Monday, August 17, 2009

Baltimore: Kind of Awesome Right Now

As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear on this blog, little makes me happier than seeing Baltimore's food scene recognized on the national stage for what it is (not what it isn't, Bourdain) - vibrant, eclectic, improving, and most of all, just plain good.

The past few weeks have been good ones for Charm City, with the opening of B&O American Brasserie, plus a bunch of other stuff:
  • Roy Yamaguchi's in town, visiting his eponymous restaurant in Harbor East, and hosting a local Top Chef-like competition pitting culinary students against local chefs, including Jesse Sandlin, of Abacrombie Fine Foods (and soon to be of real Top Chef fame). The event takes place tonight and costs $85 per person (for a five-course meal, sans wine).
  • Speaking of Top Chef, the new season debuts this week with three Marylanders as contestants. The aforementioned Sandlin, plus Bryan Voltaggio of Volt in Frederick and his brother (!), Michael Voltaggio, who works at The Dining Room at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa.
  • In restaurant wine news, the Prime Rib just received an "Award of Excellence" from Wine Spectator magazine and...
  • Possibly most exciting, Woodberry Kitchen is featured in Bon Appetit as one of their top ten best new restaurants. The September issue does a good job of singing Spike Gjerde's praises, pointing out that he was sourcing "farm-to-table" ingredients long before the word "locavore" was more than a drop of ink on some horrific word creator's pen. The magazine also includes a recipe for one of WK's flatbreads. It's a keeper, even if I don't like making my own dough.
Good job, Baltimore!

3 comments:

Joyce said...

All the Baltimore food news makes me happy, esp. Woodberry Kitchen. I've had Volt on my list of places to try for a while, I need to make that road trip.

Sarah said...

I had dinner at Volt again last week - the menu never disappoints! When are you and Coop going to come up so we can all go? :)

Kit Pollard said...

Sarah - during this season. Was just thinking about that this morning. Can we schedule it? I know you're busy, too, but I want to go during the Top Chef season so I can write about it...

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