These days it's cause to celebrate when a restaurant more ambitious than a pub or pizza place opens in Baltimore. Scary times usually produce eateries that offer sure bets in the way of food - sure bets that don't cost much.
When I first heard about the Reserve (1542 Light St., TheReserveBaltimore.com), a new Federal Hill bar, I figured when it got around to serving food, the kitchen would produce the usual nachos, wings and burgers. Instead, the offerings include tuna tataki, shrimp and tropical fruit ceviche, cornmeal-crusted red grouper in a smoked salmon caper beurre blanc, Buffalo strip steak with parsnip puree and pan-roasted boneless quail. The new menu, to be posted on the Web site soon, will have food and wine pairings.
I talked to the new chef, Matt Merkel, recently, and he said, "We're trying to be different from everyone else."
Merkel has worked in the kitchens of fine-dining restaurants in Annapolis and Frederick and was at Don't Know Tavern before coming to the Reserve.
In the next few months, the place hopes to move the bar crowd upstairs and focus on fine dining in the space downstairs. It seats 60 people to 70 people, not counting the bar area, where there is room for 25 or so more.
I asked Merkel if the Reserve was worried, in this economy, about taking a chance on this ambitious a menu. It isn't tremendously expensive - entrees run from $15 to $24 for a filet mignon - but it isn't the cheapest place to eat in Federal Hill either.
"If you put on the plate what people want," Merkel said, "they're willing to pay for it."
The Reserve is serving food from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner weekdays. On weekends the kitchen is open until 11 p.m.
Angelina's: I didn't pay much attention when I heard that Angelina's at 7135 Harford Road, once famous for its crab cakes, was being sold at auction a couple of weeks ago. I just didn't think it was going to happen. Well, it was sold, but not at auction. A.J. Billig & Co. Auctioneers told me the restaurant; its bar, O'Reilly's Shebeen Pub; and the famous crab cake recipe (see a version of it at right) were bought by contract after no bids were received.
I've heard that the restaurant is now in the hands of Doni Mason, the owner of Pur Ultra Lounge in Canton. But he hasn't returned my several phone calls so I can't confirm. If it's true, I somehow don't think we'll see Angelina's reopened as a traditional Italian restaurant selling Maryland crab cakes with an Irish pub attached.
