Seafood Platter

Schooners is not going to win any beauty contests. It has the look of a suburban road house, and, sitting on the fringes of the commercial hustle of the Belair Road, it is easy to miss. Once inside, diners have to pass through a bar to get to the dining room; although a few nautical pictures and stuffed game fish have been hung in a bid for "atmosphere," the place is definitively frill-free.Just the place, in other words, to eat lobster.Despite its reputation as rich-folks' food, lobster is a sloppy treat that, like steamed crabs, should never be eaten in a fancy restaurant.

What you see is not necessarily what you get at Hummer's Olde Bay Restaurant.What you see is a low, plain brick building hard by Pulaski Highway with randomly parked vehicles in the lot and electric beer signs in the windows.But what you get is good food, skillfully prepared and nicely served in a comfortable, unpretentious dining room.There are, in fact, no pretensions at the Olde Bay. But, then, there don't need to be. The food is so good that it would stand out in much showier surroundings.

There is nothing old or inn-like about the Olde Philadelphia Inn. And I dare say this shopping center restaurant's only link with The City of Brotherly Love is its location on what was once a main road between here and there. Why, there's not even a cheese steak on the menu.Perhaps this large, informal restaurant once lived up to its name. Our waitress said it used to occupy a large blue house, now boarded up, across Philadelphia Road. But today the restaurant fills two storefronts -- one for the bar, the other for the dining room -- in an L-shaped congregation of groceries, video stores and copy centers.

A schooner is a multimasted ship, so Schooners is an apt name for the multifaceted restaurant and lounge in Ocean City's beautiful new Princess Royale hotel. The oceanfront eatery -- which is open for three meals a day -- offers an extensive and varied menu that for dinner includes steak, chicken, seafood, Italian and Mexican specialties.A schooner can also be a pint-sized beer glass, and the restaurant offers about a dozen imported beers as well as "Schooners' Original Lager Beer" ($2.25)

It is Annapolis old and new. Watermen and Washingtonians. Crab cakes and blackened catfish. Several beers -- but more wines by the glass.So what if Annapolis is several miles away? So what if this ambience may not even exist within the capital city? This is the way it ought to be. The old and the new side by side. A working man's bar replaced by one with fine wood paneled walls, ceiling fans, big windows for "waterfront dining." But a bar where the old customers still come.This is Deep Creek, a restaurant on the Magothy River in Arnold, one of those bedroom communities off Governor Ritchie Highway whose residents each morning relocate to Baltimore, Annapolis or Washington.

Some enchanted evenings -- that's what we were looking for. They didn't have to include strangers or crowded rooms, but they did have to represent the night ne plus ultra in Baltimore.What is it that puts the charm in Charm City for night owls, we wondered.The local folks we caught up with had some grand ideas -- from gourmet dinners and dancing to bowling and 3-D double features.Don O'Brien, WMAR-TV weekend weatherman and 92 Star morning show personality, would start his night of nights with a limo, a good plate of ribs and Sen. Barbara Mikulski.