New Restaurant

People come back to Ocean City for the traditions - a favorite restaurant, beach spot or mini-golf course. For visitors looking to try something different, this season has a lot of new things to offer, whether you eat at the town's new (and only) Jewish deli, grab a beer at a new craft brewery or take time to go to the circus. And while you're enjoying what's new under the sun, take a moment to look at what's beneath your feet. The town just finished up the second and final phase of its three-year, $6 million boardwalk renovation project.

People come back to Ocean City for the traditions - a favorite restaurant, beach spot or mini-golf course. For visitors looking to try something different, this season has a lot of new things to offer, whether you eat at the town's new (and only) Jewish deli, grab a beer at a new craft brewery or take time to go to the circus. And while you're enjoying what's new under the sun, take a moment to look at what's beneath your feet. The town just finished up the second and final phase of its three-year, $6 million boardwalk renovation project.

Would you rather be loved or respected? The Mo's group of seafood restaurants and markets gets a lot of the former and not much of the latter. When Anthony Bourdain chose Mo's to represent Baltimore dining on a 2009 "No Reservations" episode, Baltimore foodies were annoyed. Why Mo's, of all places? Mo's might not be where you'd send someone to form a lasting impression of Maryland seafood. But two locations near the Inner Harbor have outlived a number of highfalutin seafood restaurants that weren't as smart about catering to tourist tastes.

Cyrus Keefer is leaving Birroteca to take over the kitchen at Fork & Wrench. He will replace Sajin Renae, who will be moving to New York City. Everyone involved with the two hot restaurants sounded happy. Fork & Wrench's co-owner Andy Gruver was happy. "We're excited for both things. We had 50 or 60 guys apply for the job, including a guy from Belgium, Gruver said. "Cyrus wanted to be in a spot where he can be creative. And Sajin is moving to New York. We're really excited for her. " Keefer was happy.

Baltimore has a shortage of good, small restaurants, the kind with 20 or 30 seats, where diners can have some intimacy. Restaurants, at least the ones I've been reviewing, have been getting bigger, brassier, louder. I'm not complaining. I've been having some great dinners in big and medium-size, crowded restaurants. A sweet, small new restaurant named Liv2Eat has opened in South Baltimore. I'll confess to hating the name on sight. I got over it, and I hope others do and give it a chance.

Townhouse Kitchen & Bar is coming to Harbor East. "Proudly serv(ing) great gastro-pub food in an elegant yet casual setting," Townhouse is in the portfolio of the Chicago-area Restaurants America group, a multi-concept restaurant operator with about 20 locations, mostly in Florida and Illinois, encompassing uscale dining brands, including the Grillroom Chophouse & Winebar, Bluepoint, One North and Primebar. Townhouse Kitchen & Bar, the first foray into Maryland for Restaurants America, is projected for a late March or early April opening in the Eden Building, next to Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant.

A new information box will accompany this Sunday's review of Family Meal, Bryan Volaggio's new Frederick restaurant. At a glance, you'll be able to see, along with the information we've always provided about hours of operation, prices and location, some additional context that readers have been encouraging us to provide. We are now including notes about parking and reservations as well as, when applicable, about dietary considerations and accommodations for children. We'll also let you know about the noise level.

At a time when most stories seem to be about how badly restaurants are doing in this economy or, worst-case scenario, about their closing, there is good news. Jaime Luna, the chef/owner of one of the area's most popular Mexican restaurants, Mari Luna Mexican Grill, has opened a second restaurant, Mari Luna Latin Grille (1010 Reisterstown Road, 410-653-5151) in Pikesville. Yes, the new place's name has an "e" on the end of "grill," maybe to reflect the fact that this restaurant is not fancier exactly, but less casual and more ambitious.

After sitting dormant for over a year, a new restaurant opening next week at the old Sanders Corner will aim to bring a bit of buzz to the Loch Raven reservoir area. McFaul's Ironhorse Tavern at Sanders Corner will open Friday, June 29. "It's been a great few months getting this together," said co-owner Glenn McFaul, of Towson, to a crowd of county officials and local leaders who gathered for a "soft opening" on Tuesday, June 19. "It's been a lot of work," he said, "but we were able to put together a really good vision here to keep the tradition with Sanders alive.

Four months after winning a court battle to evict Warfield's, the Historic Savage Mill opened a new restaurant in its place, run by the family that owns Ma's Kettle a few blocks away."

