When Linda Brown Rivelis and Steve Rivelis got married at the Brass Elephant in 1986, Steve recalls, “We spent 30 minutes in the second-floor lounge over mimosas, took 15 minutes to say our vows and exchange rings that were engraved with, ‘It’s a deal,’ then we danced our heads off downstairs.” Thirty years later, the entrepreneurs have made a new deal as the proprietors of The Elephant. And three decades after tying the knot here, they’re still glowing.

While the Brass Elephant (which closed in 2009) held a special place in their hearts, it was also important to the duo to bring the old-world charm of the past into the present and create a place that would welcome a new generation of dedicated diners. With that goal in mind, over the course of a year-and-half-long renovation, the original 32-foot marble bar was restored, the upstairs lounge was updated with contemporary pieces like white leather sofas and ottomans, and the first-floor dining rooms were painted a pale, seashell pink, inspired by a set of vintage dessert plates purchased on a sojourn to Savannah, Georgia.

The shiny surfaces are mostly gone, with the exception of some elephant-head sconces and “wallpaper” nameplates—installed in the second-floor bathroom and hallway—that were found in the building, dating from when the Potthast Brothers Furniture Company was housed there. For all the renovations, it’s clear that the past has not been completely forgotten—historic gems abound, including stained glass by famed artist Louis Comfort Tiffany and intricate woodwork by Lockwood de Forest, a leader in the aesthetic movement.

Against the backdrop of this enveloping oasis, the food is almost secondary to the space. With its United Nations approach, the menu was inspired by the Rivelises’ 60-day trip around the world (Hanoi, Tokyo, Bora Bora, Morocco). It features items such as lasagna, chicken with chili sauce, and St. Louis-style ribs, as well as seasonal specialties, a raw bar, and a dedicated lounge menu with small plates and flatbreads.

While the fare is tasty enough and executive chef Andy Thomas (formerly of Citronelle and Gertrude’s) has the proper pedigree, the menu is literally all over the map and might be better served by consolidating countries, especially since many of the nations featured are known for their bold cuisine and exotic, palate-pleasing profiles. On our visits, most of the dishes were spice- and salt-shy and needed more oomph, including a cedar plank sockeye salmon served on a bed of fennel and onions (the pile of mashed potatoes was the star of the otherwise disappointing dish), a pad thai-inspired rice noodle dish with shrimp, and a brothy but flavorless fisherman’s stew rife with scallops, shrimp, salmon, crab, clams, and mussels.

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Pimlico Hotel Egg Roll
Cut in four sections and served on top of a swish of plum and duck sauce, this festive appetizer—a nostalgic nod to the original recipe at the Pimlico Hotel—is a must-have prelude to your meal.

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While many of the menu items we sampled needed some sort of tweaking, there were a few dishes that were just right. Our favorites included a plate of zucchini fritters—three compact cakes mixed with onion, fennel, and flash fried, and served with a cooling dill yogurt sauce—and tandoori-style chicken kabobs, threaded with peppers, onions, and zucchini, and served with a tangy yogurt sauce. Another winner was the so-called lobster roll, a riff on Vietnamese-style summer rolls, rolled in rice paper and packed with carrots, cucumber, and basil and served with a thin drizzle of mango sauce.

As for entrees, though pricey at $42, the one to order is the lamb tagine for two. The rich stew featured succulent chunks of lamb, chickpeas, and onions, floating in a thick, aromatic beef-tomato, gravy-like broth. Fat pearls of Israeli couscous were served on the side, along with house-made pita bread and a plate of simple vegetables.

In the service department, hospitality was high, from Linda’s warm smile as she visited every table to a gracious and skilled wait staff that enhanced the experience with constant care and concern. Also of note, bar manager Matt Murphy is about as congenial as they come and makes a mean Arabber’s Delight comprised of bourbon, banana liqueur, bitters, honey, lemon, and ginger.

Despite some kinks, The Elephant is very much worth a visit. And given some time to tweak, diners, like the Rivelises, should soon be swooning.

When chef/owner Chad Gauss opened his wildly popular The Food Market in 2012, he promised “blue-collar food with a white-collar execution” for ever gentrifying Hampden, where old-style taverns patronized by longtime residents mixed uneasily with hip upstarts. Gauss’ The Food Market offered a delicate balance of old and new: thoughtfully prepared, updated versions of familiar standbys in a see-and-be-seen space that somehow felt welcoming to everyone. The formula worked so beautifully that, along with its neighbor, Corner Charcuterie Bar, The Food Market tipped Hampden’s The Avenue into full-blown dining destination status. There’s genius in that.

Now with his new spinoff—the playfully renamed La Food Marketa at The Shops at Quarry Lake—Gauss faces an entirely different challenge: Bring inventive cuisine to an upscale-food desert populated predominantly by takeout joints. The new enterprise succeeds (mostly), and patrons in the surrounding Greenspring corridor have been flocking to the place since it opened in early September.

Gauss and head chef John “Johntay” Bedingfield are working a different balance here, creating a mashup of North and Latin American comfort foods: Think Reuben empanadas (complete with Thousand Island dressing) and duck breast sided with yucca (the potato-like root) spaetzle. It’s a fun concept, but the place hasn’t yet reached The Food Market-like greatness. With a few tweaks, though, it very well could.

Start with the space, a bright white, noisy dining area with a bar and open kitchen to the side and colorful artwork on the walls. It’s eminently family friendly, as befits a neighborhood teeming with minivans. But at night it feels a little too bright—a little too fast food—for a place serving ambitious cuisine with an equally ambitious price point. Some low lighting and candles would bring the ambiance in line with the menu.

Bringing the price point in line with the food—at least for certain items—would also help. My dining companion, mulling her $18 entree of three small-ish tacos, asked if she could have a taste of beef from my $28 tenderloin tostada, a generous plate of rosy beef and refried potatoes piled with charred vegetables. The size of those tacos—stuffed with mahi mahi, lamb barbacoa, and charred steak, respectively—might not have mattered if they had been exceptional, but they were, in the words of my friend, “soggy and nondescript.” Similarly, a stuffed-squash entree looked beautiful, with its stuffing of roasted corn and burnished pinto beans surrounded by orange squash. But the stuffing lacked the rich play of flavors promised by its presentation.

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Poutino
A passel of crispy fries dusted with spice are striped with mild, creamy “fondito”—a variation on fondue—and an exemplary mole hinting of chocolate and cinnamon. Dotted with fiery-sweet pickled jalapeños and green onions, these fries hit all the flavor points, like the proverbial party in your mouth.

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More pleasing were the small plates we tried, although we puzzled a bit over the distinction between the ones deemed “little” and those that fell under the “small” category. Among the former, we tried a large tentacle of charred octopus with dollops of chorizo chimichurri and grilled onions, and the crispy, spicy street cauliflower with lime chili mayo. Both were delicious, but we wondered how in size or price they differed from our “small” serving of poutino, a variation on the Canadian french-fried concoction known as poutine.

Whichever way they’re categorized, you could make a meal just ordering from this nonentree section of the menu. Among the more intriguing offerings that we didn’t try were mussels vieja in a broth studded with red peppers, olives, and capers, and a pupusa stuffed with duck confit, Brie, and apples. Our favorite part of the meal may have been dessert, as recommended by our accommodating waitress, who’d also turned us on to that tenderloin tostado. She steered us toward the Crazy Banana Milkshake, which did look crazy and tasted crazy good. A banana shake arrived in a mug, its sides encrusted with a corn-flake-popcorn concoction “glued” to the mug with caramel and Mexican chocolate. So although La Food Marketa hasn’t risen to the level of its Anglo cousin, we’re guessing that its enterprising owner will work the formula until it does.

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LA FOOD MARKETA 2620 Quarry Lake Dr., 410-415-0606.
HOURS Sun.-Thu. 5-10 p.m., Fri.- Sat. 5-11 p.m., Fri.-Sun. 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
PRICES Appetizers and small plates: $8-18; entrees: $16-32; desserts: $8.
AMBIANCE Family friendly.

In Buddhism, the Bodhi tree is associated with the path to enlightenment, making it the perfect symbol for a wonderful new Thai restaurant in Hampden that offers a gateway to the treasures of the country’s cuisine.

Opened before Thanksgiving by the team that runs the bustling, tiny Mount Vernon eatery Khun Nine Thai, Bodhi Corner focuses on Northeast Thai cooking. Many of the wooden tables in the small, dimly lit dining room were filled when we visited recently, but the restaurant still exuded a calm, peaceful feeling. The menu is large and flexible, allowing for tofu, vegetables, chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp to be added to most dishes.

Among the appetizers we tried, the Kanom Jeeb stood out. The steamed dumplings, stuffed with shrimp, minced pork, water chestnuts, and shiitake mushrooms, come in an egg noodle wrapper and look like pieces of sushi. It’s a fun visual take on a classic Asian dish. The Thai sausage, unfortunately, was far too dry, and an order of four skinny fried shrimp rolls were decidedly unremarkable.

Where Bodhi Corner truly excels is in the complexity of its entrees, both the Thai staples that many Americans are familiar with and other dishes that many may not have encountered. Two of the standards, drunken noodles (which we ordered with large, tail-on shrimp) and basil fried rice (packed with chicken), outshined the run-of-the-mill varieties at most other spots around town, both in depth of flavor and precision of preparation. Although with three peppers printed next to them on the menu, we were fearing/hoping for even more heat. Still, each left us with a satisfyingly runny nose.

The highlight of our meals was the Khao Soi curry, a large bowl of egg noodles, pickled cabbage, and scallions topped with crispy noodles and red onions. A medium-bodied curry with the consistency of soup, it was rich without being filling, spicy without obscuring its layers of flavor. The duck Kra Prow was also a revelation. Several pieces of the baked bird are served with steamed broccoli and crispy basil in a reddish chili basil sauce that’s equal parts sweet and savory. Again, here the melding of taste sensations worked well.

After leaving, we resolved to soon try one of the seven vegan dishes, which include a version of crab fried rice and duck curry. Next time, we’ll also know to bring a bottle of wine or a few beers—Bodhi Corner is BYOB. (We yearned to sip a cold Singha, particularly with some of the spicier dishes.) We’ll return more enlightened.

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BODHI CORNER 3500 Chestnut Ave., 443-438-4068. HOURS: Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 4:30-10 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 4:30-10:30 p.m.; Sat. 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. PRICES: Appetizers: $5-10; Entrees: $13-30; Desserts: $7-11. AMBIANCE: Relaxed.

Baltimore is nothing if not campy. John Waters is our patron saint, annual toilet races are a fall ritual, and a winking Natty Boh is practically the symbol of the city. So, the concept of Gypsy Queen Cafe food truck spinning off into something called

Gypsy’s “Truckstaurant”—a hybrid eatery set inside an old warehouse that feels like something between a food truck and a restaurant—is certainly a fun one, and oh, so, Charm City. The Truckstaurant is situated along a sketchy strip of the Clipper Mill corridor and tucked behind some barbed wire and an automotive junk yard/car repair place. The outside dining area, with a tented Ping-Pong table and several al fresco tables for those balmier Bawlmer days, sets the stage for the playfulness that’s to come.

Inside, there’s a friendly feline who graces the entrance and welcomes tummy tickles. The 90-seat or so dining room features a large and beckoning bar with drinks you won’t see anywhere else (strange, but true, on offer is a swirled combination of frozen red sangria and orange margarita). A whirling disco ball is suspended from the ceiling, and on Wednesday “Disco Night” there’s ’80s music to go along with it. A hand-painted portrait of the titular gypsy queen fixes her gaze on diners from the back wall, and there’s an arrangement of green, pink, blue, and orange bottles that act as a room divider and add a sculptural element to the space. In other words, the joint has atmosphere to spare.

