New restaurants, upstart chefs, and visiting actors are drawing attention to our dining scene.
It didn’t take long for noted chef Michael Mina to assess Baltimoreans’ taste buds. Soon after Wit & Wisdom: A Tavern by Michael Mina opened a year and a half ago at the Four Seasons Hotel in Harbor East, diners were downing plates of bison-heart tartare among other adventurous fare. That’s all Mina—a San Francisco resident who operates almost two-dozen restaurants around the country—needed to know. “In Baltimore, people are very much into dining,” he says.
The black-eyed Susan will be in demand on race day. We asked Tim Riley (Bagby Restaurant Group) for his take on the cocktail.
The Kentucky Derby has the mint julep as its signature cocktail. The Belmont Stakes has several, including a white carnation libation. So it’s no surprise that the Preakness celebrates the second leg of the Triple Crown with a drink called the black-eyed Susan, named after the flowers used to create a blanket for the winning horse. We asked Tim Riley, the beverage director for the Bagby Restaurant Group, including Fleet Street Kitchen and Ten Ten, to share a recipe with us. Here’s Riley’s adaptation.
Mother’s Day is May 12, and plenty of restaurants around town are planning special brunches in honor of Mom. Here are some of the places we like best for celebrating the day.
1. B&O American Brasserie: The restaurant will be hosting a bountiful brunch that includes citrus-and-coriander-cured gravlax, pepper-and-thyme roasted prime rib, buttermilk biscuits and chorizo gravy, and a dessert display with house-made pastries, cakes, and pies. Price: $30 per person; $12 for children 12 and under. Bottomless mimosas and bloody Marys are available for an additional $10 per person. Mom gets complimentary mimosas.
Your sip tip of the month for April 2013.
April is here, and with it comes the cool side of spring—enough warmth to coax you outdoors, though Old Man Winter’s breath can still chill the back of your neck. The snappy textures, fresh aromas, and prim flavors of France’s Loire Valley wines epitomize the season, and we’ve found three lip-smacking examples to complement the weather.
Restaurant owner starts with his own downtown eatery.
Derrick Vaughan, owner of The Corner Bistro & Wine Bar in Ridgely’s Delight, has a grand idea. He wants to rename the stretch from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Harbor East the “Wine’Tastic Mile”—inspired by Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. He’s produced bumper stickers and has convinced the city to install a Wine’Tastic Mile street sign at the corner of MLK and Pratt Street to promote the bars and restaurants along the route (even turning at President Street to include the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore and Cinghiale).
Weekend warriors can relish the city’s beloved cheese steaks—and so much more.
The taste lingered long after the car turned onto Interstate 95 and the twin towers of Liberty Place grew smaller in the rearview mirror. It was quite possibly the best pork sandwich ever—tender herb-braised meat, pulled apart and tucked into the firm yet yielding roll that only a Philadelphia bakery can make. The crowning touch: garlicky broccoli rabe and sharp provolone.
With a family to feed, businesswoman Monyka Berrocosa puts an early interest in food and fine dining to good use.
Donning a red-striped apron as she emulsifies Dijon mustard to make a proper French vinaigrette, Monyka Berrocosa says that learning to cook was a matter of basic survival. “My mother was a terrible cook,” says Berrocosa, as she stands in the charming galley kitchen of her Towson home, with her Hungarian Vizsla, Tokai, at her feet. “Everything she ever made turned into spaghetti sauce—even if she started with a chicken.
Fans tout the merits of fruit and vegetable drinks.
Juices pack a punch these days, both nutritionally and in popularity. You’ll find a variety of drinks chock full of vitamins and minerals around town, including at Zia’s, Liquid Earth, and Grind House Juice Bar & Market. Even actor Woody Harrelson, a raw-food proponent, inspired one local drink when he was in Baltimore filming Game Change. To meet his request for a healthy beverage, Agora Market (Inn at the Black Olive, 803 S.
Food trucks aren’t putting the brakes on anytime soon.
Just look at the increasing number of vans taking to the streets with all manner of cuisine. We like the variety, but we always find ourselves going back to these road warriors.
We rank the top 50 places to eat around Baltimore.
Steak mogul Steve de Castro’s home is a monument to a life of hard work—and a drive for perfection.
“I’ve been working pretty much my whole life,” says de Castro. “Living in a Communist country, one of the things Fidel [Castro] did was have you work for him every day on your own land. I remember when I was maybe 12 or 13, I’d get up and help my mother reach her daily quota—whether it was helping with sugar cane or hoeing in between rows of plantains.”
Area restaurants carry on the food traditions of Korea.
When TV personality, chef, and food writer Andrew Zimmern came to Baltimore last summer, he visited a variety of eating establishments including Angie’s Soul Food at Lexington Market and Chaps Charcoal Restaurant for pit beef. But he also wanted to go to several of the area’s Korean restaurants while filming an episode for the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods America. At Nam Kang on Maryland Avenue, Zimmern chowed down on octopus bibimbap and fish-roe jjigae before heading to Shin Chon Garden Restaurant in Ellicott City, where he continued his eating foray.
Local bakers create a stir with the popular breakfast mix.
Granola just didn’t crumble and go away when the hippies grew up. The cereal, like its sturdy grain-fruits-and-nuts ingredients, is as resilient as Birkenstocks and is actually having a resurgence around town. Michele’s Granola—an all-natural, organic mix with choices like pumpkin spice and ginger hemp—and Stone Mill Bakery, with its Tupelo honey granola, are just two of the local businesses continuing the cereal’s legacy.
Each year, we notice that Baltimore’s restaurant wine lists get more interesting and progressive as a genuine enthusiasm for good juice increases. Here are three delicious finds we sampled while working on this month’s “Best Restaurants” issue.
Your sip tip of the month.
There’s something about popping the cork on a bottle of sparkling wine that simply makes an evening more special. This is especially true on Valentine’s Day when sharing a toast together with a convivial glass of bubbles is the perfect way to kick off the evening. Here are three delicious wines to suit any budget.
