Charleston in Baltimore: Another winner

We dined at Charleston, the best restaurant in Baltimore (easily) and possibly in the mid-Atlantic, with Mom and Dad, catching up on much family business that had taken place over the past month or so.

Our favorite waitperson, Leslie, had moved rooms so we dined in a small back room lined with wine bottles and with only two other tables (both quite large -- 8-10 covers each). One table went through an inordinate amount of wine, so much so that they had to keep the bottles on a side table in the corner. In due course we recognized famous wine writer and rater Robert Parker who was dining with the staff of his Wine Advocate...well, that certainly explains the massive wine consumption.

At our table consumption was comparatively modest. We started with a bottle of Pinot Gris from Zind-Humbrecht and it went so well with everything that we continued with a second bottle. The Charleston format, most refreshing, is not to divide food into courses but to allow diners to pick their own multi-course formats from among the list of available options. Menus are priced according to the number of courses chosen, starting at $74 for 3 courses (plus dessert, which everyone gets) and going up at the rate of $15 per extra course.

Well, I apologize that I cannot fully report on what everyone ate because there were too many courses crossing the table for me to take accurate notes. I do remember that Michael had the seasonal menu of five courses (plus dessert) which is a relative bargain at $89, but I wanted too many things that were not on that menu. Michael did admit later that it was probably one course too many for him to enjoy comfortably, as he ended up being only able to manage a little sorbet for dessert. My mom started, as usual, with fried green tomatoes with crabmeat which is one of Chef Cindy Wolf's signature dishes although not often on the actual menu.

I started with...well, I'm embarrassed to admit I can't remember the first course. I think it was a salad of some type. I then followed up with tuna, then duck breast, then buffalo tenderloin. The last one was of the finest pieces of meat I have ever had, as tender as a filet mignon but with infinitely more flavor. My dad had the same two final courses with a salad as a starter. For dessert I had a warm Venezuelan chocolate cake....with the traditional, possibly even cliched, molten center. However this was more cakelike (i.e., more cooked) than the traditional cake and was accompanied by sublime, and quite appropriately bitter, coffee ice cream.

Service as usual was highly professional although the flutter of activity around Robert Parker's table made us feel a bit like second class citizens for a while. On the other hand we did get 3 separate visits from the chef, which is unusual.

For a wide variety of options, a flexible menu, a pleasant setting with perfect service, Charleston is hard to beat.

Grenadines: Best Beach Lunch Ever?

Recently got back from a week sailing in the Grenadines with friends Adam and Jeremy. Ate (and drank...and drank) on the boat for virtually the whole trip rather than eating ashore. Did have one extremely non-memorable meal at the marina in St Vincent before heading south, which shall not be mentioned further in this space.

The one meal we did have ashore, however, was a standout. It was at the beach bar/restaurant/hotel in Saltwhistle Bay on the little island of Mayreau in the Grenadines. I cannot remember the formal name of the restaurant but since it is the only restaurant on this particular beach, it is easy to find. Saltwhistle Bay is itself a picture-perfect little harbor fringed by palm trees and with the wind blowing through a cut between hills.

After having spent a couple of days anchored out on the very unspoiled Tobago Cays, we sailed over to Mayreau on our way to Union Island. We seemed to be the only patrons and had our choice of large stone and concrete tables. Fortunately the large and placid lady who also took our order brought some cushions; otherwise it would have been quite uncomfortable.

We ordered a round of beers (as we had agreed not to drink hard alcohol while sailing). Unfortunately the only choice was the local Hairoun, pronounced by us Hair-on (as in, "there's a hair on my beer") but we managed to force down a couple of rounds. Meanwhile, Adam had inquired from Large Lady about the "local curry" as in "what kind of curry is it?" The bemused response was, "well, the normal kind". Being an adventurous type, Adam ordered it anyhow. Jeremy had the fisherman's platter and I opted for a simple fish sandwich with fries.