After nine years of running a food truck, owners Tom Looney, Annemarie Langton, and Ed Scherer (formerly of Helen’s Garden in Canton) decided to get back into the brick-and-mortar business. But while they have the ambiance and the décor down, the kitchen (actually inside the permanently parked food truck) has, well, some miles to go before the concept completely works.

The gypsy theme carries through to the menu, as it wanders—at times aimlessly—from Thailand (peanut noodles) to India (curried chicken and rice with naan) to Greece (lamb gyro) to Vietnam (pork banh mi) to Maryland (crab cake BLT) to the Middle East (curry basil falafel sandwich). Some of the global street food offerings come straight off the café menu (the cones, the burritos)—and that’s when the fare is at its best.

The signature crab cone—a colossal concoction including a jumbo lump crab
cake drizzled with a delicious house-made aioli and sitting on top of a mound of crispy fries, all of which gets rolled into an actual sweet waffle cone, defies all culinary logic—but don’t question it. Accept that it’s delicious and it works.

The Thai chicken burrito listed under the “carne” section of the menu is an Asian-Mexican mashup that’s also a classic from the cafe menu. With its lettuce wrap-style ground chicken and accompanying spicy seasoned slaw, it’s a bit messy to eat but quite tasty. Also, in the sandwich section, the lamb gyro is good enough, though the shawarma-style lamb could use more seasoning and spice. The bacon brown butter burger with cheddar is a dependable crowd pleaser.

The downfall of the menu is that, when it veers from the time-tested truck fare and relies on decades-old dishes from Helen’s Garden such as seafood Newburg, it doesn’t work. Overall, the kitchen needs to tighten up as well. A Greek salad had all the right components but was drowning in inches of dressing. The warm spinach-artichoke and gorgonzola dip had an unfortunate paste-like consistency (note to chef: blend less) and was served with water crackers that didn’t enhance it in any way. (Something heartier like toasted baguette slices would have worked better.) The fish taco with slaw was tasty, but unremarkable. Ditto the curry basil falafel sandwich, which had no hint of the aforementioned curry or basil.

While friendly, service could be stronger. On one of two visits, I ordered the falafel salad with harissa and tahini dressing. Instead, when it arrived, the falafel had been replaced by a mound of caramelized cauliflower, but our server said nothing to us as he placed it on the table. “We were out of falafel, I didn’t know,” is all that he offered when we inquired a few minutes later.

The Truckstaurant is certainly unique and fills a niche for something a little daring and different in a neighborhood of other originals like Woodberry Kitchen and Birroteca, each the first of its kind when it opened. I admire its pioneer spirit and think that with some tweaks, and by focusing on what it does well—and getting rid of what it doesn’t—it should keep on trucking.

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GYPSY’S TRUCKSTAURANT 3515 Clipper Mill Rd., 443-869-5602. HOURS: Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. noon-10 p.m., Sun. 3-9 p.m. PRICES: Starters, sandwiches, and cones: $8-18; entrees: $13-28; desserts: $10. AMBIANCE: Truck-stop casual.

I have my own version of a culinary crystal ball, and, with few exceptions, it’s almost always accurate. Here it is: Long before the entrees arrive, once the water and wine are flowing, and the bread and the salad have been served, I can predict how the rest of the meal is likely to go. These items act as a sort of litmus test, telling me all that I need to know. If all goes well, I’m an eager guest, excited to see what will follow. If not, I tend to feel like a hostage, and the meal becomes something that I dread.

On my first of four visits to Lupa Trattoria Romana, a Roman rebrand of the former Petit Louis space in Columbia, I felt a sense of inner peace almost immediately. The requested “chilled” water was pleasingly cold, and a carafe for refilling was left on the table. The house-made bread was thick and chewy and served alongside a bottle of earthy EVOO. The salad itself, a fresh bed of arugula tossed with lemon vinaigrette and Parmigiano, was simple—and sublime. And a bottle of Spanish rosé summarily arrived after it was ordered, then was placed on a silver wine coaster.

Co-owner Tony Foreman and his business partner, Cindy Wolf, have been feeding Baltimoreans for more than two decades at their restaurants, including Charleston, where Wolf is a chef, and Cinghiale (where Lupa executive chef James Lewandowski does double time). Despite the comings and goings of so many spots in the area, they remain the consummate restaurant owners.

Foreman says that they decided to rebrand the space because the Petit Louis French bistro concept, which works so well in Roland Park, didn’t work as well when Louis opened in Columbia. “People thought that French food was more for special occasions,” explains Foreman. “We were packed on the weekends, but not during the week.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Foreman himself is now a father of two and likely recognized the need for more casual, family-friendly spots with good food.

In keeping with the homey Italian concept at Lupa, Old World still lifes adorn the pumpkin-colored walls, and the dining room is littered with large farm tables for family-style dining. Lupa—meaning she-wolf, a sly wink to Chef Wolf’s name—is Cinghiale’s more casual cousin. Its menu, whose origins are inspired by the traditions of la cucina Romana—one of the world’s most populist cuisines—is humble and inexpensive and uses simple techniques to highlight seasonal ingredients.

Lupa’s offerings highlight many of the hallmarks of Roman cuisine, including bitter vegetables (escarole salad here), oxtail (puréed into ragu and served with fettucine), fried vegetables (like crisp threads of carrots on top of a sautéed calamari appetizer), and thick, Roman-style pizza. The wine list—featuring bottles from Central Italy, America, and France, plus 20 wines by the glass—is reasonably priced.

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Entrees are similarly enticing. For the primi, or starch course, there are some dozen pastas to pick from, including the hallmark Roman pastas cacio e pepe and Perciatelli all’ Amatriciana (guanciale, roasted tomatoes, and dried chilies). I’m a sucker for seafood, so indulged in the spaghetti neri, squid ink spaghetti with grilled calamari, shrimp, lemon, and dried chili. The inky, house-made black strands of pasta tossed in olive oil and shrimp stock strongly tasted of the sea and, when paired with the seafood, were a paragon of umami.

Sticking with the sea, I also enjoyed the sweet and herbaceous pan-seared bronzino with its carrot purée swoosh and a sauce of lemon butter and fennel pollen pesto.

It would be easy to overlook the featured chicken dish, but you shouldn’t. In this case, the poultry is wrapped in prosciutto and served on a bed of creamy farro with Swiss chard in a red-wine reduction sauce. This version, a riff on veal saltimbocca, is flavor-packed and anything but ordinary.

For dessert, there’s a wonderful selection—20 flavors in all—of gelati and sorbetti. On various visits, we mixed and matched the stracciatella, hazelnut, chocolate, and tiramisu replete with giant hunks of espresso-soaked ladyfingers. Finally, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, and cleanse your palate with a shot of limoncello.

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LUPA TRATTORIA ROMANA. 10215 Wincopin Cir., Columbia, 410-964-9999. HOURS: Brunch: Tues.-Fri. 11 a.m.-2 :30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; dinner: Mon.-Sat. 5-10 p.m., Sun. 5-9 p.m. PRICES: Appetizers: $9-28; pastas: $15-21; entrees: $23-29; desserts: $8.75. AMBIANCE: Rustic Italian.

While Hampden’s 36th Street has exploded with upscale dining spots and quirky eateries, The Avenue has always lacked a decent sports-bar-style neighborhood spot. With the growing influx of young professionals and families, the demand has never been greater, which makes Five and Dime Ale House a perfect fit in this trendy ’hood.

The name is a tribute to the variety store that once occupied the space, which has been opened up to accommodate two wide rows of dining tables and a nice long bar, all clad in dark wood. Cushy banquettes, high tin ceilings with industrial-looking light fixtures, and sepia-toned photos further contribute a throwback feel, enough to lend a bit of background refinement while still allowing for TV watching (and there are plenty of screens to go around).

Similarly, menu offerings strike a happy medium, mixing dependable, modern tavern fare with a judicious sprinkling of Tex-Mex and Asian influences. Wings, nachos, and soft pretzels are all solid, but the tacos step it up with house-made corn tortillas, cod, or Korean beef.

It seems like almost a requirement these days for Hampden restaurants to offer pizzas. Here they are admirably turned out with pleasantly chewy crusts and an abundance of fresh toppings—the Farmer’s Market, in particular, is served almost overflowing with arugula and not one, but two, beautiful sunny-side up eggs. 

Burgers are touted as hand-formed with beef delivered fresh daily, and the result is noticeable—flavorful, tender, and juicy, completed with a pillowy challah bun and a laundry list of toppings available in addition to the preset permutations on the regular menu. Of special note among these is the “Juicy Bleucy,” which boasts bleu cheese in the center of a 10-ounce patty. Yowza. Mac and cheese is also a build-your-own format, and includes  options such as bacon, crab, and even lobster. Entrees stick mostly to the straight and narrow with standards like “Fish-n-Chips,” pasta with blackened chicken, and a large, lumpy, if not exactly captivating, crab cake entree.

In addition to a Monday burger night, other “Daily Specials” are focused squarely on the bar, with surprisingly deep discounts on drinks, including half-priced wines on Tuesday and $4 off craft cocktails on Thursdays. The latter are found on the reverse of the food menu, alongside bottled and canned beers. Draft beers are bestowed a separate menu, with offerings from Oliver Brewing Co. (whose owners opened the restaurant) and a list of  “Guest Drafts.” Nitro coffee, growlers to-go, and Wednesday night “Tap Takeovers” round out the impressive beer program.

Service can be unpolished at times, but, overall, staff has proven to be welcoming. Even on nights that are very busy, servers remain engaging, while quieter afternoons are a good time to commiserate with affable and expert bartenders. 

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FIVE AND DIME ALE HOUSE 901 W. 36th St., 443-835-2179. HOURS Mon.-Thurs. 11–1 a.m., Fri. 11-2 a.m., Sat. 10-2 a.m., Sun. 10-1 a.m.  PRICES $4-25. AMBIANCE Retro chic. 

Australian millionaire and real-estate mogul Tim Gurner recently shared some words of wisdom with millennials who are struggling to save for a home: Stop buying artisanal avocado toast. It seems like a piece of sage advice to the aspiring homeowner. Then again, Gurner never had the crisped-up creations with roasted tomato vinaigrette at Jake and Ben Lefenfeld’s Minnow. If he had, he’d understand that renting has its merits.

In addition to the avocado toast, everything about this place is well worth the investment. The fare, prepared by former Foreman Wolf cook and Culinary Institute of America grad Drew Lesoveck, is high-quality, well-priced, and fuss-free. Situated in trendy Riverside, Minnow acts as a neighborhood place (we love that Jake, who lives within walking distance, knows the name of every dog who sniffs the sidewalk), but it’s also destination dining as good, or even better, than many fine-dining spots in the city.

The nautical theme is in full force here with bait-fish lures set inside recycled sardine tins from La Cuchara (the owners’ sister spot), fish-print pillows, and marine-blue touches—all of which invoke a modern-day Maryland seafood house. It’s a motif that could easily become kitschy or overdone, but remains tasteful here.

The highly approachable menu, with just the right amount of starters (“Smalls”), entrees (“Biggies”), and sides, practices similar restraint. Minnow’s menu is heavy on simple seafood preparations, though, surprisingly, you’ll also find several stellar vegetarian items, including a black bean burger with shredded beets and a flatbread festooned with lavender, asparagus, chevre, and zucchini.

Minnow offers a familiar take on seafood favorites, but they’re done in a new way. Case in point: Another toast-forward offering is the crab toast—a fresh approach to a crab salad sandwich. It features an oversized scoop of Maryland’s finest jumbo lump perched on a house-made slab of buttery brioche toast drizzled with a classic creamy Green Goddess dressing and served alongside a grilled plum tomato.

