Baltimore Restraurants

jazzman:
welcome in advance.
I assume you are staying downtown near the stadium. Will you have a car, or will you be using a taxi?

Jazzman:
You might enjoy Corks on your anniversary. It's a quick cab ride from the harbor area.
http://www.corksrestaurant.com/default.asp
quite an interesting wine list and the food is always very good.
And, for an informal place not far from the stadium area--again by cab--try the winemarket, which you can research: http://www.the-wine-market.com/about.html

Irwin,
Thanks, we will be driving down and staying at one of the airport hotels. Driving into downtown will be no problem. I've seen Corks online and it does look good. Also, The Wine Market looks like it has a good Sunday Brunch. My son spent his freshman year at UMBC and what we found out was good breakfast places ae hard to find, so finding a good place for brunch before we leave on Sunday would be great.

Agian thanks and any other suggestions are appreciated.
Jeff

If you are staying near the airport, then for the anniversary meal you could also consider Cafe de Paris, which is a frequent venue for our Md. offlines.
http://www.cafedepariscolumbia.com/

quote:

We are looking for recommendations for a casual place to go before the game on Friday and a nice restraurant for our anniversary on Saturday. I

Pregame meal ideas:
Wine Market - Good food (though overpriced), good wine list (can open a bottle from the shop for a small corkage) but diner beware: Long time executive chef (a personal friend) Christian de Lutis has left for Ireland for a short while and handed the kitcen over to his Sous Chef. Haven't been there in a few weeks, so not sure how he's holding down the fort.


Anniversary ideas:
Cafe de Paris: Closer to the airport as was mentioned, very good service, good food. Nice place.

Petit Louis: Just north of the city, great classic French Bistro, food's a step up from Cafe de Paris (which itself is very good).

Bicycle Bistro -Federal Hill Neighborhood: Just a great restaurant, outstanding food, good service.

Weather Permitting:
Outdoor seating at Kali's Court in the Garden. If you know it's going to be nice out, and can secure outdoor seating, this is romantic outing, again with great food and wine options (second most expensive on the list, though).

A little more fancy:
Charleston Restaurant Charleston: Extensive wine list, great food, the most expensive (and romantic) of the group. If it's nice out you can walk through Fell's Point area along the water after your meal.


Be sure to let us know what you decide on and how it was! And good luck!

Irwin & Sarbuze,
Thanks for the recommendations. We finally made reservations tonight for our anniversary dinner. We ended up with Aldo's, I hope it was a good choice. We were looking for both menu and atmosphere. We looked at all of the recommendations and Aldo's seemed to fit best.

We have not decided on our pre-game meal. Several of the suggestions maybe good choices.

On a side note bad week for the Red Sox in Baltimore, but good for Oriole fans.

Good news for most of us, Yankees lost another today in Tampa and our now in last place.

actually, I have never been to Aldo's, but it has a good reputation, and a fine wine lists, heavily weighted to Italians.
Note that in Maryland, if you don't finish a bottle of wine, you can take it home with you in the car, if it gets recorked, etc.
They will be happy to do this.

And yes, it was a remarkable 2 game sweep of the Sox by the O's. The Orioles came from behind in both games. And nice to see the Yankees sink to the bottom of the AL East, though I suspect they will arise from that position.

Jazzman: Let us know where you ate, what you had and what you thought.
I think I have a good idea of what you thought of the baseball.

Irwin,
We ate at the ball park on Friday, by the time we got to the hotel and settled we didn't have any extra time.

Saturday we ate at Aldo's and loved it. The food was great and the service second to none. We split the Lump Crab cocktail, my wife had the Spinach salad with walnuts, raisins and gorgonzola. I ordered the Caprese Tower. Both salads were very good and this was the first time I have had gorgonzola cheese. Knowing that it was a form of blue cheese which I always found too strong I usually stay away from it. I got bold and tried alittle of my wife's salad and really liked this type of gorgonzola.

We both ended up ordering the specials, my wife had Sea Bass with a red sauce and I had the surf and turf (filet and crab cake) both meals had the lobster-saffron mashed potatoes amd asparagus.

We got a bottle of the 2003 Vietti Barbera d'Asti "La Crena". The wine was good out of the bottle with only alittle bit of tightness and after about a half hour opened up nicely.

The waiter we had was good, based on using Open Table he knew we were from Connecticut and talked to us about the restraurant and Little Italy. In conversation we told him Friday was our anniversary and they gave us a complimentary dessert and a half flute of their Lemon drink. After the meal he gave us a tour of the restraurant including the cheese room and wine cellar.

I would highly recommed Aldo's the dining experience really made for a great weekend.

Also, until tonight it was a good weekend for Red Sox fans. We have been to Camden Yards twice and love both the park and Baltimore. On a side note, my son spent his freshman year at UMBC (06/07). He went there for engineering and baseball and unfortunatly neither worked out for him. The school was not a good fit and he wasn't ready to be that far away.


Take care,
Jeff

Glad you had a good time. I guess the Sox and the O's are 3-3 this year at Camden Yards.