The hottest table in Baltimore isn't in Baltimore. It's Volt in Frederick.
Credit the recent spike in interest to owner/chef Bryan Voltaggio's success on Bravo's "Top Chef" reality show. Suddenly, it's impossible to get a reservation on a weekend unless you call weeks in advance. Suddenly, everyone is telling me Volt is where he or she went for an anniversary or special birthday.
Voltaggio was turning out noteworthy New American cuisine in his late-19th-century brick mansion before all the TV hoopla started, but he hadn't become as well known in Baltimore as he was in Washington. Now his restaurant is drawing crowds from here as well.
But is his statement food worth the considerable price tag and the trek from Baltimore? Or is Volt an emperor's-new-clothes phenomenon?
If you're serious about food and don't mind a touch of whimsy, the answer is yes: Volt is worth the trip and the cost. But if you - for instance - demand formal service when you're spending $75 a person and up for your dinner, you might not be amused by the brown-and-white Chuck Taylors the servers wear, even when they are also wearing suits. (The sneakers are their boss' favorite.)
You expect the meal to flow when your server asks you to order all four courses at once, including dessert, so your dinner will be properly paced. You may therefore be surprised, as we were, when it took 45 minutes for our entrees to arrive and another 20 to get our desserts.
But you will love the little extra touches, like the fact that both still and sparkling water are offered without cost. You'll enjoy the variety of freshly baked breads, such as the little chive biscuits that float away if you don't hold them down with your butter knife and simple, perfect French rolls.
Dinner begins with a "chef's canape" (to say "amuse" is so yesterday) and fennel breadsticks, and ends with a small food gift presented with the check - in our case, decoratively wrapped lemon-poppy seed muffins to take home.
But what you will love best about dinner at Volt is that the food, for the most part, appeals both intellectually and viscerally.
It's easy to admire the elaborate composition and good looks of the plates - guinea hen, for instance, jauntily sharing space with a pretty bit of cabbage, a dice of parsnips and Concord grapes. But at the same time you think, "Wow, this tastes good." The warm grapes add an unexpected note of tartness next to the meaty, crisp-skinned goodness of the guinea hen leg.