There then ensued a very long wait. We could have taken a stroll around the harbor, but we had already done that, so we sat and drank our beers and waited. Eventually the waiter/bartender appeared staggering under the load of two massive platters, plus my fish sandwich.

All of the food was fantastic. We quickly surmised that the curry was conch...and very tender indeed, which is not easy to bring about. The curry was quite mild but very flavorful. The fisherman's platter had a very large portion of delicious snapper plus vegetables and rice (also with the curry). My fish sandwich was large, on fresh bread, and stuffed with lightly fried version of the same snapper.

It was one of the simplest and most perfect al fresco lunches I can remember, on a deserted beach overlooking a beautiful harbor, and all for about $60. Hard to beat that! Kudos to the chef at Saltwhistle Bay.

Santa Fe Report: May 2010

Hi everyone, sorry for the long delay between postings but we took a break from eating out, mostly, while Michael was creating his spectacular room at the DC Design Show House (which took up a lot of April and May).

However, we are just back from a trip to the Southwest including 3 glorious days in Santa Fe, our spiritual second home, so I am happy to report on the restaurant scene there as we experienced it, even though the reviews themselves are uneven.

1. La Boca: This was touted by our friend and real estate guru Todd Davis as one of the hip new places in town. It is in a small cozy space downtown just a couple of blocks from the Plaza, and is clearly quite popular. It is a tapas restaurant which allowed us to try a number of dishes. Of these, the boquerones (small sardines) and cucumber/avocado soup were standouts. The roasted asparagus and the Mediterranean salad were good, although the figs and honey-laced vinaigrette of the latter made it quite sweet. The flatbread with chorizo and cheese was not...kind of a thick doughy pizza with very muted flavors.

With a couple of glasses of wine each, the bill came to about $150. Service was provided by a slender young man with spiked hair and plenty of attitude, who was efficient but not particularly welcoming.

I supposed if you lived in Santa Fe and were anxious for a change of scene, we might drop in on La Boca every once in a while, but as casual visitors, we would not put it very high on our list for a return visit. We can get tapas at home, better than this.

2. Bumblebee's: Dropped in here for lunch after a morning exploring downtown. Good as ever. Michael had the usual taco sampler, while I, having learned that the shrimp tacos are the best, concentrated on those. Good, quick, cheerful. Always a winner. We were glad to see it hadn't gone downhill since our last visit.

3. La Choza: We had had a great traditional New Mexican meal on our first visit and were anxious to get back. After an evening strolling the galleries on Canyon Road, we showed up at about 8 to find a waiting room of people and an estimated half hour wait. Fortunately, two seats opened up at the bar and we sat almost immediately.

Unable to choose from among our favorites, we both opted for combination plates: I went for an enchilada, carne adovado, and chile relleno. Michael's was, I think, similar, but it was hard to tell. All of the food was excellent without being fancy in any way. The meal came with a small amount of rice and a nice helping of pozole. We also had some green chile stew (we shared) to start. Plenty of food. Unlike most similar places, La Choza charges for chips and salsa ($3.75) and they were not worth it...hard and oily. Salsa was good, but not outstanding. Guacamole is even more. The sopaipillas that came with dinner also were not up to the old standard, but otherwise the food was excellent. We drank two rounds of killer margaritas whipped up at the bar, and weaved our way home.

3. Tune-up Cafe. This had been one of our favorite little unpretentious SF places on two previous visits but it has really gone downhill in our experience. For lunch Sunday we were both craving green chile cheeseburgers. I ordered mine medium rare with cheddar, while Michael's was medium with jack. Well, surprise, they mixed up the orders. They also forgot the green chile, which we didn't notice until we were halfway done. The counter person, who had messed up the order, seemed rather unfazed...she did put in an order for extra green chile but after waiting 10 minutes for it we gave up and finished our chili-less burgers. The fries were crispy but not hot. Big disappointment. We went back for breakfast on Monday and also had a disappointing experience: my burrito was filled mostly with potato and Michael's basic breakfast was, well, basic. Based on these two lackluster meals, I'm sorry to say that we can't recommend this place any more, although we will give it one more chance.