Other seafood stars include the best mussels I’ve ever had (and a ridiculous bargain for $5 at the daily happy hour). Sourced from Prince Edward Island, served in a ceramic white bowl, and swimming in a simple sauce of white wine, roasted garlic slices, and parsley, they were so tender they slid straight out of the shell with little to no nudging. A pile of first-rate frites, dressed in garlic aioli and plopped on top, were equally irresistible.

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Crispy Tofu
In a sea of seafood, the crispy tofu seems like a menu anomaly and is easy enough to overlook. Go ahead and get it. It has been soaked in soy, garlic, shallots, and sesame oil for 36 hours, and is a great prelude to the menu’s proteins. 

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My dining companion and I also enjoyed the shrimp ceviche starter—a meltingly tender affair (soaked in lemon, lime, and orange juices) that seems to evaporate on the tongue and was accompanied by house-made chips for scooping.

Our “Biggies,” included a first-rate plate of Baltimore coddies—two patties made of blended roasted potatoes and cod—that offered a bit of nostalgia with a modern twist. This version is prettily presented atop a bed of sauteed spinach and pea shoots, and basks in a citrusy and sweet orange beurre blanc.

Though instinct would tell you to stick with the treasures of the sea, the non-seafood entrees—including the tomato bisque with grilled raclette on house-made sourdough bread and a killer fried chicken with crunchy pickled cabbage and blue-corn waffles (the smell will make you salivate as you walk in the front door)—are eminently satisfying, too.

In keeping with the casualness of the place, the waitstaff is pleasantly low-key. Over the course of several visits, our servers were helpful without hovering and seemed well-versed on dish details.

The beverage program, overseen by Lefenfeld, is similarly stalwart. Cheekily named rum-, whiskey-, and bourbon-based cocktails are $10 a pop and perfectly put together. (F* That’s Delicious—with Bulleit Bourbon, amaro, and cava—lives up to its name.) And if you don’t mind a bit of restaurant rubbernecking, consider a trendy Old Fashioned that gets smoked tableside.

There’s also a reasonably priced list of local beers and Mediterranean wines. In fact, at $8 a glass for a Spanish rose, you can order the $7 avocado toast and likely still afford a down payment on that one-bedroom loft in Riverside.

Walk into The Brass Tap in Midtown Belvedere and you may get the feeling that you’ve been there before. You probably haven’t—the Baltimore location of the Florida-based chain is the company’s first foray into Maryland. Despite admirable efforts to localize—there’s a smattering of standard Orioles flair on the walls—the neutral colors, furniture, plethora of TVs, and even the thin, laminated menus remind us of a Buffalo Wild Wings-type establishment. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As we’ve seen with places like the Greene Turtle in Fells Point and World of Beer in Locust Point, there’s a place for franchises in the heart of a city. 

The Brass Tap does several things well, first among them offering a casual eating and drinking venue in a neighborhood that lacks them. University of Baltimore and Maryland Institute College of Art students, and people going to a show at the Meyerhoff or Lyric, will appreciate the restaurant’s outstanding beer selection and bar-food staples. With 60 rotating taps and dozens more bottled varieties, The Brass Tap is serious about its beer. We love the way the menu is organized by style, and appreciate that each beer’s ABV is listed. A beer club is in the works, and the bar frequently hosts beer release parties. 

We found its food to be more uneven. Among the “shareables,” an order of Peri Peri Wings stood out. While the meat itself was unremarkable, the South African-inspired sauce provided a nice blend of sweetness and spice. Despite the menu’s amusing linguistic grandeur, other items, like “house-made” tots, “angry” onion straws, and “boom boom” fried shrimp tasted like the same, generic ones you can get just about anywhere. The kitchen has a deep fryer, and it isn’t afraid to use it. Fair warning: The chicken fingers, hush puppies, and beer-battered cod are all extremely crispy. 

Where The Brass Tap nails the art of bar food is its burgers. A half-pound “gourmet blend” of chuck, brisket, and short rib, they’re available with an impressive array of cheeses (smoked Gouda, jalapeño beer), sauces (poblano), and toppings (hummus, Peppadew peppers). 

We especially enjoyed our sliders—three to a serving—which came with an order of solid fries. At $9, it’s a great deal. The bar and its adjacent high-top tables might feel a bit crowded for some people, so for a more relaxed atmosphere, sit in the sunroom or on the patio. Across the road, the sign for the iconic Mount Royal Tavern, a different bar in every way, is visible. In this neighborhood, there’s room for everyone.

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›› The Brass Tap 1205 W. Mount Royal Ave., 888-901-BEER. Hours: 11 a.m.-2 a.m. every day. Flatbreads: $6; appetizers: $8-19; salads: $8-11; sandwiches: $9-14.

Last summer, Luu Quoc Hung and Kay Chen, the husband-and-wife owners of the fantastic Hong Kong-style restaurant Asian Court, relocated their 7-year-old business from its original home in Ellicott City to five miles farther west on Baltimore National Pike. And though its new home in the Turf Valley Towne Square is more accessible to I-70—making the drive from Baltimore that much easier—we’re almost sorry the move was made. 

The new location is accommodating, an improvement over the original digs operating in the shadows of a tire shop. Even so, there was something about the original that let customers know they were in for an adventure. The interior was so drab that you knew the food had to be great. It looked just like a foodie find should. 

The food is still very special at the new Asian Court. There is evidence that an innovative chef is in the kitchen, and the dining experience is still dizzying, especially if you go for dim sum on a weekend, which you should. Asian Court actually serves a dim sum menu seven days a week, but on weekends it serves dim sum from carts—the dining room on a recent Saturday afternoon was merrily hectic. 

Brace yourself: Things happen fast. Carts wheel by, groaning with all manner of things on small plates, some of them—various dumplings filled with meat or shrimp—instantly recognizable. Others are less so, but try them. Only a few things, like the tripe and the chicken feet, feel like something out of Anthony Bourdain’s travels. Most items are surprisingly accessible, eye-pleasing, and delicious. 

You’ll definitely want to grab the har-ren, which are fried balls of minced shrimp, like bite-size versions of shrimp toast; the lo-bak-goh—turnip rice cakes (delicate, mild-flavored palate cleansers); and the nai-won-bao, one of several steamed bun options—this one filled with a slightly sweet egg custard.

Ask for the regular menu, because you’ll want to do some ordering from there, too. Here again, there are a few dishes that even experienced international diners might think twice about—sautéed pig intestine, anyone? But the majority of these dishes are just exotic enough to give you the feeling of eating something bathed in a halo of authenticity.

Chief among our favorites is the salt-and-pepper fish fillet, which dissolves meltingly on the tongue with each bite. Another favorite is jumbo shrimp served with walnuts in a mayonnaise-based sauce, kind of a Hong Kong-style Waldorf salad. You may consider separating a dim sum excursion from a menu-based meal. Once you get a taste of what Asian Court has to offer, you’ll have no trouble convincing yourself to return.

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›› ASIAN COURT 11105 Resort Road, Ellicott City, 410-461-8388. Hours: Mon.-Sun. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Appetizers: $2.95-8; entrees: $10.95-32.95; desserts: $2.95.

After the beloved Harvey’s closed in 2000, nothing succeeded in Green Spring Station’s corner restaurant spot until Tark’s Grill in 2008. Owner Terry “Tark” Arenson cannily understood that what makes for a successful restaurant in the county might not necessarily entail glamour and challenging cuisine. Rather, Tark’s, like Harvey’s, specialized in comforting surrounds and reliable food that pleased without surprising. No wonder that new owners Gino Cardinale and Bruce Bodie have opted for only the subtlest changes, and that includes not messing with the name. Cardinale and Bodie know something about success—they’re the team behind City Cafe—and are treading lightly, introducing touches of urban hip to the menu without scaring away the clientele. So far, it’s working pretty well.     

Although some interior renovations will take place in 2017, it’s doubtful that the new owners will do anything drastic to the muted, neocasual dining room—maybe a brighter palette and a seafood bar. The friendly service that Tark’s was known for is still  firmly in place, and the cocktails are as big as ever. 

Many menu updates have been imported from City Cafe by executive chef and CC alum James Jennings, and they’re mostly about nudging old favorites into New American territory. A classic cobb salad boasts a seven-minute egg and avocado ranch dressing; Thai dipping sauce accompanies the fried calamari. Along with crab dip, you’ll find trendy burrata with wild mushrooms and rosemary oil, and crispy lobster nuggets with chutney. We loved the latter, but were less impressed with another starter, a limp and flavorless bowl of Brussels sprouts with bacon aioli. 

Among the entrees, you’ll find favorites like crab cakes and rack of lamb—perfectly grilled and gussied up with white asparagus and polenta. While you can choose between a filet or New York strip steak, there’s a bistro-ish flat-iron cut as well. The flat iron is full of flavor and texture. But another beef entree, the barbecued short rib, lacked the unctuousness you want in a cut like this, and it didn’t have much flavor, either. A more difficult dish to pull off was the best of the evening. Chicken medallions, enrobed in Marsala cream studded with pancetta, were a tender rebuke to anyone who thinks chicken is boring. 

There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but the diners at Tark’s aren’t looking for that. This is the kind of place where neighborly feeling and the aura of stability count for more than kitchen theatrics. And as we eagerly dug into our chocolate bread pudding—rendered slightly au courant with both dark and white varieties—we reckoned that such reassuring qualities are a mighty good thing these days.

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TARK’S GRILL 2360 W. Joppa Road, 410-583-8275.
HOURS Mon.-Thu. 3-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 3–11 p.m., Sun. 3–9 p.m.  
PRICES Appetizers: $5-16; entrees: $13-32; desserts: $7-8.
AMBIANCE Suburban chic.

You might head to Wicked Sisters thinking you’ll just stay for a craft beer or a cocktail or two. But as you watch the plates of food coming out of the kitchen—say some Boh-braised Mussels or a mug of tomato fennel soup—you’ll soon find yourself hunkering down for the evening and asking for the menu.

There’s a lot to like about Wicked Sisters. For starters, there’s zero pretension here, no concerted attempt to pass for healthy (just say yes to the crab mac-and-cheese), and no talk of local sourcing. (Owner Charlie Gjerde’s brother, Spike, is just down the hill at Woodberry if you want the whole sourcing spiel.)

It’s clear that co-owners Lori—Charlie Gjerde’s wife—and her sister, Carrie Podles (the team also co-owns Alexander’s Tavern, Papi’s Tacos, and Huck’s American Craft), understand that the best bars always feel friendly, especially when all we’re looking for is a comfortable place to land. And if the food exceeds expectations, even better.

After a devastating 2014 fire led to the closing of McCabe’s, Gjerde and his business partners renovated the space over a year. As an homage to McCabe’s, Gjerde has honored the beloved bar with a burger named after the popular watering hole and left intact a charred wall in the upstairs bar as a sort of shrine. 

Patrons will feel very much at home here. The downstairs dining room is industrial chic with white brick walls, exposed duct work, artwork featuring photographs of local landmarks (the Domino Sugars sign, Hampden rowhomes), and piston-ring replicas made by a 100-year-old Baltimore turbo machine company that add an eye-catching sculptural element. The upstairs space is more of a dedicated drinking area, with high-top tables, a second bar, and a shuffleboard table. (Another appreciated amenity: Free valet service in the adjacent Meineke Car Care Center parking lot after 6 p.m. daily and during the day on Sunday during brunch service, which is a major perk.)

Chef Jason Horwitz (who led the kitchen at Gjerde’s defunct Joy American Cafe at the American Visionary Art Museum more than a decade ago) has created a highly approachable menu with plenty of options, including bar bites like beer-battered onion rings and sweet and spicy Brussels sprouts, as well as salads, sandwiches, family style meals for two, and a half-dozen mains. The “everything bagel”—salmon encrusted with seeds on top of a latke—is a nod to his Jewish heritage, while the meatballs (more on them later) honor his Italian side.

