Polo Grill

Harold Marmulstein, executive chef of the Polo Grill, and his teammates won second place in the recent Gulf of Mexico Seafood Culinary Competition in Mobile, Ala.Teaming up with chefs Thomas Catherall and Joan Trotochard of Atlanta's Azalea restaurant and Jim Alexander of Rome, Ga., Marmulstein prepared a variety of dishes in the three-day national competition.One of the prize-winning dishes was smoked and grilled amberjack with spaghetti squash.For finishing second in the 19-team event, Marmulstein and his colleagues were awarded $2,000 each.

Located near Loch Raven Reservoir in Phoenix, the setting for numberless anniversary dinners and awkward prom dates, Peerce's Plantation was a north Baltimore County special-occasion, jacket-and-tie dining destination for a good half-century. By most accounts, though, the restaurant began a slow and steady decline in the mid-1990s until it was finally closed in 2001 by its original owners. A brief revival in 2003 under new ownership didn't take. In 2008, veteran area caterer Joseph Bivona purchased the property, including a banquet hall, elaborately decorated with wrought-iron trellises, which Bivona has been using primarily as a wedding venue called Signature Catering at Peerce's Landing.

Celebrity chef Michael Rork wasn't able to work his magic on Peerce's Plantation last year when he came on board as consulting executive chef. He'll have an easier job of it as executive chef of the Polo Grill (4 W. University Parkway), a job he took over last week. Tim Walker is running the kitchen day-to-day as his chef de cuisine. Rork made his name in Baltimore at the deluxe Hampton's in the Harbor Court Hotel. Seven years ago he left for a quieter life on the Eastern Shore, opening Michael Rork's Town Dock Restaurant in St. Michaels.

The Kona Grill was slated to open officially on Tuesday in the building formally known as 1 East Pratt Street but more commonly as the Verizon Building. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., the Kona Grill has opened about 25 restaurants in 15 states — this is the first one in Maryland. The accessibly snazzy menu combines steaks, sushi and New American cuisine — the signature dish is a macadamia-nut chicken entrée with white cheddar mashed potatoes and "wok-tossed" vegetables.

The Polo Grill is more and less than I expected.More bustling, more noisy, more friendly and more dedicated to American food that's innovative without being bizarre.And, correspondingly, this newcomer to the Baltimore restaurant scene is less intimate, less pretentious, less elite and less French than I expected. In fact, it isn't French at all. I must not have been paying attention.It isn't, however, less expensive.Since The Polo Grill opened early this year at the Inn at the Colonnade, it has been a hot spot, garnering raves even in its infancy and demanding weekend dinner reservations weeks in advance.

Some restaurants are defined by their chefs. Pierpoint's Nancy Longo and La Tesso Tana's Ed Rogers come immediately to mind. Other restaurants transcend their chefs (assuming that the food coming out of the kitchen is halfway decent). Such a restaurant is the Polo Grill.So pity Thomas Brown. He's the Polo Grill's new chef as of July. When I talked to him over the phone at the time, he had some very definite ideas about how he was going to improve things. And I'm sure he has. I'm just not sure anyone has noticed.

How do you reinvent a landmark restaurant that's fallen on hard times? That was Rob Freeman's job when he took over the Polo Grill from his father-in-law, Lenny Kaplan, earlier this year. The answer seems to be that you give it a new name, a striking new look and a new chef. You announce that you want to create a restaurant that will attract a neighborhood crowd as well as the high rollers, one with a dramatically different and more affordable menu. Then -- and this is the tricky part -- you actually create two restaurants.

Lenny Kaplan, an elite name on the Baltimore restaurant scene, is not one to see the glass half empty. Of course, he might wonder if the glass could be a tad more polished, or served quicker, or filled exactly to the level it's always been filled, or offered in better lighting, or on a tablecloth spread with greater precision, or generally represent absolutely his quite well-defined notion of what the customer wants in a glass. This is something of what makes Lenny, Lenny - a man noted both for setting high standards and occasionally chewing heads off the help.

How good the food is at the Polo Grill is in some ways beside the point. Its charm lies in the fact that it's one of the last of Baltimore's Grand Old Restaurants. I'm thinking of restaurants in the tradition of the Chesapeake and Danny's, if anyone still remembers them. Not that the Polo Grill is that old, but it has the same feeling to it. The handsome dining room offers understated luxury but isn't off-putting. It's the sort of room guests feel comfortable in whether they're dressed to the nines or in khakis.

Lenny Kaplan, a Baltimore restaurant fixture for 30 years, announced today that he is retiring and passing his Polo Grill restaurant on to his son-in-law. Over the years, Kaplan has fed some of the biggest celebrities in Baltimore, including Johnny Unitas, Oprah Winfrey and Barry Levinson. He inherited the restaurant business from his father-in-law, Leon Shavitz, who founded the Pimlico Hotel. Kaplan also ran the John Eager Howard Room and the Owl Bar at the Belvedere Hotel and founded Classic Catering before opening the Polo Grill in 1990.

