Restaurant

Lunchbox, Bryan Voltaggio's lunch-only restaurant, opened last Saturday in Frederick The Lunchbox menu is very simple -- seven pressed sandwiches (e.g., portabello, Reuben and peanut butter and banana); green salads; soups (e.g., alphabet, roasted butternut squash); and sweets (e.g., brownies and cookies). Nothing is more expensive than five dollars. The family-friendly restaurant also serves specialty-brand sodas like Boylan and McCutcheon and even flavored South Mountain Creamery milk.

A poorly trained restaurant service staff will guarantee a customer exodus, yet you're likely to encounter incompetent servers more often than awful food.In recent months, restaurant trade magazines have been reporting that service will be the difference between success and failure in the 1990s.An article in Restaurants & Institutions reported that 70 percent of customers, "who jump from one seller to a competitor, do it because of perceived 'inferior service,' not because of price or quality."

Funeral services will be held for Charles Wilbur Esserwein, a former local restaurateur, at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Lemmon Mitchell Wiedefeld Funeral Home, 10 W. Padonia Road.Mr. Esserwein died yesterday morning after a long bout with Parkinson's disease at his Lutherville home. He was 75 years old.He was born in East Baltimore, the son of Louise and John J. Esserwein. He attended St. Paul's Catholic School.He worked as a manager of a Read's Drug store at Baltimore and Calvert streets, then became manager of Morgan M. Millard's restaurant in downtown Baltimore.

Now that an opening date has been announced for the Four Seasons Hotel  Baltimore - November 1 - more information about the restaurants should begin to flow forth. Here's what we know so far. The three main restaurants include La Mill , which will be open for breakfast and lunch; Wit & Wisdom , a "contemporary take on a traditional tavern," to be overseen by celebrity chef Michael Mina, which will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner; and Pabu , a high-end, dinner-only Japanese restaurant.

State police are investigating an armed robbery Saturday night at a fast-food restaurant in Eldersburg. The Roy Rogers restaurant in the 1400 block of Liberty Road was robbed at 10:35 p.m. by three men, believed to be between ages 18 and 25, police said. One of the men, who was holding a black semiautomatic handgun, demanded money from three store employees, police said. After obtaining an undetermined amount of cash, the men put two of the employees in a walk-in freezer and a bathroom, police said.

A restaurant that's just opened in the Inner Harbor East has an old Baltimore name and a Big City look. Bohager's, at the corner of Fleet and Eden streets, is the first new retail project in the heavily industrial 20-acre site south and east of Little Italy.Partners Jim Mikula and Tom Douglas, who teamed up previously at Weber's on Boston, have enlisted Weber's chef Bob Morgan in the new venture, which features a moderately priced, all-grill menu -- ribs, steaks, burgers and seafood -- and the open, "warehouse" style that has been popular in cities such as New York and Chicago.

A new franchised chain of restaurants owned by the Danbar Corp. has opened The Canopy, a fast-service restaurant, in Peddler's Square on Liberty Road.Operators Dan and Barbara Carter, longtime Eldersburg residents, opened May 29. The restaurant specializes in open pit beef, ham and turkey, barbecued ribs and chicken, pork, beef and barbecue sandwiches, and homemade soups and salads."Most everyone dreams of owning one's own business," said Dan Carter. "Opening The Canopy in Eldersburg is step one in the fulfillmentof our dream."

Howard County police are investigating the armed robbery of a Jessup fast-food restaurant early Wednesday evening while customers stood in line to order their meals.About 6:50 p.m., a man entered the Roy Rogers in the 8700 block of Washington Blvd., approached the manager and displayed a handgun, police said.The man demanded money and was given an undisclosed amount of cash from the register. Police said other employees and customers were still in the restaurant at the time. No one was injured.

For nearly 70 years, John C. Brooks swung wide the door at Marconi's, welcoming the famous and the little-known with modesty and hospitality.The thin, always erect Mr. Brooks became a familiar figure to generations of Baltimoreans. He started at Marconi's in 1926. He was a waiter, a maitre d' and manager. For two decades he owned the venerable restaurant.Mr. Brooks left work early Saturday afternoon, feeling slightly ill. Monday, he died of a stroke at his home on Wilkens Avenue at the age of 89."

Night after night, touring the country for his one-man show, Chazz Palminteri searched for the perfect Italian meal, but 31 plates of linguine marinara gave way to 31 disappointments. Then, he walked into Aldo's , a mainstay of Baltimore's Little Italy, and found not only the pasta he'd been craving but the collaborators for his dream project. Two years later, and the Academy Award nominee is about to add a restaurant to a resume that includes "The Usual Suspects," "Bullets Over Broadway" and "A Bronx Tale," the 1989 one-man show that brought him fame, not to mention a lifelong friend and mentor in Robert De Niro.