Cuban Revolution Restaurant and Jazz Bar (1903 Ashland Ave., 443-708-5184, thecubanrevolution.com) has opened in a neighborhood not famous for its restaurants. Known officially as Middle East, the area, which includes the Science & Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, is being developed as a mixed-use life-science campus by the Forest City-New East Baltimore Partnership. Cuban Revolution, which opened on Feb. 13, is the first new restaurant for the still emerging district. “We're used to that,” said Ed Morabito, who opened the original Cuban Revolution in Providence, R.I. with his wife, Mary.

Maryland Live Casino has opened its version of the Prime Rib, the iconic Baltimore steakhouse that has flourished almost from the second of its founding in 1965 by the Beler brothers. The new steakhouse is operated by the casino and is technically unaffiliated with the Prime Rib restaurants in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington. The casino operators describe the relationship as a licensing partnership with Buzz Beler. He has, by all accounts, played a significant role in pulling off the casino restaurant, whose chefs received training in the Prime Rib ways in the Washington restaurant's kitchen.

Last year at this time, we told you to look out for some of the restaurants that would be opening in 2012. Most of them, like Fleet Street Kitchen and Heavy Seas Alehouse, actually did. A few projects we told you to look forward to didn't see the light of day. Here's what we're reasonably sure about for the first few months of 2013: First up, My Thai , originally located in Mount Vernon's Park Plaza building, will reopen in a new location in...

Call it manifest restaurant destiny. In 2012, Baltimore-based restaurateurs set about expanding their empires, or at least their brands. Clementine opened a second location in the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown, the team behind Langermann's in Canton opened a second location in South Baltimore, and the owners of Mo's opened a new restaurant in Towson, in the old Hersh's Orchard Inn. And, in December, a version of Baltimore's estimable Prime...

Baltimore has a shortage of good, small restaurants, the kind with 20 or 30 seats, where diners can have some intimacy. Restaurants, at least the ones I've been reviewing, have been getting bigger, brassier, louder. I'm not complaining. I've been having some great dinners in big and medium-size, crowded restaurants. A sweet, small new restaurant named Liv2Eat has opened in South Baltimore. I'll confess to hating the name on sight. I got over it, and I hope others do and give it a chance.

The winter version of Baltimore County Restaurant Week will be held Jan. 11-27. More than 35 Baltimore County restaurants are participating, offering special menus at discounted fixed prices. Menus range from $10.13 to $35.13 for one, two or three courses. Participating restaurants, along with links to menus and websites, are listed on the Baltimore County Restaurant Week website , and the promotion will be accompanied this year by a Facebook page . New participants this year include McFaul's IronHorse Tavern ; Kooper's North ; Yasou Greek Bistro ; University Club , the new restaurant in the Towson University Marriott Conference Hotel; and Fountainside , the new resaurant in the Pikesville Hilton.

Tourists may think Baltimore's most noteworthy culinary achievements are crab cakes and the food in Little Italy, but local foodies point to Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman's restaurants as proof that their city has sophisticated eating places to rival any in the country. Now diners will have an ambitious new restaurant and upscale wine bar to try when the couple's latest venture, a Northern Italian restaurant called Cinghiale (pronounced ching-GYAH-lay), opens across Lancaster Street from their signature establishment, Charleston.

Call it Langermann's Junior. The same team behind Langermann's in Canton - chef Neal Langermann and partners David McGill and Mark Lasker - have opened a new restaurant, just south of Federal Hill, in South Baltimore. The location, 1542 Light St., was recently the home to 1542 Gastropub and before that, the Reserve. Langermann's on Light, as it's known, opened on Sept. 10. "Basically we've always liked Federal Hill," McGill said. "We spent a lot of time looking there before opening the Canton location.

Dinner at DelMarVa's Southern Cafe isn't exactly the same as a meal at a charming, out-of-the-way Eastern Shore diner. But it's close. The eatery, which opened this September in the old broom factory building on the Canton-Brewers Hill border, takes its inspiration from the region's comfort food, with a focus on specialties like fried chicken, Virginia ham and crab cakes. For the most part, the kitchen did these local favorites justice. The restaurant's brick walls, sturdy wooden furniture and friendly vibe lend the place a decidedly down-home-on-the-Shore feel.

Three Bistro Blanc alumni, including Tae Strain, will return to Marc Dixon's Glenelg restaurant for a 'pop-up' dinner on Nov. 7.  Strain was the chef at Demi, the lower-level restaurant within Crush at Belvedere Square, which closed in May after a brief but exciting run. At the 'pop-up' dinner, he will be joining Ben Rosen, who is now working with James Beard Award-winning chef Michelle Bernstein in Miami, and Janny Kim, who recently returned to...