Food: *** (3 STARS) Service: *** (3 STARS) Atmosphere: *** (3 STARS) It's about time. The restaurant space in the Colonnade may finally be filled with the right sort of tenant. Not that there was anything much wrong with the Polo Grill, Four West or the Club at the Colonnade - the previous occupants - except that they all had upscale hotel prices. The new owners have swept away all traces of the old Polo Grill, which in its heyday was one of Baltimore's finest. The restaurants that followed it had clung to a few of its signature dishes, most notably the fried lobster tail and white chocolate banana cream pie. At Spice Company, they are replaced by a grilled lobster tail with wild mushroom risotto and minted pea puree at about half the price, and the ever-popular creme brulee or key lime pie. A new beginning is a good idea, especially when it involves neighborhood-friendly prices (nothing on the menu is over $25)

The Colonnade is home to a new restaurant, once again. The Spice Company was set to open today in the space previously inhabited by Four West and the Polo Grill. The name of the eatery may be new, but those behind it are familiar to many in Baltimore's dining-out crowd. Keir Singh owns the successful Indian restaurant the Ambassador Dining Room and the popular Lebanese Carlyle Club - both in the same Johns Hopkins neighborhood as the Colonnade. His partners - John Yuhanick and son Todd Yuhanick - have helped open and promote a number of local restaurants over the years through their public-relations firm.

At the end of last year, Courtney's, the popular Cockeysville restaurant, moved to larger quarters on York Road, a bit north of its old digs. In the process, it changed from what a manager calls a "casual fine-dining restaurant" to a fine-dining restaurant. What that means is a bit more formal setting, much more polished service, an upgraded wine list, higher prices and a familiar figure in the kitchen. Courtney's executive chef is now Jerome Dorsch, formerly of the Polo Grill and Four West.

And you thought January was the month to take a party breather. Who knew it would turn out to be birthday party central? The b-day party invites are coming fast and furious. Among the highlights -- last weekend's bash at Curt Decker's Mount Vernon digs for Constellation Energy lobbyist hotshot Mary Dempsey. "There were 50 for 50," says party co-host Leslie Shepard, referring to both the number of guests and the birthday itself (although Mary is living proof of the baby boomer's mantra: "Today's 50 is yesterday's 30."

This was a momentous year for me as the Sun's restaurant critic: I celebrated 30 years of eating out in Maryland and writing about my experiences. Alas, 2003 was not a momentous year for our restaurants -- at least as far as innovation was concerned. That was true even at the national level, judging from Bon Appetit magazine's Restaurant Trend of the Year: tapas-style small plates. Hey, wasn't that last year's Restaurant Trend of the Year? True, Mezze opened this summer in Fells Point, an offshoot of Kali's Court that serves Mediterranean small plates.

How do you reinvent a landmark restaurant that's fallen on hard times? That was Rob Freeman's job when he took over the Polo Grill from his father-in-law, Lenny Kaplan, earlier this year. The answer seems to be that you give it a new name, a striking new look and a new chef. You announce that you want to create a restaurant that will attract a neighborhood crowd as well as the high rollers, one with a dramatically different and more affordable menu. Then -- and this is the tricky part -- you actually create two restaurants.

Polo Grill, Doubletree Inn at the Colonnade, 4 W. University Parkway, (410) 235-8200. Open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Major credit cards. Prices: appetizers, $6.95-$11.95; entrees, $16.95-$35.95.***Here's a quiz for you. What Baltimore restaurant dares to charge $5.95 for a wedge of iceberg lettuce with chopped tomatoes and onions in blue cheese dressing? And justifies it with the motto "celebrating the spirit of American cuisine"?When you're the Polo Grill you can get away with such frivolities because the food, on the whole, is imaginative and good; the service is superb; and you can't beat the atmosphere if you're looking for sheer comfort over cutting-edge style.

Call it MacaroniRomano's Macaroni Grill has just opened at 9701 Beaver Dam Road in Timonium. It's the latest of the moderately priced Italian restaurant chains that are winning the hearts and minds of Baltimoreans. The menu has some 35 traditional Italian dishes, from pasta to veal to seafood, with entree prices ranging from $6.95 to $16.95. Customers serve themselves from gallon jugs of wine on their tables. "You trusted us to cook your food," says founder Phil Romano, "We trust you to tell us how many glasses of wine you had."

Babalu does it, and so does Red Coral. And starting tomorrow, another Baltimore restaurant will begin transforming itself into a nightclub on weekends. This time, it's Red Tapas, the new restaurant on the first floor of the multilevel Redwood Trust dance club. Red Tapas, owned by Jerry Edwards of Chef's Expressions catering, opens for dinner Wednesday through Sunday at 5 p.m. The latest time that reservations will be accepted is 9 p.m. At 10 p.m., the nightclub opens and the dancing begins.

Lenny Kaplan, an elite name on the Baltimore restaurant scene, is not one to see the glass half empty. Of course, he might wonder if the glass could be a tad more polished, or served quicker, or filled exactly to the level it's always been filled, or offered in better lighting, or on a tablecloth spread with greater precision, or generally represent absolutely his quite well-defined notion of what the customer wants in a glass. This is something of what makes Lenny, Lenny - a man noted both for setting high standards and occasionally chewing heads off the help.