On the first of two visits, we dug into the crispy fried wings with Buffalo sauce. We particularly loved the tangy house-made blue cheese dressing, which added a nice cooling component. The same dressing was highlighted in the Blue Cheese Wedge salad. This simple affair features two hunks of super crisp and cold lettuce cloaked in dressing and embellished with flecks of smoky bacon and pieces of diced tomato. 

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Roasted Beets
Roasted beets run the risk of overexposure, but we like that this version with blood oranges, pomegranates, and lemon-garlic vinaigrette adds citrus to the sweet.

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As more serious hunger called, we plowed through a plate of four colossal meatballs swimming in a marinara made with brother Spike’s canned tomatoes and then topped with melted mozzarella. The meatballs are slapped on a grinder roll or served on top of spaghetti in a family-style meal for two, and they’re delicious. The recipe is from chef Horwitz’s grandmother—and he does her proud. 

Carnivores will also delight in the so-called Insanity Burger. You’ll understand the inspiration behind the name when the dish—a mix of chuck, brisket, and short rib stacked high on a brioche bun and heaped with slaw, Sriracha bacon, sharp cheddar, an onion ring, house-made chipotle sauce, lettuce, tomato, a pickle, and a shishito pepper—arrives at your table. (Guy Fieri, eat your heart out.) If you really want everyone staring, order the optional fried egg to plop on top.  

On both of our visits, service was excellent. On our first trip, our server, Colleen, was incredibly cheerful and never steered us wrong. On the other outing, we sat at the bar, where our bartender, Jeff, kept our wine glasses filled and only had our best interests in mind as he jovially suggested that we’d over-ordered. “We can handle it,” we told him, while sopping up the last of the meatballs’ marinara with a piece of cheesy garlic bread. And we did.

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WICKED SISTERS 3845 Falls Road, 410-878-0884.
HOURS Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-10 p.m., brunch 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
PRICES Appetizers: $6-15; entrees: $17-45; desserts: $5-8.
AMBIANCE Family-friendly tavern.

Set in a former body shop, Remington’s R. House is a great place to park yourself, whether it’s for a lunch break, mommy-and-me play date, or a stiff drink at R. Bar. With 10 stalls to choose from, there’s seemingly something for everyone at the newest food hall to join the trend. Wherever you decide to dine, be sure to talk to the chefs, each of whom is proud to share their story.

Blk Sugar’s Krystal Mack will tell you how she literally peddled her products (coconut macaroons and meringue macarons) on a bike prior to setting up her shop; Munehiro Mori of Hilo will explain the intricacies of poke; Melanie Molinaro of Stall 11 will gush about hydroponic farming. “Baltimore City is becoming this great food city,” says development manager Jon Constable of Seawell Development, who created the space. “We’ve created this launch pad for chefs by taking away the overhead it takes to open a full brick-and-mortar restaurant.”

Here are some of the stands that stand out:

→ BRD: While we never thought that any other fried chicken could win our hearts (RoFo drumsticks for life), we commend the colossal fried chicken sandwiches at BRD. Stacked skyscraper-high on plush potato rolls and piled with creative fixings, this poultry is anything but ordinary. Pro tip: We were particularly smitten with the Vietnamese banh mi-inspired Hanoi Hen, topped with cucumber, cilantro, and spicy sauce.

→ Ground & Griddled: Start your day in the sunny south corner, where Dave Sherman (of Café Cito) puts out some of the best breakfast sammies in town. The Breakfast BLT—a Fred Flintstone-size piece of ciabatta bread layered with bacon, arugula, smoky grilled tomato, roasted garlic aïoli, and—the crown jewel—a gooey, golden, paprika-fried egg is the best reason we can think of for not hitting the snooze button (though it’s available all day if you’re not an early bird). Wash it down with a bracing cup of nitro coffee, courtesy of Stumptown.

→ Hilo: Award-winning Japanese chef Munehiro Mori turns out beautiful bowls of poke (marinated cubes of raw fish). Think of them as flavor journeys, rife with tuna and salmon, and studded with chunks of pineapple and mango, slivers of scallion, splashes of lime, and flash-fried flakes of garlic and shallots. No passport required.

→ Stall 11: Even if you’re not a vegetarian, stop by Melanie Molinaro’s vegetable-themed outpost featuring novel salads, smoothies, and sandwiches. We were more than a little sad when our straw made that final hollow sucking sound at the bottom of our smoothie—in this case, The Californian, a phenomenal fusion of cardamom, almonds, almond milk, bananas, butter, and cinnamon.

→ White Envelope: With so many places to pick from, the line forms at this arepas spot before it even opens for the day. We love these satisfying stuffed pockets made of maize and fashioned by Federico Tischler (formerly of Alma). We savored the Asado Negro—tender beef short rib cooked in caramel sauce and painted with spicy plantain purée—then devoured a vegan version crammed with crispy falafel, butternut squash purée, and purslane.

›› R. House 301 W. 29th St., 443-347-3570, Mon.-Thu. 7 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. 7 a.m. to midnight, Sat. 8 a.m. to midnight, Sun. 8 a.m.-10 p.m.

Two p.m. is a peculiar time for a bar to open on a Saturday. Late for the lunch rush, but well before happy hour. On Main Street in Ellicott City, you don’t need a clock to know when the day’s 14th hour is approaching—just glance toward The Judge’s Bench. There you’ll see people start to, if not line up, mill about in anticipation of the front door’s unlocking. By a few ticks past two, most of the stools around the large, semi-oval bar will be, as they have been for years, cheerfully occupied.

Once a mom-and-pop grocery store where judges from the original Howard County courthouse would come for a cold drink they’d enjoy on a nearby bench, the bar has been a beloved downtown institution since 1978. (Current owners Michael and Jane Johnson bought it in 2007.) While it largely escaped the catastrophic damage inflicted on so many of the city’s businesses by a devastating flash flood last July, its doors were shuttered for more than a month.

There’s nothing particularly special about the place, unless you count a diverse rotating roster of craft beer, 280-plus kinds of whiskey (including what it claims is the “largest selection of single malts in the state”), or a slew of solid bar-food options that boasts a surprising number of vegan offerings. Actually, we do consider that special, which is why we wanted to revisit after it reopened.

We found the scene, service, and food to be, thankfully, unchanged. Chalkboards on either side of the bar display what’s available from the 17 taps, and the friendly bartender was more than happy to offer a sample to anyone with questions about a brew.

We needed some sustenance to go with our suds, so we started with Buffalo wings and vegetarian pot stickers. Odd bedfellows, for sure, but that’s a theme within a menu that includes everything from pizzas and quesadillas to a Reuben and a vegan “Gardein” burger. The wings were meaty and physically hot, but not overwhelmingly spicy, though they were slathered with a generous amount of sauce. The pot stickers offered a nice contrast, both in temperature and taste.

An 8-ounce Angus burger was served as we requested (medium rare), which is sadly a rarity in many restaurants these days. It was solid but outdone by the hazelnut-crusted vegan cutlet sandwich, caked in barbecue sauce with caramelized onions, lettuce, and tomato. Even the most carnivorous in our party tried a bite and admitted it was delicious.

When we strolled out around 4 o’clock, nearly every table was filled and nary a barstool available. It doesn’t really matter when you visit The Judge’s Bench—there’s no bad time for a cold beer and a tasty bite.

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›› The Judge’s Bench 8385 Main St., Ellicott City, 410-465-3497. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 4 p.m.-2 a.m., Sat. 2 p.m.-2 a.m., Sun. 1 p.m.-2 a.m. Snacks: $3-10.95; sandwiches/wraps: $7.95-10.55.

How’s this for a twist: Nestled among Fells Point’s bars and late night takeout joints on Broadway is a restaurant that aims to serve thoughtful Mediterranean cuisine to a crowd more interested in braised lamb shanks than Budweisers.

So far, the restaurant called Twist is succeeding. Open for more than a year, the bistro has thrived on repeat business from locals. So said Antonio, our charming host who answered, “I’m always awesome,” when we asked how he was doing on a recent Monday evening visit. It may come as a shock to the systems of those used to eating out in the neighborhood known for its nightlife, but there’s no bar (Twist is BYOB), and just one TV in the small front dining room (there’s a larger dining room in the back). Two Bugatti posters adorn the walls, hinting at executive chef Jose Molina’s elegant approach to cooking. Everyone should start with a meze plate, a generous helping of baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, hummus, feta, and olive tapenade that provides a diversity of flavors (and at $9, is an incredible value).

The tabbouleh, airy and refreshing, particularly popped. Crab and avocado salad, accompanied by bread sticks, was light yet complex, with a hint of onion adding a kick. The Moroccan lamb sausage, served over roasted eggplant with yogurt harissa sauce, was pleasingly spicy but maybe a bit gamey for tamer palates. Along with some standards like grilled chicken wings and crispy calamari, a trio of quesadillas, including a Greek version with spinach, feta, and olives, rounded out the first course selections.

No fewer than nine sandwiches, including eggplant panini, and burgers are available for lunch and dinner, but Molina’s talents shine best in the entrees. The Maine lobster ravioli, topped with brown butter sage sauce, was rich but not overpoweringly so. It’s one of several pasta offerings that include a gluten-free primavera in a creamy tomato sauce with asparagus and peas. The steak frites was less stellar. Although it was pink in the middle, the meat was overly chewy and a tad bland.

We’ve yet to try Twist’s popular brunch, but the menu is extensive and features options like chocolate-chip blueberry pancakes and Madagascar vanilla French toast. If they’re anything like the chocolate fondant, made in-house, that we nibbled for dessert, we’re sure that they’re terrific. Antonio included a complimentary dollop of caramel sea salt gelato, and when he left the check two bottles of water accompanied it. Small gestures, sure, but ones indicative of the high regard in which Twist holds its customers that will keep them—and us—coming back.

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›› Twist 723 S. Broadway, 410-522-4000. Hours: Sun.-Thu. 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Appetizers: $6-12; sandwiches: $11-14; entrees: $14-25.

It’s tough to get simple Italian food right in the restaurant world, a sad fact any paisan with a jones for mamma’s cooking will confirm. But when a restaurateur knows what he or she is doing, there’s nothing quite so satisfying, so comforting, so positively nostalgia-laden as a good trattoria—or, as the case may be, enoteca (which means “wine repository”).

Sam Curreri has been doing it right at Sammy’s Trattoria in Mount Vernon for 10 years, and now he’s opened a sister restaurant, er, enoteca, in Fells Point. Good news, Italophiles. His second joint, which opened in spring 2016, is the real deal, slightly more casual than the flagship but firmly rooted in the same culinary tradition: food that is unfussy and absolutely redolent of good homemade red sauce. First, let me tell you about the meatballs.

“Veal/Pork/Beef/Gorgonzola” reads the list of ingredients. These soft bombs yield easily to the fork and melt in the mouth, and they’re probably the best I’ve tasted in Baltimore. On offer as an antipasto, they’re topped lightly with tomato sauce and come three on a plate for six bucks. For the same price, you can get a ridiculously hearty bowl of creamy risotto. We tried the basil-spiked version sprinkled with pine nuts. Another winner was the burrata Caprese salad, with its massive ball of burrata sitting atop bright cherry tomatoes and arugula. Spread the cheese over the delightful slices of grilled Italian bread that arrive at the table as soon as you sit down, and that’s a meal.

Those with bigger appetites will have a hard time choosing from the list of 15 pastas—from classic carbonara to squid ink tagliatelle fra diavolo. I picked the Love Letters, a variation on Mario Batali’s homemade ravioli stuffed with mint and Parmigiano-Reggiano, here sauced with pomodoro, sausage, and mint ragù. Heavenly.

My friend, Sara, chose homemade gnocchi topped with a bolognese of boar, pork, and veal, which, upon sampling, made me vow to try every pasta on the menu. But on another visit, I opted to be prudent and ordered a beautiful fish—the red snapper francese, dusted with flour and enrobed in a lemon, white wine, and capers sauce. A chicken Calabrese was an even heartier version of cacciatora, piled with potatoes, sausage, peppers, onions, and tomatoes.