4. Cafe Pasqual's: We saved this for our last dinner and it was as outstanding as we remembered. Michael started with a simple arugula and grapefruit salad -- similar to what we make at home -- while I had a special appetizer of skewered dates wrapped in prosciutto with some cheese. Very tasty, but a little skimpy (two skewers, one date each). However, we'd had some cocktail snacks at home so it was just as well. For the main course Michael had enchiladas with mole sauce, which he couldn't stop raving about. Being a sampler by nature, I opted for the Plato Supremo which offered a chile relleno, taco barbacoa, and one of the chicken mole enchiladas (so Michael didn't have to share), all of which were excellent. We shared a chef's sampler platter for dessert which was excessive with a slice of very good chocolate budino cake, banana cream pie, coconut cake, and some sort of vanilla-y ice cream. Oh, and chocolate mint bark scattered around the plate, as if the above wasn't enough. With dinner Michael had a couple of glasses of viognier and I had some Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir from New Zealand, which tasted much better than it did at the winery back in October!

We had very professional and very friendly service. One particularly nice thing is that any available waiter seems to be willing to serve any given table, which makes things much more efficient. Pasqual's has some of the best food in Santa Fe. It is decidedly not fancy, and not the place to linger (despite our full menu, we were in and out in a bit over an hour). So it doesn't necessarily appeal to someone wanting an "occasion" meal, but we love it.

Southwest Road Trip Report

After our brief stay in Park City, we hit the road on a tour of some of the great Southwestern national parks on our way to Santa Fe. This is a brief summary of some of the memorable (and not so memorable) meals we had along the way.


We spent two nights in Springdale, Utah just outside the entrance to Zion National Park (where we had a fantastic time, by the way). We had 2 dinners and 2 breakfasts there (lunch on the trail). Both of the breakfasts were at Cafe Soleil, a very short walk from our hotel, where we enjoyed the burritos and excellent coffee (a rarity in Utah, we found). There was a very large and tempting assortment of baked goods for people who did not want the full breakfast, but we were fueling up for a day of hiking so we went for the maximum calories. Dinners, unfortunately, were not as successful although both were acceptable. The first night, our hotel clerk recommended the Bit & Spur where we had acceptable, but forgettable Mexican food. The highly touted (by them) margaritas were weak. I suppose you have to expect that in Utah, where alcohol is carefully measured. The beer was good, though. The second night we switched to the Spotted Dog which was somewhat more upscale. I had the pork loin which was good but not great...rather dry, but saved by a tasty sauce. Michael had pasta which seemed to be the choice of most of the patrons. A large portion of decent, again not memorable food. We did have a very nice Chateau St Jean chardonnay and I remarked that the wine prices were particularly friendly. Not fine dining in either case, but we were in Springdale, Utah, and our expectations were not high. Good thing, too.

After leaving Zion we headed to Bryce Canyon. Again lunch was an on-the trail affair. Dinner was at the time-warped (in a good way, kind of) Pines Restaurant just west of Bryce Canyon City. Imagine going to a roadside place in the 1950s and you will get the ambiance, with all of the pleasure (and dining peril) that implies. I stuck to the hamburger rule, only I made it an elkburger, and came up snake eyes. The burger was small...a little bigger than a McDonalds burger, although much tastier, and dry. Michael had the patty melt recommended by the informant which was indeed delicious. The restaurant is famous for pie so we could not pass up a piece...well, two pieces. Michael had banana strawberry cream and I had chocolate cream, both of which came with absolutely massive piles of whipped cream (real whipped cream, I think) on top. And the crust was good. Unfortunately the chocolate filling tasted canned. I shoulda known. The banana strawberry was better. We overhead the boysenberry being recommended and I am still kicking myself for not ordering it, but I did have a chocolate craving. Which excuses everything, always.

