You may member Miss Irene's as a singularly louche Fells Point dive bar. It closed a few years ago and was bought and renovated by the chef and management team from the Waterfront Hotel, just down the block. In part because of the mare's nest of pipes and tubes under the cobblestones of Fells Point, this renovation took a long, long time. (Disclosure: At one early point, I was following the renovations at Miss Irene's with the intention of writing about the million little things that go into opening a restaurant.)
You'd never recognize the place now. For starters, Miss Irene's is twice as wide and twice as tall as it used to be; the renovation annexed both an adjoining rowhouse and the never-used upper floors. It's now a terrific-looking urban tavern, all gleaming wood and tungsten lighting in the handsome downstairs bar, with just enough nautical art and effects thrown in to anchor it in Fells Point.
Upstairs is a plummy lounge, the perfect size for a birthday gathering, and a building-length, timbered-ceiling dining room. Dressed up with white tablecloths and fresh flowers, the dining room manages, mostly, to shake off that lonesome upstairs feeling, and I think it's because the room is so wide that it feels a little like a conventioneers' destination. Nice as it is, I think most visitors will want to stay downstairs at or around the bar, or in the smaller, and cozier, downstairs dining room.
The menu is kind of fancy, definitely a notch or several above the neighboring Fells Point establishments in its ambition and designs. Miss Irene's Web site identifies its cuisine as French- and Italian-inspired, and the menu is dotted with rich and sharp ingredients like chevre, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, anchovy paste, arugula and truffle oil. Most everything on the menu sounds interesting, even the hamburger grilled Wagyu beef with thin sauteed potato, gherkin relish and raclette.
The only thing missing right now from the cuisine is an intangible, but I'd describe it as a purpose. I think Miss Irene's could benefit from something as simple, and obvious, as an owner's welcome note incorporated into the menu, just something to give diners a foothold, and, maybe, a rooting interest in the food.