Being an enoteca, this Sammy’s has a compact but exemplary all-Italian wine list, packed with good values and available by the glass in 3- and 6-ounce pours. Our server guided us toward a lovely Puglian Primativo, but there are at least a dozen similar gems in the $30 range. Desserts, too, are really good. Even the de rigueur but often-tired tiramisù was creamy and fresh. If we had a complaint, it’s that the digs are a tad stark. But that would never stop us from coming back to Sam Curreri’s second venture. Oh, and did we mention the flatbread pizza?

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SAMMY’S ENOTECA 623 S. Broadway, 443-552-1002.
HOURS Sun.-Thu. 4:30-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 4:30-11 p.m.
CUISINE Italian. PRICES Appetizers: $6-12; entrees: $14-22; desserts: $6.
ATMOSPHERE No-frills.

Mohammed Agbodjogbe, 45, could be a poster child for the American Dream. After immigrating to America from Senegal in 1999, he got his first job working at the KFC on New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring. Today, the real-estate developer is the proud proprietor of Nailah’s Kitchen in Govans, which claims to be the first fine-dining restaurant to bring the bold flavors of Senegal to the Baltimore area. In the 112-seat dining room, the white tablecloths bestow a simple elegance. There are also artistic touches like a massive lighting fixture made of traditional wooden bowls and a collage of spoons and forks.

Our waitress asks if we are familiar with Senegalese food, as she hands us a slickly produced binder containing photos of the dishes. When we admit that we’re not, she explains that Senegalese food favors stewy, one-pot dishes served with rice or couscous along with the all-important sauces, redolent of onions, garlic, ginger, and Dijon mustard—an influence of French colonization.

She recommends the thiebou djeun—pronounced “cee-boo jen”—($25), Senegal’s national dish of fish stuffed with garlic, parsley, and dried peppers, and slow-cooked with rice and vegetables in a tomato-based stock. Nailah’s version features a hunk of red snapper served on a bed of broken rice with cabbage, carrot, and yucca. The richness of the dish is cut by the acidity of a spicy, sweet sauce made with a special Senegalese seasoning blend called adja. We also order mechoui ($30), a marinated lamb shank served with couscous and sauce sap, the mustard-based condiment that doubles as Senegalese ketchup—but the meat is a bit dry. The pintade braise ($15), a whole grilled guinea fowl, tastes like roast chicken, and, once again, is greatly elevated by the sauce—this time sauce vert, a green variety that gets its color from parsley. We also make quick work of an appetizer called fataya ($5)—small empanadas stuffed with spiced tilapia.

Since the restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol, we washed it down with bissap ($10), a combination of tart sorrel (hibiscus) and pineapple juice, which, though a bit sweet, complements the bold flavors. Thiakary ($10), a combination of sweet milled couscous, yogurt, orange, and raisins, provides the perfect ending to the meal.

›› Nailah’s Kitchen 5722 York Road, 443-461-5600. Hours: Tue.-Sun. 4-11 p.m. dine in, noon-11 p.m. carryout; closed Mon. Appetizers: $5-7; entrees: $9.99-40; desserts: $5.

What elevates a restaurant from good to great? A great restaurant gets your attention from the moment you step inside and continues to captivate through to the very last morsel of the meal. Case in point: Gunther & Co., a staggeringly spectacular space set inside the century-old boiler room of the Gunther Brewing Company. Co-owned by Jerry Trice and his fiancée, Nancy Hart, the new Modern American spot (open for lunch, brunch, and dinner) delivers from beginning to end.

Inside the two-level dining room, the ceiling soars and exposed steel beams, old beer bottles, and a vintage conveyor belt recall the building’s brewery beginnings. So, too, does a stunning staircase that leads patrons past mechanical gauges strung like a necklace across a sky-high living wall. The only downside to the sprawling 250-seat spot (which includes a bar, a gorgeous patio, and an ample seating area near the open kitchen) is that the vast space can feel empty even when it’s plenty packed. My advice? Go with a boisterous group of your own to add to the merriment.

Trice, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, describes Gunther’s fare as “globally influenced, locally spun,” which is a way of saying that menu items such as the grilled leg of lamb served with Thai eggplant, Israeli couscous, and cucumber-mint raita form a veritable polyglot on your plate. There are plenty of well-executed standard staples, too—such as a burger, and salad options topped with various forms of protein.

Over the course of several visits, we discovered several signature standouts, including a flatbread and green garbanzo hummus. (Apparently, green garbanzos have more nutrition than their beige brethren.) The flatbread resembled pieces of pita bread torn into jagged triangles, crisp and slick with roasted garlic and za’atar (a blend of herbs, sesame seeds, and salt). The accompanying hummus mixed with Greek yogurt and preserved lemon paired beautifully with the bread. Eager to enjoy the last of summer’s bounty, we ordered the heirloom tomato salad tossed with herbed goat cheese and dressed with oil and sherry vinegar. It was simple and satisfying. On another visit, fried green tomatoes with corn squash relish and jalapeño crème fraîche added some Southern sass to a lineup that’s heavy on Asian influences.

As for the entrees, there’s a reason that the Thai seafood hot pot is used in all the promotional pictures of this place. Yes, hot pots are trending, but this one is particularly noteworthy—a steaming clay crock filled with pungent morsels of mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops, and fish floating in lemon grass and coconut milk, and accompanied by a side of sticky rice. “The soul of the chef is in the soup,” said our server as she placed it on the table. We had to agree.

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Duck Confit & Scallion Spring Rolls
The duck confit and scallion spring rolls starter is a great go-to. The spicy and sweet chili dipping sauce highlights the flavors of the filling.

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Equally soul-satisfying was the wood-oven-roasted chicken. Anyone who thinks poultry is pedestrian will be won over. Marinated in brine, vacuum packed for several hours to seal in the moisture, then roasted in the wood oven, the bird was fantastically crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. And the roasted okra, corn, fingerling potatoes, and onion rings that appeared on the plate were worthy costars. Also on order was a grilled hanger steak sitting atop a swoosh of chimichurri sauce and sided by sautéed Swiss chard and a pile of nicely salted house malt fries. It was tasty enough, though not in the same league as the other entrees.

Even if you don’t normally order the sweet stuff, don’t stop at dessert. Pastry chef Aja Cage, formerly of Fleet Street Kitchen and Salt, has a penchant for combining savory and sweet. On our visits, that included a pine-nut tart served with rosemary-ricotta ice cream; a bowl of sweet-corn ice cream; and an almond cake served with pistachio ice cream and garnished with a candied basil leaf plucked straight from Gunther’s garden.

While a minor quibble, there were small errors in service. On our first trip, the culprit was an overly eager busboy who prematurely cleared plates we weren’t ready to relinquish. On another go-round, our otherwise seasoned server forgot the coffee we ordered at the end of the meal. Then again, by the time we dug into the final footnotes, so had we.

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GUNTHER & Co. 3650 Toone St., 443-869-6874.
HOURS Mon.-Thu. 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m., Sat. 11 a.m.-12:30 a.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. CUISINE New American. PRICES Appetizers: $6-15; entrees: $10-32; desserts: $8. ATMOSPHERE Factory chic.

If you don’t find polenta appealing, or don’t know what it is and aren’t hungry to find out, this review is not for you. Still here? You’ve made a wise choice. The aptly named Polenta Café in Hampden serves the Italian cornmeal staple in its creamy, caked, and even crunchy forms, and the results are delizioso.

Housed in the former home of Daniela Pasta & Pastries (now a full-scale restaurant down the street), the cafe’s gluten-free menu is as small as its dining room, which includes a bar with a few stools, a counter near the front window, and one table next to a dumbwaiter. It’s a cozy space that co-owner Vincenzo Magaldi says encourages people to talk to one another (even while an Italian internet radio station plays a mix of songs on the sound system). The cafe, which opened in May, is BYOB.

Start with an order of polenta sticks ($6), which look—and taste—like a cross between French fries and crispy breadsticks. They’re served on their own with San Marzano tomato sauce for dipping, or accompanying the mixed greens with honey vinegar and fresh shaved pears ($8). You can also order them with the fresh buffalo mozzarella and beefsteak tomatoes with extra-virgin olive oil and basil ($12), the cold red lentils and coriander soup ($6), or sausage, mozzarella, and organic tomatoes in a basil sauce ($9).

Most dishes including taglieri ($21), a selection of cold cuts and cheeses, come with, of course, a helping of creamy polenta. Cooked—and stirred—over a stovetop for about three hours, the polenta’s consistency might remind some southerners of their grandma’s grits or others of mashed potatoes, but the flavor is slightly sweeter. It’s also served with almost all the entrees, which include homemade meatballs, and shrimp in tarragon sauce. Salsiccia ($15), three sausage links with fennel and onions atop a spongy polenta cake, was the heartiest of our dishes.

Magaldi is a native of a Naples neighborhood in Italy, and he’s always loved polenta. The restaurant’s website touts the dish’s “ability to provide many B-complex vitamins, including vitamins B1, B5, and folic acid, and its notable protein content.” It’s also been credited with improving circulation and providing antioxidant benefits. That may be so, but if you’ve read this far, you already know that the true allure of polenta lies in its corny goodness. If not, you’re about to find out.

›› Polenta Café 900 W. 36th St., 443-682-9388. Hours: Tue.-Thu. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 5-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 5-10 p.m.; Sun. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; closed Mon. Appetizers: $6-12; entrees: $12-21.

As devoted fans of both Fork & Wrench and Salt, we were delighted and intrigued to hear that Brian Lavin—former executive chef at both venues—had opened up his own shop in a snug corner row house in Brewers Hill. Lavin’s cooking features subtle but oft-surprising combinations, like a fondly remembered sweet-and-sour date purée and tzatziki pairing devised to accompany an oven-roasted duck at Salt.

We wondered if that sensibility would translate to this new venture’s menu, which features a narrower range of Italian and Spanish flavors on display in a roster of mostly small plates and pastas. And we wondered, too, if the challenge of running his own kitchen would blunt his talents. Happily, Lavin seems more than up to the task. On the outside, Gnocco looks like your typical neighborhood haunt, but on the inside, Lavin is serving up some of the most inventive cuisine around.

Food takes pride of place here. The rustic simplicity of the environs—repurposed wood, fresh flowers, dark colors—seems designed to provide a quiet backdrop to plates that are often spectacular in their colorful artistry. There’s a bar on one side, a small dining room on the other. We love that there’s Prosecco on tap, Italian aperitivo and digestivo, a well-curated wine list, and some beautiful craft cocktails on offer (try the Negroni Sfumato with smoked rhubarb amaro). And we love the thoughtful, attentive service. But the noise level? Not so much. When the place gets crowded—and as word spreads, this is increasingly the case—it’s deafening, the single glitch in our overall experience. But focus on the food and you’ll soon forget that you have to shout to convey how fabulous it is.

This is especially true of the ever changing roster of nine or 10 small plates, each one a gem of execution. A succulent mound of lobster salad floats over cool cucumber soup dotted with tarragon. Pale, silky scallop crudo gets color and spark from bright bites of tomato escabèche and basil. Grilled head-on shrimp, draped over romesco sauce and showered with bits of crispy garlic, melds beautifully with creamy roasted leeks.

On our first visit, we especially loved the grilled octopus. You wouldn’t think there’d be much you could do to make octopus look pretty, but Lavin manages it. The tentacles (nicely charred on the outside, tender on the inside) sat atop a salad composed of contrasting pale and bright green fennel and arugula, a circle of deep purple grapes echoing the cephalopod’s faintly violet hue. It’s typical of the great care that goes into plating here, a thoughtful approach that doubles your dining pleasure. The dish had disappeared from the menu by our next visit, but we happily discovered a new seafood favorite: crispy polenta-crusted oysters beside a pool of green goddess dressing.

