The indie rock band Modest Mouse is in town today to play at Rams Head Live! I guess they had some down time as well as a hearty appetite.

The Ra Sushi people in Harbor East let us know that two of the band members (they didn’t know which ones) stopped by around 2 p.m. for a late lunch, or maybe early dinner. Let’s just say they’re serious sushi eaters.

On their plates: veggie tempura starter, two kinds of nigiri (mackerel and cooked surf clam), an avocado hand roll, and a crab hand roll. They finished with cinnamon tempura ice cream, courtesy of RA’s manager. Sounds like a great way to get ready for a concert.

Piedigrotta Bakery in Little Italy now has homemade gelato in a variety of flavors. It’s been a long time coming, says Bruna Iannoccone, who owns this wonderful space with her husband Carmen, also the shop’s baker. But she finally has a gelato machine.

Bruna says she plans to offer about 22 flavors. She just got back from spending two weeks in Italy and is excited about her product. I stopped by this afternoon and had a latte (one of the best in town) and a pistachio gelato. Other flavors include vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut and mango.

But the next time I go (probably tomorrow), I am going to follow Bruna’s advice and get an espresso with a dollop of vanilla or chocolate gelato in it and swirl the flavors. It sounds like the perfect drink to savor at one of the wood tables, surrounded by cases of fragrant baked goods and Italian music in the background.

Chef Carole Brosso will be cooking all weekend to get ready for the grand re-opening of Patrick’s in Cockeysville on Monday (March 9). But it’s all good. She’s been waiting for this day since Oct. 19 when an electrical fire in the attic caused extensive smoke damage, necessitating closure of the restaurant.

Carole, who has owned the restaurant with her mother, Mary Lou Brosso, since 2006, has been overseeing the repairs ever since. "The place is gorgeous," she said of the restored space. "We have a new color scheme with warm, rich colors."

Other changes include a bigger bar, more TVs, and a new wine room with 2,500 bottles. ("The prize of all this," Carole said of the expanded vino offerings.) But prices will stay the same. The chef said that it didn’t seem fair to have people come back to a higher tariff.

Carole, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, also plans to continue the restaurant’s themed-menu weekends. And given the economy, she will offer a chef’s tasting prix-fixe menu, a reverse happy hour with late-night martini deals, and "green-plate specials," featuring comfort food, that will be easy on patrons’ wallets, she said.

"It was no vacation," Carole said of her time while the restaurant was being remodeled. "We were always doing something."

She sounds excited to be back in the kitchen.

In our March issue, several local bartenders shared their insights into what people are drinking these days. Yes, there were the expected trends of mixed drinks, premium vodkas, and flavor-infused spirits. But one that fascinated me was from Erik Brown, the mix master at The Oregon Grille. He said he’s seeing more interest in cognac.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of cognac, I always picture puffy, well-dressed, middle-aged men holding fat snifters of the expensive French brandy and talking about boring stuff. But evidently all that has changed.

Just a few months ago, I heard a segment on NPR about the increasing popularity of cognac due to hip-hop music and rappers like Busta Rhymes ("Pass the Courvoisier"), Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, and Devino Fortunato, whose often raunchy lyrics put a whole new spin on the luxury drink. The fact that their fans mixed the pricey elixir with plebian Coke didn’t quell the enthusiasm. The rappers were actually on the right track.

After soaring cognac sales in recent years, the global economic downturn and a trend toward mixed cocktails took a bite out of incoming bottles to the U.S. from Cognac, France, where the distilled spirit is made. So the industrious French have come up with a possible solution.

At last year’s International Cognac Summit, they invented a cocktail called, no surprise, The Summit. Besides brandy, it also features lemonade, lime, and ginger. I don’t know if that will help the industry or not. It seems a shame to mix such a fine spirit with other ingredients.

The question I get asked most is if we only pick restaurants who advertise with the magazine. In fact, I was asked that very thing point blank when I was on 98 Rock recently.

The short answer is no, no way, no how. If we were in some kind of collusion, our magazine would have been a lot fatter with ads than it was this month.

Now, here’s where I’ll probably get into trouble for not paying attention. I honestly have no clue who advertises with us. Really! I’m too busy focusing on the editorial content. We’re a small staff. There are too many headlines, cutlines, rewrites, and copy edits to be done.

On the flip side, our ad reps have no idea who makes the top restaurants list until they see the printed magazine, just like our readers. I’m not sure how the misperception got started, but editorial ethics is alive and well at the magazine, just like at newspapers.

The editorial staff also is separate geographically from the advertising and marketing folks. They’re at one end of the building. We’re at the other. We hardly ever bump into each other unless we’re vying for space in the microwave for our Lean Cuisines.

This year, we also took the step of rating the restaurants to make the list more exciting for our readers and to keep the restaurants on their toes. It wasn’t haphazard. We focused on restaurants that serve dinner. We know there are a lot of great lunch and breakfast places out there. We’ll give them attention another time.

We also used a point system from one to five, with five being the highest, in four categories: food, service, ambiance, and value. When the restaurants were close or even in number, we turned to more intangible criteria. Was the temperature comfortable? Were the tables close together? Was the music loud—or bad! But one thing that never enters into the editorial discussion is who is advertising with us, whether for top restaurants or any other stories.

And just because we picked the top 50 doesn’t undermine all the hundreds of other eating establishments out there. There are a lot of good ones. There’s just a lot of competition.

Maybe we should follow in the Washingtonian’s footsteps. It does a top 100. I don’t think I have enough fat pants for that endeavor. But who knows what will happen next year!

Ted Stelzenmuller of Jack’s Bistro—one of the most inventive chefs in town—has come up with a wacky appetizer called "Big Brother’s in Trouble." Let’s just say real aquarium fish and sushi-grade tuna are involved.

B-mag’s associate editor Jess Blumberg saw it firsthand and told me about it. I wish I had a photo, but I’ll try and describe it.

The tuna, which you eat, is served in a martini glass with roasted garlic and basil aïoli, jalapeno and sun-dried tomatoes, and lemon "air" nestled over mâche greens. So far, so good. Then under the martini glass is a stemless wine glass with a pot-belly molly fish, scooped from the restaurant’s aquarium, swimming around, supposedly looking up at the poor brethren about to be consumed. Hence, the appetizer’s whimsical name.

So how did it come about? Ted says he wanted to have a live fish in the dining room and then decided he wanted to have a fish with a fish. "It built from there," he says.

Christie Smertycha, Jack’s manager, assures us the hardy fish are handled carefully for their brief sojourn into the dining room before being returned to their aquarium home to swim laps with their friends.

The appetizer is not available in the summer because Ted moves the aquarium upstairs, where the fish will be cooler. In season, the fish show is available for $9.75.