Baltimore Magazine's 50 Best Restaurants for 2010

The March issue of Baltimore magazine is finally online and, with it, the magazine's ranked list of the city's 50 best restaurants. Careful readers (aka "my friends and family") will notice my name in the contributors list. What a great assigment. Last fall, Cooper and I got to have five seriously fantastic dinners out and all I had to do was a little writing. It's a good deal.

With only about 150 words to describe each restaurant, there's no way to share every detail of the experience. So here's a little more on each of the places I visited:

• Petit Louis: I've probably been to Petit Louis 10 or 15 times by now and I've tried more than half of the menu - and it has never, ever disappointed me. I've been with grandmothers (both mine and Cooper's) and friends and even Dixon and Maddy and the experience is good for every age group (though it's really only appropriate for well-behaved kids). Their soups are ridiculous and the duck confit is so good I'd never bother to try to make it at home. Plus, I'm always looking around at the pretty older ladies (lots of them have Anna Wintour hair) and planning how I'm going to dress when I'm "of a certain age."
• Trattoria Alberto: When I got back from dinner at Trattoria Alberto, I posted something about it on Facebook. Next thing I knew, half of Anne Arundel County had commented on my post agreeing that it IS an amazing restaurant, especially considering that it's in a shopping center right by a Hardee's. Our meal there was really so good I could've cried...it was also so expensive I could've laughed. But worth it.
• O'Leary's Seafood Restaurant: I feel like I should turn in my Annapolis card for saying this, but until this assignment, I'd never been to O'Leary's. I'm not sure why - my family just never went there. It was good, though much smaller than I'd expected and Cooper was thrown off by just how casual Annapolis is.
• Crush: Crush is kind of our local and we can't stop talking about how great it is that a really good restaurant took over that spot. As with Petit Louis, I've tried most of the menu and I'm never really disappointed. It's equally good for New Year's Eve when they had their whole menu available) and a random Wednesday night eating at the bar. My favorite thing on the menu is the shrimp and grits with andouille, though it's also hard to pass up anything on the appetizers menu.
• Clementine: After our first visit to Clementine last fall, the restaurant became my Very Favorite Place for a few weeks. We'd been before, but only for lunch and a long time ago. Upon our return, I realized we should've been going back a lot more, especially since it's so totally kid-friendly. Plus, I cannot say enough good things about the charcuterie platter. The pate is so outrageously good - and fluffy. It's amazing.