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Veal Sweetbreads
Nestled on a bed of grilled green onions, lightly breaded veal sweetbreads reveal a creamy richness beneath their crisp coating. They sit atop a purée of roasted corn that brings out the “sweet” in the sweetbread and underscores their delicate flavor.

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Three small pasta dishes round out the trove of small plates. One night, delicate thyme tagliatelle with chanterelles and sweet corn made us swoon. A little later in the summer, a heartier squid ink gnocchi with tomato-braised calamari and mint had us slowly tasting to discern the way each element complemented the others. We admit we’ve been so captivated by the smaller dishes that we’ve only tried one of the two entrees on offer—a sweet-fleshed, whole, grilled red snapper garnished with snap peas and pickled onions.

We only tried one dessert: warm ricotta doughnuts glazed with fennel honey and served with ginger ice cream. These made my dinner partner clap her hands with childlike glee.

Next time, maybe we’ll eat nothing but entrees and desserts. And rest assured, there will be a next time. There’s a braised wild boar shoulder in chickpea stew we’d love to catch when it’s available, and a yummy sounding chocolate panna cotta with blueberry jam that we hope will stay on the dessert menu. We’re dreaming of Lavin’s way with autumn’s bounty already.

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GNOCCO 3734 Fleet St., 443-449-6540. HOURS Tue.-Thu. 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5-11 p.m.; Sun. 10:30 a.m.- 3 p.m., 5-9 p.m. CUISINE Mediterranean.
PRICES Appetizers and small plates: $9.95-18.95; pastas and entrees: $16.50-25.95; desserts: $8-19. ATMOSPHERE Rustic.

A Timonium mainstay for more than 30 years, Michael’s Café was born before some of its booze-loving customers gulped their first sips of milk. To keep current, the restaurant recently reinvented itself, opening a new indoor lounge and outdoor patio, and bringing in Mark Davis, formerly of Ten Ten and The Highland Inn, as chef.

Judging by the crowds we saw on our visits this summer, Michael’s is far from the throes of a midlife crisis. The patio area is an attractive walled oasis that exudes a vacation vibe, while excluding most of the noise and visual clutter of York Road. (Only the glowing arches from a McDonald’s across the street disrupt the suspension of disbelief.)

On warm evenings, almost everyone outside, including the super-attentive and friendly servers and bartenders, wears shades. A chalkboard details a variety of cocktails and crushes, which we found to be well mixed, properly proportioned, and incredibly refreshing. Even in the heat of happy hour, our bartender, Gill, peered through his aviators and made a coconut margarita and a Grapefruit Salty Dog—a concoction of Sloop Betty vodka from the Eastern Shore and fresh grapefruit juice—with care. Both were excellent, as was a Kentucky Buck, made with Bulleit bourbon, strawberries, lemon, bitters, ginger beer, and simple syrup, which we downed on a previous visit.

The food was a bit less even. A large roster of appetizers includes standards like wings. (The buffalo variety were excellent, spiced to satisfy everyone in our party.) The more exotic offering of fried green tomatoes, despite being topped with crabmeat, was disappointingly bland. Raw oysters are available, as are shrimp, clams, and mussels. The apple and bleu cheese salad, pepped up by caramelized walnuts, is a solid starter.

Throughout its life, Michael’s has been hailed for its crab cakes, and we found its current version, comprised of solid chunks of meat mixed with modest amounts of tasty filler, to be stellar. We enjoyed it with a medium-rare 6-ounce filet mignon, which was served exactly how we ordered it. Less successful was the lobster-crab cake hybrid, which left our palate confused—you’re better off sticking with the standard cake. The sides we sampled—mashed potatoes, beets, Broccolini, and asparagus—were nothing special.

Make no mistake about it: Michael’s is as much about the fun as the food. Inside, there’s a bright v-shaped bar, a spacious dining room, and a darker original bar that’s surrounded by sports memorabilia. TVs are seemingly everywhere, and music and conversation create a constant buzz. Even as it’s ditched its 20s for its 30s, the cafe’s continued the party.

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MICHAEL’S CAFÉ 2119 York Road, Timonium, 410-252-2022.
HOURS 10 a.m.-2 a.m. every day.
PRICES Appetizers: $8-26; entrees: $18.50-42; sandwiches: $10-31.
ATMOSPHERE Fun in the sun-burbs.

Julia and Vanna Belton have seen the light. The couple has turned the former home of the Midtown Yacht Club (and more recently, Midtown BBQ and Brew) into Flavor, a restaurant, bar, and lounge that reflects the diversity—culinary and otherwise—of Mount Vernon. When we first walked in, we were struck by the bright lighting, a big change from the dark, downscale atmosphere of the previous tenants. The clean white color scheme and artwork also provide a stark contrast to the space’s more dive-y past. And there was nary a peanut shell on the floor.

Flavor specializes in small plates and big cocktails. The liquid menu is extensive, and on multiple visits we enjoyed some terrific drinks. Both the bourbon pomegranate-ginger Mojito and grand margarita, made with Patrón tequila, Grand Marnier, fresh lemon and lime juices, and cane syrup, were dangerously refreshing. There also are nine coffee-based cocktails that would be perfect on a cool afternoon or as after-dinner treats.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Julia Belton worked at the critically hailed Eleven Madison Park in New York City before opening Flavor with her wife last October. Her menu, divided into snacks, salads and flat breads, and hot plates, is creative and, more often than not, achieves solid results. We started with assemble-your-own grilled bourbon chicken lettuce wraps and Buffalo-roasted cauliflower, a novel idea made even more innovative by the crumbled Gorgonzola cheese that graces it. Both were large enough to share with several people and a fun, out-of-the-ordinary way to begin a meal.

We loved both the concept and execution of the mushroom-topped steak, served pre-cut into shareable pieces over polenta and red-wine sauce. Calamari fettuccine was among the heartiest dishes we tried, and its puttanesca sauce packed just the right amount of richness and spiciness. Beef sliders, served with cheddar cheese and garlic aïoli on potato buns, lived up to the restaurant’s namesake. Our only misses were the vegetarian flat bread, which was not crispy enough and was overpowered by its reduced balsamic drizzle, and the pesto-seared sea scallops, which didn’t mesh well with the zucchini and carrot noodles and white-wine sauce they were served with.

The Beltons hope Flavor provides a venue for Baltimore’s lesbian community to feel at home. The upstairs lounge hosts a ladies’ night on Fridays and Saturdays where “gay women and their allies have a devoted space to relax,” according to the website. On one of our visits, a candidate for city council hosted a drag-queen-show fundraiser upstairs while downstairs, a diverse clientele enjoyed food and drink in a tamer atmosphere. The staff ensured that everyone had fun, an enlightening attitude that makes Flavor a great addition to the scene.

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FLAVOR 15 E. Centre St., 443-563-2279.
HOURS Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Tue.-Thu. 3-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 3 p.m.-2 a.m., closed Mondays. CUISINE New American.
PRICES Snacks: $8-11; salads and flat breads: $7-12; hot plates: $11-18.
ATMOSPHERE Eclectic.

While Baltimore and the Chesapeake area are often associated with seafood, when you get beyond the crab houses, there are surprisingly few seafood-centric spots. All that changed when Alex Smith and his Atlas Restaurant Group partner, George Aligeorgas, entered the scene. Smith and Aligeorgas clearly have a thing for all the fish in the sea, whether it’s bronzino from the Aegean at Ouzo Bay or Sawagani crabs from Japan’s famed Tsukiji Fish Market at Azumi.

But now the duo is catching closer to home with their latest venture, Loch Bar, which sits on the site of the former LaMill coffee shop in The Four Season’s Baltimore Hotel and sets its sights on Chesapeake seafood, as well as pristine products from all over the East and West coasts and Mexico. A 12-foot raw bar dominates the space and glistens with Maine lobster, Alaskan king crab, mussels, clams, and oysters nestled in some 250 pounds of ice.

While Loch Bar’s bragging rights include the self-proclaimed largest whiskey selection in the state (350 bottles, including a lengthy list of rare offerings such as Laphroaig 32-year-old scotch whiskey), it’s equally focused on haute pub grub.

If Jay Gatsby owned a bar, it might be something along the lines of this luxurious lair. Designer Patrick Sutton, who always astonishes, has given rise to a 1920s-style space that oozes with best-of-everything appeal: burgundy Chesterfield-style leather booths, swirling marble surfaces (culled from a quarry in Vermont that was also used to build some of the Washington, D.C., monuments), shiny brass finishes that offer a nautical nod to the past, and one of the most magnificent plein air patios in the city. Even before the bourbon gave us a glow, we felt glamorous just sitting there. (Know that you’ll need a reservation to snag one of the few coveted booths facing the water.)

The menu is equally decadent. If you’re in the mood to indulge, you can find sky-high shellfish towers (including one for $250), plus both Russian Kaluga ($220 an ounce) and sevruga caviar ($200 an ounce) served with blinis, crème fraîche, and caper berries, as well as oysters from near (the Chesapeake Bay) and far (the Puget Sound). But more affordable options like oysters Rockefeller, moules frites (mussels and fries), and charcuterie and cheese boards are available for nibbling through the night (or at lunchtime or happy hour, as we did on subsequent visits, if you’re so inclined).

While some spots take a while to get started, Loch Bar, open since early April, seems fully formed. On our visits, the bar area thrummed with the young, the well-heeled, and the thirsty. We had no complaints over service, which was eager and efficient and is often the last element to get up to speed in new spots.

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Scallop carpaccio: The scallop carpaccio with Meyer lemon and bright green Castelvetrano olives, served in a scallop shell, “cooked” in lemon confit, and topped with a charred spring ramp chimichurri and chili flakes, is a tangy, briny combination that hits different palate points.

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Over the course of many hours, we sampled much of the menu, from the tuna and avocado poke (a delicate delight with a boost of bite from soy-ginger dressing and chili oil), to an assortment of shucked-just-right oysters, to lobster poutine (proletariat pub grub getting the Rolls-Royce treatment), and a properly butter-poached lobster roll as good as any I’ve ever eaten in Maine. While the spotlight is on seafood, one of my dining companions insisted on ordering the pastrami, which arrived on thick slices of dark Russian rye. The recipe has become chef Matthew Oetting’s closely guarded secret. It was fantastically fatty and flavorful, and was bolstered by braised cabbage.

Less successful were some of the Maryland standards, including a crab cake (which fell apart and featured not enough seafood seasoning, if any) and a Chesapeake crab dip (which got points for being locally sourced, but deductions for having a paste-like consistency). We suspect that Oetting, whose experience spans chichi eateries from Miami to New York and who is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, is still getting a feel for Charm City standards.

To finish the night, we dug into a hefty slab of house-made Smith (no relation to owner Alex) Island cake and felt sated as we watched the boats bob in the dark waters of the harbor.

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LOCH BAR 280 International Dr., 443-961-8949.
HOURS Sun.-Tue. 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Wed.-Sat. 10:30 a.m.-12 a.m.
CUISINE Regional seafood.
PRICES Appetizers: $6-18; entrees: $19-48; desserts: $8.
ATMOSPHERE Modern oyster bar.

We’d barely breathed a sigh of relief that Bottega, Adrien Aeschliman’s well-loved rustic Italian trattoria in Station North, had reappeared after a months-long hiatus when the restaurateur opened another venue around the corner.

Talk about an embarrassment of riches. Colette, open since February, is Bottega’s French counterpart, serving up Provençal-inflected food in slightly more spacious digs that include a well-appointed, full-service bar, setting it apart from its sister restaurant’s BYOB policy. That makes sense, given Colette’s location. Sandwiched between Tapas Teatro and Pen & Quill, and just two doors down from the Charles Theater, Aeschliman’s new hot spot has created a virtual Restaurant Row in this increasingly bustling block of Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District. We say, bring it on.

