1. Charleston, 1000 Lancaster St., 410-332-7373. Award-winning Charleston continues to rack up the accolades. “Does it really deserve this praise?” we sometimes ask. Yup, it does. You can count on chef/co-owner Cindy Wolf to turn out a beautiful prix-fixe meal, with wine pairings, if you’d like.

Despite his affable manner, Winston Blick is worried. The chef/owner of Clementine restaurant in Hamilton and the recently opened Green Onion market and Clementine at the Creative Alliance is once again trying to make payroll. “We’re struggling,” he admits. “If I hadn’t done half of the dumb-ass things I did, we’d be successful.” But Blick has never done things the easy way. He dropped out of high school (later getting his GED), married and divorced young, and started in the restaurant business as a dishwasher.

Sitting in a Prairie-style chair at the kitchen table of his Bolton Hill row home, Rob Kasper reminisces about the round, claw-foot table of his childhood. “Some of the strongest memories I have are of sitting at that kitchen table,” says Kasper, who wrote for The Baltimore Sun for 34 years. “I have the strong belief that the kitchen table is the center of life from which all good ideas come—from the theory of light, to who is going to win the pennant, to how to make a good gravy.” Indeed, the kitchen table might also explain why a boy from the small town of St.

Baltimore City

Clementine at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave., 410-276-1651. Highlandtown.An offspring of the locavore Hamilton restaurant sets up shop in the performance/art space.

Dempsey’s Brew Pub & Restaurant, 555 Russell St., Suite B, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 410-843-7901. Downtown. Former O’s catcher Rick Dempsey is a partner at this ballpark restaurant with an American menu and beers brewed on-site.

How did you get into wine/How did you become The Wine Coach?
It really goes back to a job I had in software sales. I was living in Federal Hill at the time. I was selling to Fortune 100 food and beverage companies. I came to find out quickly that lots of deals were made over dinner. And, really, at the time, I was definitely more of a beer drinker than a wine drinker. But I ended up at these business meetings where we’d be ordering wine and every now and then I’d be handed the wine list, and I just had really no clue where to start.

The most recent member of the Bagby Restaurant Group, Fleet Street Kitchen (1012 Fleet St., 410-244-5830) opened quietly in mid-September, surrounded by its siblings Bagby Pizza Company and Ten Ten. We sat at the romantic, white-marble, back-lit bar on our initial visit, nibbling on an excellent charcuterie plate ($17), loaded with offerings like rabbit pâté, chicken-liver parfait, prosciutto, pickled veggies, mustard, and jam. Chef Chris Becker will use local products whenever possible, we were told. Entrees run $22-36. We’re excited to try the desserts next time.

We’re not cheapskates. Really. But we like a good deal as much as the next person, especially in an economy that seems to constantly drain our pocketbooks. When we’re eating out, we know how fast the dollars add up. We felt confident that there were places around town offering a decent meal without us having to succumb to a quarter-pounder and fries. (Not that we don’t enjoy that, too.) We had a budget——$40 for two people. We also wanted to go to restaurants where we could share a meal at a table. We’re happy with what we found: a range of great food at affordable prices.