas station on Key Highway, Kate Shotwell and Mack Fowler are moving their two concepts north to Hampden, into the former Paulie Gee's building at 3535 Chestnut Ave.

The pair announced the relocation on March 16, closing their 1302 Key Highway spot the weekend before. Shotwell said lease negotiations with their Federal Hill landlord broke down and, while searching for alternatives across Maryland, they kept coming back to Baltimore. "We never wanted to go anywhere else," she said. The Chestnut Avenue space initially gave her pause because it was so much larger than what they had, but the couple eventually came around. "We couldn't come to terms with our landlord at 1302, unfortunately, and while we were negotiating we discovered that spot and fell in love with it," Shotwell said.

The new venture, which will operate under the name Viale Pizza, is expected to open in May or June. The layout will follow the logic of the two brands: Crushed Velvet's Hawaiian-style shaved ices near the front, Mack Fowler's Neapolitan pizzas in the back. The move also ends a constraint that defined the operation since it opened in 2023. For all three years on Key Highway, Shotwell and Fowler served customers only six months out of the year. At Chestnut Avenue, they plan to run year-round.

The new space comes equipped with two Neapolitan pizza ovens left behind when Paulie Gee's closed in 2025. Ed Bosco, owner of Canton's Verde Pizzeria and Fowler's partner on the Key Neapolitan concept, will not be part of the Hampden operation, Shotwell confirmed.

At 1302 Key Highway, the pair had built out an unusually social setup for a food concept: Key Neapolitan ran from a food truck while Crushed Velvet operated out of the former gas station office, with a walk-up shaved ice window, a green turf patio, a tented seating area, an outdoor ping pong table, and an enclosed room with a pool table.

Shotwell and Fowler, a Riverside couple who first met nine years ago at the Ottobar, have run the two concepts together since the beginning. "I personally think doing the business together is strengthening and enriching to our relationship," Shotwell said.