In contrast to its larger neighbors, Colette is an intimate space. It’s long and narrow, with the marble-topped bar and tiled flooring up front recalling a Parisian brasserie and the line of sturdy wooden tables and absinthe-colored walls behind channeling a Toulouse-Lautrec poster of a busy urban cafe. Its charms are plainspoken and less quirky than Bottega’s. It’s cozy, but on weekend nights it positively buzzes with energy. (Read: It’s loud.)

Colette’s chef, Stefano Porcile, has spent time at Woodberry Kitchen and Fork & Wrench, so we were fairly certain his offerings would boast considerable invention. Sure enough, the menu is a playful roster of items you’d be hard-pressed to choose from, especially if you’re willing to experiment. The line gets a little blurred between small plates and entrees—several of which come in two sizes—so you could order, say, the smaller bowl of cream-based bourride swimming with oysters, mussels, and clams as an appetizer instead of the main event. Or you could allow a lovely spring appetizer of leeks, sunchokes, and pickled mushrooms bathed in mustard crème fraiche to accompany the entree of double lamb loin, flavored with preserved lemon and draped with beautifully braised Belgian endive.

We started with the delightful beignets and a small plate of fluke ceviche and bay leaf brown butter, assured by our waitress that this unlikely combination really worked. It did. Silky slides of the pristine fish sat atop a pool of warmed butter dusted with the smoky powdered pepper from Basque country known as espelette, the butter adding a rich, nutty note to the fish. Porcile switches things up with the duck confit as well, which surprised by arriving in a salad, its rich shards contrasting with the bitter, bright, and sweet flavors of watercress, pickled daikon, and apricot.

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GRUYÈRE BEIGNETS:
Deep-fried rounds of choux pastry and Gruyère are laced with chives, sprinkled with sea salt, and drizzled with honey, providing just the right balance of savory, salty, and sweet to accompany a Sazerac, a Colette signature cocktail boasting a similar Big Easy provenance.

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There’s a distinct emphasis on fish among the entrees, and the nights we visited, skate, hake, head-on shrimp, and that fluke were all on offer, as well as an inventive combo of grilled octopus and beef heart—a pairing this food adventurer eagerly jumped on. The dish playfully explores the similarities in texture between this odd couple, each of which gets a rap for being rubbery. Here, they’re toothsomely tender and simply served with a scattering of capers, olives, and roasted potatoes. We admired the willingness to push boundaries just as much as we admired the dish.

For dessert, we again put ourselves in the hands of our redoubtable young waitress. She confirmed our sense that the mousse cake would satisfy our endless craving for chocolate, which it did. A ribbon of crimson passion fruit purée divided the dense wedge of chocolate with its glossy topping of ganache—and yes, it tastes as good as it sounds.

For those who don’t live by chocolate, there’s a lovely pistachio crème brûlée and a roasted apple with honey cake, lavender, and lemon curd. At least, that was the lineup during a cold and rainy spring. Summer will doubtlessly bring berries, peaches, and other delights, which we’ll be eager to try when we’re not sampling the offerings around the corner at Bottega.

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COLETTE 1709 N. Charles St., 443-835-2945.
HOURS Sun.-Wed. 5-11 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. 5 p.m.-1 a.m.
CUISINE Modern French
PRICES Appetizers: $9-16; entrees: $17-36; desserts $8-12.
ATMOSPHERE Left Bank meets Station North.

If Woodfire Kitchen’s magnificent red-and-black brick oven is the heart of the restaurant, then the splendid pizzas the Italian import pumps out represent its soul. David and Joyce Cardwell and their partner, chef Craig Nachodsky, opened the casual cafe in June. Since then, the team that co-owned Canton’s Cardwell’s Tavern in the early 2000s has found a new following serving Neapolitan-style pizzas cooked to perfection in its beautiful gas/wood-burning

hybrid oven. The 10,000-pound Forno Bravo was shipped in pieces from Italy and California and then assembled inside the restaurant’s semi-open kitchen. The building once housed the Wagon Wheel, a longtime diner-like institution that served as a gathering place for neighbors. The new ownership team wanted to create a similar vibe for this project—and they’ve succeeded. The warmth of the space, which features hardwood floors, exposed beams, and country music fits well with the rural setting in Parkton. There’s no bar, but Troyer’s Liquors across the street offers a 10-percent discount for Woodfire customers, which helps offset the $5 corkage fee.

Local ingredients permeate the menu. Flavorful burgers are made using beef from Monkton’s Roseda Farm. The most popular variety, the WFK ($14), is topped with mac and cheese and root-beer barbecue pulled pork on a brioche. Soups, salads, comfort-food favorites like crab dip, as well as sandwiches round out the menu, but pizza is the star. Woodfire’s pies emerge from the oven with exquisitely charred thin crusts. No two come out alike, but they do share one trait: All are delicious. Design-your-own pizzas include house-made sauce using San Marzano tomatoes and a gluten-free mozzarella and provolone cheese blend. Vegetables and jalapeño-infused bacon, shaved steak, and crab are among the available toppings.

The restaurant’s roster of assembled “gourmet” pizzas includes cheeseburger ($16), pulled pork ($16), and Buffalo chicken ($16) varieties. The Gunpowder ($16) features Applewood-smoked bacon, red onion, the house cheese blend, and hot Italian bison sausage from Gunpowder Farm. Never before have we had the pleasure of consuming a pizza with sausage of such high quality that it could be plucked off the pie and eaten as an entree. It was an incredibly satisfying meal, one that warmed our heart and soul.

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›› Woodfire Kitchen: 17114 York Rd, Parkton. 443-491-3505. Hours: Mon. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Pricing: Appetizers: $4-14; sandwiches: $9-17; pizza: $10-16.

On any weekend night, Bel Air’s picturesque Main Street is teeming with diners and bar-hoppers looking for a convivial place to partake in libations and good eats. Until recently, their choices have been largely limited to spots known more for the former than the latter, and it’s no secret that the surrounding area offers chain restaurants and not much more.

Enter One Eleven Main, which opened last fall to add a fine-dining alternative to the mix. Owned by Richard Anderson and family—whose Richard’s Fish & Crabs is a Harford County mainstay—and helmed by executive chef Bryan Boessed, formerly of The Iron Bridge Wine Company, this charming storefront lends Main Street a welcome dash of serious food cred.

The owners have transformed a former deli into a pleasingly pretty spot for casual but elevated dining. Walnut tables, soft lighting, and creamy walls create a muted backdrop that lets the food take center stage. (Our only suggestion would be to add some white tablecloths for a touch more elegance.) There are craft cocktails and a thoughtful selection of wines, with a knowledgeable waitstaff to tell you all about them. In short, the makings of a sophisticated dining experience.

Boessed’s menu features fresh, seasonal takes on comfort food, geared to please a relatively wide swath of diners, both adventuresome and more traditional types. You won’t find cutting-edge cuisine here, but touches of vibrant, judiciously applied invention make for fun and satisfying dining.

Witness the three-beet salad, a lovely version of this requisite menu item. One Eleven’s is gorgeous to behold: Diced golden beets mix with deep green watercress, orange segments, spicy goat cheese, and walnuts atop an emulsion of red beets, while translucent slices of candy-striped chioggias decorate the plate. Similarly handsome (and unctuously delicious) was an appetizer of butter-poached pork cheek with creamy polenta and an unexpected spark of kimchi to cut the richness. Four baked oysters arrived bubbling with a topping of blue cheese, guanciale butter, and bacon, while whole tentacles of grilled octopus are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, dressed with citrus dressing.

Our entrees were almost as good, but otherwise exemplary beef short ribs were marred by oversalted mashed potatoes, and the Hoppin’ John accompanying the sauteed wild rockfish lacked flavor. That said, the thick filets of fish were perfectly cooked and the short ribs melted in the mouth. A wholly successful bacon-wrapped wild game meatloaf (boar, bison, and venison) came with “salted potatoes” that were, oddly enough, not too salty at all. And dessert—a rich, custardy vanilla “poudin”—was perfect.

Bel Air, you’ve got yourself a real find.

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ONE ELEVEN MAIN 111 S. Main St., Bel Air, 443-900-8027.
HOURS Tues.-Thurs. 4:30-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 4:30-10 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
CUISINE Upscale comfort food.
ATMOSPHERE Casual fine-dining.
PRICES Appetizers: $8-15; entrees: $24-36; desserts: $8.

From the moment you reach the top of the cobblestone driveway leading to Cosima, you’ll be charmed. While the approach—a hairpin turn that leads toward the whooshing waters of the Jones Falls—can be harrowing, as you pull into the piazza-like entrance under a string of white lights, you’ll marvel that you’re in Baltimore City, not Sicily.

Set inside an old sailcloth factory in Woodberry’s historic Mill No. 1, Cosima is the newest venture for Donna Crivello (of Donna’s Coffee Bar and Restaurant fame) and Alan Hirsch (co-founder of City Paper). And it is enchanting.

After more than two decades of running cafes, the duo decided it was time to set their sights on a fine-dining restaurant focusing on the Sicilian and Southern Italian foods of Crivello’s Boston childhood, where she cooked with her nonna Cosima.

With exposed stone and brick walls, unique architectural details, and spectacular alfresco dining, the multi-level, 150-seat space is simply stunning. And for a spot that only opened in mid-February, it’s fast falling into the category of destination dining.

I ventured out in early March just a few weeks after it opened. One of my three dining companions was a dear friend, whose birth name is Fortunato and whose grandfather was known to turn over the table if he didn’t like his meal. Fortunato had an instant affinity for the place and welled up while reading over the menu. “Smelts! Like my grandmother and aunt used to make!” he said as he perused the offerings.

Here, you’ll find delectable combinations of salt (capers, anchovies, olives), citrus (blood oranges, lemon), and sweet (figs, raisins, and agrodolce, a thick vinegar sauce). Also on offer are dishes with saffron and cinnamon and ingredients like pine nuts and pomegranate that harken back to eras of Arab, North African, and Greek occupation in Sicily.

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Insalata di Popli:
Cosima features a number of raw, marinated, and cured crudo dishes, but the grilled baby octopus appetizer—complemented by capers, peppers, and celery and tossed in an anchovy vinaigrette—is incredibly flavorful and a unique take on potato salad.

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In addition to the basket of fried smelts, calamari, and shrimp—fritto misto di pesce—among our appetizers was a small cast-iron skillet of polpette, mini meatballs swimming in house-made “gravy” topped with ricotta that oozed all over the morsels and provided a cooling counterpoint.

Not to be outdone, an order of the grilled baby octopus crudo was also a clear crowd favorite. Simple and sublime, it sat on a salad composed of potatoes, celery, red peppers, and capers, and arrived tossed in a bright, lemony anchovy vinaigrette.

Though I wasn’t overly eager to order the grilled sardines appetizer, Fortunato insisted. To my delight, they were divine. Imported from Portugal, the richness was tempered by a sweet and tangy caramelized onion agrodolce rife with raisins. Another fish dish, the house special, a whole grilled bronzino served with blood oranges, had potential. Unfortunately, our otherwise wonderful waiter had no idea how to filet a fish. By the time he was done doing battle with the bones, it was lukewarm and a bit of a mangled mess. (Here’s one for the server suggestion box: Unless you are an absolute expert, this is best done behind the scenes.)

You also can’t go wrong with a bowl of the elegant grilled half Maine lobster served over a bed of black cuttlefish ink pasta. Served with a charred tomato and sweet lobster sauce, it was a sophisticated interpretation of Sicilian comfort food.

