Seafood

The Hickory Ridge Village Center has a lot to offer. The ambience there seems light, airy and contemporary when not a few of Columbia's commercial centers are looking rather tired these days. One of the center's long-time residents (since 1993, we're told, but it seems longer) is keeping up with the Hickory Ridge outside ambience with a charming new décor inside. Today's Peking Chef isn't exactly Zen, but the 130-seat restaurant provides a lovely, relaxed interior, with epoxy-topped wooden tables and wooden chairs in the center of the dining room, and booths along the sides.

The Obama Labor Department has established a fair and simple requirement for issuing H-2B visas: Employers must first offer jobs to U.S. workers, at the prevailing wage in their community, before they can get permission to import foreign workers. This is good news for U.S. workers, since the H-2B visa allows about 66,000 foreign workers a year to take jobs unemployed Americans could do. It's a major improvement over the Bush-era regulation under which employers could offer substantially lower wages to U.S. workers and then recruit for guest workers outside the country.

October is one of Mother Nature's finest moments, in theory. Cool, maybe even crisp. Occasionally, some rain. But we best remember the bright, sunny days, and the pleasant evenings, when we can enjoy both the great outdoors and the snug indoors. Indeed, October's a great month to plan an entertainment that's easy and casual, before the more formal and traditional gatherings of the holidays. There's still plenty of local produce around. And since the 10th month is also National Seafood Month, it's simple to choose something to star at your get together.

This is hardly the greatest sparking wine on the market. But there's a good case to be made that this is the best widely distributed, reasonably dry bubbly in this price range. It's not as dry as most brut Champagnes, nor is it as complex, but it's a well-made, toasty, crackling wine that doesn't insult the palate — as cheap sparklers often do. It competes well with many of its counterparts in the neighborhood of $20. You could call it frugality with some class. From: Columbia Valley, Wash.

A Brio Tuscan Grille will open in the Inner Harbor space at 100 E. Pratt St. where a Legal Seafood operated for a few years before closing in spring 2008. Brio is one of two brands out of the Columbus, Ohio-based Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, Inc. Bravo Cucina Italiana is the "polished casual" brand, Brio more upscale restaurant.A colleague says her parents swear by the Bravo in Pittsburgh. Take a look at the Brio website and the Bravo website. Which one do you think would do better in that space -- Bravo or Brio?

John Fritze has a must-read front-page story about a new Labor Department requirement that would compel businesses to increase the wages of their foreign, seasonal workers. The new rule could have a crippling effect on the seafood processors that have come to rely on these workers, some say. Here's the article , which has voices from the industry, politicians and advocates for the poor weighing in the new requirement, which is set to begin on Sept. 30. UPDATE: Mikulski takes her concerns directly to White House after Labor Department rebuff.

With surfboards, fish and kites decorating the walls and ceiling, Reter's Crabhouse puts you in the mood for a beach blanket banquet. The Reisterstown seafood restaurant, which opened 14 years ago and later expanded because of popular demand, has a casual scene that Jimmy Buffet would be proud of. Even our bubbly, enthusiastic waitress seemed to fit the mood. She told us the specials as she took our drink orders, and gave us plenty of time to peruse the packed menu. Ultimately, it was the uneven food that kicked a little sand in our face.

As the shadows lengthen in Sandy Point State Park next Sunday afternoon, and another Maryland Seafood Festival winds down, six people will take the stage before a cheering crowd and press against a table piled high with steamed crabs. The judge will give a signal. The contestants will start snatching up crustaceans, tearing them apart and tossing shells aside. And the Cantler's Riverside Inn Crab-Picking Contest will be under way. It's a noisy, colorful spectacle, complete with trash-talking rivals, flying elbows and bellowing fans.

Whether you're craving seafood or steak, Pelican Cove Seafood Bar and Grill Restaurant in Abingdon has a diverse menu with items such as fresh oysters and mussels, Porter House steak and Key Largo Seafood Marinara, served with lump crabmeat, sautéed shrimp and scallops. “Our fresh rock fish is our number-one entrée,” says Jay Mottley, general manager of Pelican Cove. Guests can order the fish blackened, baked or char-grilled. “The food quality speaks for itself. This is not a chain restaurant.

Only 15 years old, L.P. Steamers feels like it has been around much longer. In a relatively short time, it's become an institution where locals bring their out-of-town friends to sample Maryland seafood standards. The restaurant serves as crab house, cultural ambassador and local hangout, which is all the more impressive, considering it's squeezed into a rowhouse in Locust Point. Dark wooden timbers, dim lighting and a map covered in money from around the world makes the downstairs look like the inside of an old ship.