The next morning we hit the road, skipping the overly elaborate breakfast at the National Park lodge, and by 9 we were hungry, so we stopped in the little town of Escalante for breakfast at the Golden Loop restaurant. A little scary looking from the outside (and from the inside...the waitress was in need of some serious dental work) but there a few patrons there not driving pickup trucks and we sat (and parked) close to the door in case we needed to make a quick escape. Which was not, as it happened, necessary. Except from the food, maybe. Michael had a burrito approximately the size of a throw pillow which he said was pretty good. The juice choice was orange, in a bottle from the cooler. Coffee was bad diner coffee. I ordered pancakes and sausage. One of the three pancakes was burned so badly it was inedible. Fortunately the sausage was good and I certainly got enough nutrition from the other two. We can't recommend the Golden Loop, but there aren't too many other choices on Highway 12 (which is a spectacular drive in other respects).

After a brief stop at Capitol Reef National Park, where we just got a brief overview of some of the very interesting rock formations, we pulled in to the small town of Hanksville, Utah (a gas stop, really) and dined at Stan's Burger Shak [sic] advertising famous burgers. Leaving aside the delightful ambiance overlooking the fuel pumps of the Hanksville Shell station, we found Stan's burgers to be no better than OK. The fries would have been good...nice and crisp...but they were cold, alas. I thought about asking for fresh ones but decided not to. The shakes, however, were outstanding...enormous cups of very thick shake bordering on soft ice cream, in all sorts of flavors. If you should happen to be passing through Hanksville, I'd recommend you pack a lunch but stop in to Stan's for a shake.

This portion of our trip ended in Monument Valley on the Utah/Arizona border where we stayed in the View Hotel on the Navajo reservation, run by terribly well meaning and friendly tribal people who are still learning the hospitality trade (the hotel is only a couple of years old). After a long day in the car, we were ready for a drink and some dinner. Well, no drink unless it's iced tea...the reservation is dry, which we can certainly understand given the long and difficult relationship between Native Americans and alcohol.

Anyhow we took a brief hike up to a viewpoint near the hotel with a magnificent panorama over Monument Valley, then, there being little else to do, went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The service was not terribly polished but was awfully friendly and solicitous, especially after the initial very taciturn female waiter was replaced by a most chatty young man. We ordered "Navajo tacos" which are like regular Tex-Mex tacos except they come on (surprisingly delicious) fry bread, which is kind of like naan. Fortunately we'd ordered a portion to share because it arrived on a large platter, four tacos around the size of salad plates (each) and piled high with goodies. After this we could have just stopped eating, but I ordered the pozole, which was tasty although the pozole itself was kind of crunchy, which I don't think it should have been. Michael had the green chile stew which was remarkably underseasoned...it improved with handfuls of salt and a good bit of ground pepper. Indeed, all of the food at the View Restaurant was characterized by a fundamental blandness, as though the chef had been instructed not to spice things up too much lest he disappoint the busloads of tourists that pass through the place. (And indeed, there was such a busload staying in the hotel...a group of elderly Japanese. The Japanese and Germans seem to be colonizing the West, from what we could tell).

Anyhow, while the food was neither exciting nor memorable, it certainly wasn't awful, and the view was sublime. It was also more food than the two of us could eat for $33, which is about the cheapest dinner check I have ever gotten in a place that had tables and waiters.

Chimayo: Big City Prices in Park City

After a day of hiking at Sundance Resort, we treated our friends and hosts David & Ann to dinner at Chimayo. Dave & Ann live in Park City during the winter so are a wealth of information about where to eat, what to do, and so forth and we had a delightful couple of days hanging out with them at the start of our trip (including awesome, albeit expensive, drinks at the fabulous and empty St Regis resort on the other side of town).

Knowing of our love of Southwestern food, they thoughtfully made a reservation at Chimayo, one of the most respected restaurants in the little but oh-so-chic hamlet of Park City. We did have a lovely meal there, although the prices were a bit shocking.

