When I went back to see what I wrote in my year-end wrap-up last year, I didn't expect this sentence: "In spite of the generally gloomy economic picture, a surprising number of new restaurants opened their doors in 2007."
I didn't know the meaning of "generally gloomy economic picture" last year. What was I talking about? It reminds me of that scene in Crocodile Dundee where the hero says, "That's not a knife," to a kid with a switchblade, as he brings out his crocodile-hunting knife. "That's a knife."
This is a gloomy economic picture.
In 2008, the most worrisome news was the number of restaurant closings. Here are the ones I thought most notable: Boccaccio in Little Italy shut down after the death of its owner in September, and as of this writing has not reopened. Pisces in the Hyatt Regency became the latest upscale hotel dining room to close. Taste, the ambitious restaurant in the old Hess Shoes space in Belvedere Square, disappeared suddenly, as did downtown's pan-Asian Tsunami, barely a year old.
Nasu Blanca in Locust Point, a small Spanish-Japanese restaurant, did the right thing, announcing its closing in advance and refunding gift certificate money. The vegan-friendly Zodiac in Station North is gone. Jesse Wong's Hong Kong in Columbia closed the first of this month. And here's one that truly signified the end of an era: Octogenarian Morris Martick decided he had had enough, and shut the doors of Martick's, his quirky French bistro.
I don't want to dwell too long on the bad news, because good things happened as well this year. Hamilton/Lauraville blossomed as a dining destination, unlikely as that would have seemed a couple of years ago. Clementine, a sort of SoBo Cafe North, Hamilton Tavern and Parkside Fine Foods & Spirits are worthy additions to a neighborhood that already had the Chameleon Cafe and Big Bad Wolf's House of Barbeque, to name only two.
As for openings in other parts of the city, the newest member of the Kali's Court Restaurant Group, Meli, created buzz with its honey theme. The spot vacated by Taste didn't stay empty long, as a chef/owner from Christopher Daniel in Cockeysville opened his own place, Crush, there. The new seafood restaurant Catonsville Gourmet in Catonsville was an instant success.