Despite the fact that we had no room left on the reclaimed wood table, we shared one of three wood-fired pizzas on offer. The genius was in the crust—chewy and charred. Despite the weight of the toppings—in this case, prosciutto, broccoli rabe, Gorgonzola, sweet, chutney-like spicy fig mostarda—it was a gravity-defying marvel and we’re still regretting that we left two pieces on the pan.

Fortunato finished his meal with a glass of amaro liqueur, as we polished off our bottle of Sicilian Nero d’Avola and followed our server’s suggestion to move forward with a basket of sfinci (Sicilian donuts) and a dish of pistachio gelato. “You must be Italian,” joked Fortunato. “Everyone is a little Italian, here,” the server responded. “Mangia. Mangia.” And we obliged.

There’s no need to turn over the table here.

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COSIMA 3000 Falls Rd., 443-708-7352.
HOURS Sun., Tues.-Thurs. 5-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5-11 p.m.
CUISINE Sicilian/Southern Italian.
PRICES Appetizers: $7-16; entrees: $22-38; desserts: $7-9.
ATMOSPHERE Hip, historic rehab.

When you meander into the charming Dovecote Cafe in historic Reservoir Hill, take a seat on a tufted sofa, behold the black-and-white “Harlem toile” wallpaper and the array of baked goods under bell jars, and soak in the warm and wonderful vibe of a spot that gets the cafe concept just right.

But if you want to look like a regular, know before you go, there’s nary a printed menu here. “We like to talk to our customers,” said co-owner Aisha Pew, as she rattles off the daily roster. Indeed, Dovecote (a birdhouse for pigeons, as well as “a settled or harmonious group,” according to Merriam-Webster) is that rare bird of a cafe that’s all about engagement. It’s a modern-day take on the 17th-century salon that serves as a sort of intellectual hub for the community—a place where locals go to work on their laptops, that hosts an “Artists Shouldn’t Starve” series, and invites small-batch chefs to use its kitchen to cook for the community.

Pew, along with her mom, Gilda, and partner, Cole, run the cafe, which offers some savory specialties but puts the emphasis on sweet—with everything sourced straight from the heart. We especially loved the tall-as-a-turban sticky bun ($3.50) swirled with maple syrup, loaded with cinnamon, sugar, and pecans. The airy peach upside-down cake ($4)—so moist and light it practically levitated off the square serving plate—was also a culinary wonder. “My mom’s peach upside-down cake will turn your world upside down,” promised Pew—and it did. Also on hand were assorted muffins, including a fluffy corn muffin infused with marmalade ($3.30) and a blueberry muffin ($2.50) densely packed with fruit and encrusted with fat sugar crystals. On the savory side, we ordered spinach pie ($5.66). The quiche-like caramelized onion filling was dense with spinach and the thin crust stayed sturdy (the downfall of many an egg-crust combo) to the last crumb.

Beverages include several brews of small-batch coffee that represent a personal travelogue for the trio. (Brewklyn Grind Coffee Roasters from Brooklyn, where Aisha was born; Red Bay Coffee Roasters from Oakland, CA, where Aisha, Cole, and Gilda last lived; and Café Los Sueños from D.C., where Cole was born.) In addition, there are house-made brews named after the cafe’s mascot doves. Whatever you order, you’ll feel the love when you flock here.

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›› Dovecote Cafe: 2501 Madison Ave. 443-961-8677. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Pricing: Baked goods: $2.50-5; savory specials: $5-8; beverages: $1.70-3.75.

When it opened back in the late ’90s, SoBo Café featured mac and cheese on the menu before mac and cheese was cool, helping to usher in a restaurant boom in Federal Hill that transformed the neighborhood. The recent opening of SoBo Market—SoBo Café’s mini-outpost off Fort Avenue featuring sandwiches, small plates, takeout, and a killer happy hour—reminded me that I hadn’t been to the flagship comfort-food pioneer in ages.

While many of its cohorts are long gone, SoBo survived, partly through the ministrations of current owner Anna Leventis, who bought the place in 2011 and sparked a genuine revival of this all-American mainstay. Today, the cafe is thriving and bustles with customers eagerly scarfing up old-time favorites like that mac and cheese, as well as newer items that exemplify the kitchen’s philosophy: fresh, house-made, seasonal.

On the evenings I visited, SoBo’s Creamsicle-orange walls were decorated with boldly colored paintings of flowers, and the brightly lit environs were as welcoming as the cozy dining room of an old friend (albeit, one who can truly cook). An array of spreads—think rosemary hummus and house-smoked salmon—provides a perfect counterpoint to the bar’s inventive wine-based cocktails (wine and beer only here), and the addictive accompanying ciabatta is housemade, as is all the bakery fare. We loved the roasted golden beet salad enlivened with mustard green pesto and smoked walnuts. Not so much the spicy cauliflower flatbread, whose delicate vegetable base was overwhelmed by an abundance of melted cheese. However, that was the only misstep in the meal.

There were no disappointments among the entrees, where you’ll still find SoBo’s classic chicken potpie (a marvel of simple goodness), as well as new takes on old-fashioned recipes, like the Korean chicken-fried steak with kimchi collard greens and soy-garlic mashed potatoes, an inspired fusion of American Southern and Asian home cooking. We were crazy about the Bavette steak—beefy, thick-cut flank, dry-rubbed with flavorful spices and sided with creamed spinach and roasted fingerlings. And our pleasure in the creamy pan-seared scallops was doubled by its hearty accompaniment of white bean
ragout with briny clam sauce.

Desserts here are house-made and therefore not to be skipped. We were thrilled to find a Christmas favorite rarely seen on restaurant menus—warm mince pie, which brought back fond memories of family dinners and childhood presents. Paired with a scoop of house-made ginger ice cream, it couldn’t have been homier, just like this longtime little gem of a restaurant. We won’t wait so long to return—after all, we need to try that wonderful-sounding butterscotch pudding with fresh figs and almonds we were too stuffed to order.

It seems the ramen revolution that was so ripe for explosion two summers ago has settled down to a slow simmer, with just a few new options popping up around Baltimore these days. Of these, Federal Hill’s Mi & Yu Noodle Bar has drawn particular attention, thanks to its chef and proprietor, Edward Kim, remembered fondly by old-school Baltimore foodies for his elaborate, modernist cooking at Ixia and Soigne 15 years ago. Although the offerings are highly streamlined and firmly rooted in tradition, the food at Mi & Yu still possesses that fullness and depth of flavor one might expect from a highly seasoned chef.

On cold days, the windows at this charming, unfussy noodle bar are opaque with steam, while, inside, the narrow space stretches back from a sparse but bright dining area to a small galley kitchen that’s set up assembly-line style for massive volume.

In fact, that the kitchen is granted more real estate than the dining room is a very good portent.

Mi & Yu uses a modular menu system, wherein one chooses from an array of proteins, noodles, and broths to build a custom noodle bowl. This open-ended scheme may fluster ramen purists, but this place is billed as a “noodle bar,” and ramen is but one of the starches on offer, along with thick udon noodles and pho noodles.

Broth selection ranges from a clean, yet rich, Japanese miso to one flavored with the punch of Korean spicy peppers and garlic. All soups come with the same vegetables—napa cabbage, carrots, red onions, and daikon radishes—but you can further garnish with meats such as braised pork belly or short rib, duck carnitas, or even buttermilk-fried chicken. Seared tofu and vegetable broth options also are available for vegetarians.

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NOODLE BOWL WITH PORK BELLY, KIMCHI, AND CHICKEN
We loved every combination of noodly noms, but the ramen topped with pork belly, kimchi, tender chicken, and a kick of ginger and spicy chili pepper, is a required order.

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Most individual components seem recognizable enough, but the preparations are drawn from such diverse cuisines that for the adventurous, it is possible to end up with a fairly off-the-wall concoction. (The sweetness and five-spice flavor of the pork belly make for an unusual pairing with the already complex sambal broth, for example.) But, whether it’s thanks to careful menu planning or straight-up culinary chops, it’s nearly impossible to come up with a combination that’s anything less than tasty (if unconventional) and deeply satisfying.

And while regular patrons seem to have it down pat, rattling off their orders in efficient Starbucks-style staccato, first-timers are often seen gripped in menu-gazing paralysis, as is apt to happen with so many options.

To avoid such a fate, one need only be armed with the following six words: “pork belly, kimchi, ramen, add chicken.” It is this combination that provides the most intense, yet familiar, flavors, pleasing contrast in textures, and the all-important “ahhh”-inducing feeling that is only attainable from a good bowl of noodle soup. The kimchi broth is deeply savory, with unmuted high notes of ginger and spicy chili pepper—indeed, the only caveat would be the considerable heat. The barely resilient texture of the ramen noodles, whose crinkliness helps transport a bit more of the broth in every bite, is nicely offset by the napa and daikon mixture, which is right at home with the kimchi flavor.

So, too, is the pork belly, which is seasoned subtly enough that the five-spice merely perfumes without overwhelming. The buttermilk-fried chicken frankly speaks for itself, and is straightforward enough to complement any permutation with a bit of crunch.

Pro tip: Mi & Yu does not take carryout orders over the phone, only online via its website or mobile app, which is also where one can find timely updates about the availability of the elusive special “beef dashi broth.”

There are other noodle bars in town, but this one is not to be missed.

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MI & YU NOODLE BAR 1016 S. Charles St., 443-388-9295.
HOURS Mon.-Thurs. 12-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 12-11 p.m., Sun. 12-9 p.m.
PRICES Noodles: $11.50-14.
ATMOSPHERE Minimalist zen.

Snake Hill feels like it has been a Highlandtown staple forever. Perhaps it’s the vintage Baltimore corner-bar vibe; every time we’ve saddled up to its Scrabble-inspired triple-word score bar, we’ve shared laughs with our booze-and-swine-enthusiast neighbors. Or maybe it’s the warmth of the bartenders—Chelsea, Beth-Ann, Caleb—who greet each customer like they’re the most important one in the place. Then again, it could be the camaraderie that comes from this joint’s outlandish lineup of locally sourced sausages and beer.

But likely, it’s all of the above that have made this newcomer from the owners of nearby Johnny Rad’s a standout since it opened in November. Snake Hill, the neighborhood’s original name before it was annexed by the city at the turn of the 20th century, is a casual spot. Patrons order from a menu focused on sausage made from a Noah’s Ark of animals. Rabbit and rattlesnake might sound like roadkill to most, but here it’s dinner. And a tasty one at that. Wild boar? Alligator? Venison? Duck? Check, check, check, check. (There are even three kinds of vegan sausage.)

Ranging from $5 to $9, each of Snake Hill’s nearly 20 sausages are fresh, juicy, emit the requisite level of grease, and are grilled to perfection. They’re squeezed into a toasted brioche bun and served in a paper basket, then best consumed with one of the 12 craft brews on tap and some napkins nearby. In three visits, we never found a weak link.

Some, like the Polock Johnny’s Polish sausage, deliver the time-tested rich flavor that carnivores have been savoring for over a century. Others, like the Dead Elvis—a pork sausage with bacon and banana—or the chicken with basil and sun-dried tomatoes, form sweeter combinations. Each comes with up to two toppings from a selection of sauerkraut, peppers, and grilled onions.

Snake Hill also offers five signature sandwiches—essentially sausages with funkier toppings. The Curry Little Rabbit, a rabbit and rattlesnake sausage with mango curry chutney, channels Indian cuisine. The Pho Real, a pork sausage with sriracha, fennel, and Thai basil served with hoisin sauce, is an ode to the famous Vietnamese dish. Find room for at least a half order of hush puppies. So often delivered as tasteless, over-fried filler, these are moist and sinfully topped with powdered sugar. Like Snake Hill, they seem destined to become an instant classic.

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›› Snake Hill: 418 S. Clinton St., 410-469-9003. Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. (food until 10 p.m.), Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. (food until 11 p.m.). Prices: $5-10.