Ann and I started with duck enchiladas. What could be bad? Only the size...two tiny little rolls (more like the size of taquitos than enchiladas...think of a very thick pencil, but not as long). The flavor was delicious though. Ann and I stayed in tandem and both had the "london broil" of elk which was wonderfully flavorful and just gamy enough. Michael started with a stuffed avocado on greens and had, of course, salmon (this incarnation was mustard seed encrusted and grilled) which he reported was excellent. I forget Dave's appetizer but his main course was the buffalo flank steak (which was my second choice)...Dave said he should have had the elk as the buffalo was rather unexciting.

We had two bottles of wine...a Hogue Gewurztraminer which was delicious with a distinct but not overwhelming sweetness...and a Qupe Syrah which I found disappointing with a rather acid edge to it, not nearly as rich and soft as I was hoping for. Michael also had a glass of Conundrum with his salmon. Wine availability in Utah is much better than it used to be but pricing is still painful...the two bottles together were just about $100. In general the less expensive bottles seem to be marked up an inordinate amount, although maybe that was just this restaurant.

With entrees over $40, the total bill after tip for this...with no dessert or cocktails ... was well over $400. The meal was good, but not that good, especially since the room was very plain (bare wood tables and chairs) and service, while pleasant, was not very polished. Probably Chimayo suffers (or we suffer) from it being once of the fanciest restaurants in a very expensive resort town and the pricing attributable thereto.

Good food...arguably very good...but not a very good value.

Spices: A Misnomer

This will be a quick one. Michael had a craving for Chinese food last night. Well, as far as we have discovered there is no good Chinese food in Washington, not even average Chinese food, so we were reduced to ordering takeout from Spices which has the major benefit of being close to us. We had a large feast of tofu "fries", dragon dumplings, caramelized chicken, "shaking" beef, crispy vegetables, and curry laksa.

The tofu looked like fries (same shape) but were flabby and gummy, although pleasantly spicy. The dragon dumplings were reasonably tasty although doughy. The caramelized chicken was not. It was chicken pieces sauteed with onions in a generic brown sauce. The shaking beef was tough little cubes of meat with large untrimmed stalks of some green Chinese vegetable. The crispy vegetables were also not. Sauteed in the same generic brown sauce as the chicken, along with big square chunks of tofu (better than the fries, but not much). The laksa was good, I thought, moderately spicy with a hint of coconut milk (Michael wanted more coconut flavor) and with large chunks of chicken and green beans and with bean sprouts and noodles to be added. A decent value at $10 and the only successful dish of the bunch.

Hopefully the next time Michael gets a craving for Chinese food we can wait until it goes away. Otherwise, I will hold out for City Lights which while not truly authentic, was much better than this poor collection.

Bardeo: Still our favorite neighborhood hangout

After a long and eventful week, neither of us really felt like cooking so we headed over to Ardeo/Bardeo for our Friday evening meal. I made an Opentable reservation (mostly to get the points) although I found out that this really applies to the more formal Ardeo side, while we prefer the usually more lively Bardeo part. Indeed, at 7:00 we got the last Bardeo table while as far as I could tell, Ardeo was seriously underpopulated. (You can get dishes from either menu at either place, so it's really a matter of atmosphere.)

We had, as usual, a delightful and delicious meal. Starters included fried rice balls (delicious), a dish of red peppers with sardine fillets (OK, but the peppers needed more seasoning), and squid ink risotto (rich, generous, and very filling). Michael then had a "medium plate" of steak chimichurri while I had a hamburger...both came with excellent fries. The hamburger for $12 must be one of the best bargains in DC.

For drinks we both started with a wine flight: Michael's included a Gruner Veltliner, Torrontes, and Muscatel, the latter from Spain, all of which were OK but not great. I had a more interesting flight that included a California Chardonnay (name escapes me, but good enough for Michael to order a full glass), Zinfandel and Cab (the Zin was great, the Cab a little heavy). I then followed by a glass of Touriga Nacional which I had wanted to try for some time...I thought it was very nice, well balanced and great with the food although not fruity and rich enough for Michael to have more than one sip.

We left very well fed and very happy. What a great place to have in the neighborhood. Would be even better if we could walk to it...well, maybe in the summer.