Robbie Tutlewski
Little Donna's | Baltimore, MD
February 2026
Robbie Tutlewski was raised on his family’s home cooking. In Gary, Indiana, Serbian and Polish traditions, ingredients, and flavors often took center stage on the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table thanks to his grandmother and parents. Soon, he wanted in on the action. While his siblings pursued doctorate degrees, Tutlewski went to work in kitchens, taking a break briefly to work at a local steel mill before eventually enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago, Illinois, when he was 19. After cooking at The Pump Room and then North Pond, he went back to Indiana to work at Bistro 157.
When he was 22, Tutlewski left the Midwest and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Not long after, he joined the team at Pizzeria Bianco. Over the next eight years, Tutlewski grew as a cook, baker, and leader, opening new restaurants with the group while learning the ins and outs of bread and pizza making from his mentor, Chef Chris Bianco. In 2018, Tutlewski and his wife, Kaleigh Schwalbe, moved to Washington, D.C., to be closer to family. He started working at Tail Up Goat, where he spent the next year developing new bread, dough, and dish recipes, before joining the team at Big Bear Cafe.
In 2021, after successful pop-ups in the D.C. area, Tutlewski and Schwalbe signed a lease on a building in Baltimore, moved their belongings into the apartment upstairs, and got to work on creating a restaurant of their own downstairs in a space that was once home to the beloved Henninger’s Tavern. The following year, they opened Little Donna’s. At the Upper Fells Point restaurant, Tutlewski brings heart to every dish on the menu. From Chicago-inspired tavern-style pies to traditional and not-so-traditional pierogi to schnitzels, pickles, and palacinke, he is thinking outside the box while paying tribute to the past and present: to Eastern Europe, the American Midwest, and Baltimore all at once.
2026 StarChefs D.C.-Maryland-Virginia Rising Stars Award Winner
