Small Plates

Among the intriguing things about Pure Wine Café is that everyone there - from patrons to employees - seems to be enjoying the experience. This 32-seat wine and tapas place on Main Street in Ellicott City can charm you. The decor is simple and contemporary - bare-topped tables and black linen napkins with local art adorning the walls. There's live music some nights after 9 p.m. The place filled up over the couple of hours we lingered, attesting to the fact that this can be a late-night place for a glass of wine and a nosh.

George's, the restaurant at the Wyndham Peabody Court Hotel in Mount Vernon, is a sleeper. It hasn't completely shrugged off its hotel-amenity feeling, but it's getting there. George's is making an effort to reach out. There's a good sampling on the beer list of local brews. George's runs smart specials, available both at the bar and in the dining room, like a Monday burger night and a $12 Wednesday comfort-food entree. Still, on a few weeknight visits, there was more action at the bar. And credit a game bar staff with patiently and steadily building a base of neighborhood regulars, who have started coming in for dinner, too, and bringing their friends.

How do you like your food? When you eat out do you want your meal to be a delicious backdrop to an evening with friends? Or do you want it to grab you and demand that you pay serious attention to it?Do you like to ponder the textural contrast of a tiny morsel of silky salmon tartare with salty beads of caviar, then roll the flavors on your tongue while you sip a chilled champagne? Or do you just like to eat good food? How you answer those questions may determine how you feel about the newly reopened Charleston in Inner Harbor East.

It's only 2 years old, but Tatu just got its first face-lift. The pan-Asian restaurant in Power Plant Live, which opened in September 2010, reopened in October after a renovation and menu revamp. The new space is dimly lit, with a mix of high and low tables taking the place of traditional dining tables and chairs. Loud music and glamorous decor send the not-so-subtle message that Tatu aspires to be a nightclub - you won't see a giant sculpture of a topless mermaid or mirrored tables at your neighborhood sushi joint.

One of the city's best-looking and most comfortable warehouse restaurants, Vino Rosina is still a tempting destination for the date-nighters who pour into Harbor East on weekends, a neighborhood that Baltimore diners have come to associate with high-energy, glitzy dining. The square-shaped bar remains a great place to start or end a Harbor East evening, even if you're not dining at Vino Rosina. Vino Rosina opened with "Top Chef" alumna Jesse Sandlin as executive chef in May 2010.

S ometimes restaurant work gets in your blood and there's nothing you can do about it. That seems to be what's happened to Michael Marx, who opened Blue Agave in Federal Hill and then sold the Mexican restaurant and tequileria because he was tired of the grind. A little more than a year later he was back, opening Rub , a Texas barbecue place in South Baltimore. Not content with that, Marx started making plans for another Mexican restaurant, and a few weeks ago opened Miguel's Cocina y Cantina (1700 Beason St., 443-438-3139, MiguelsBaltimore.

Centro Tapas Bar is off to a promising start. This is the old Bicycle spot, and it's nice to have the place back open after a brief hiatus. Centro was lively on the weeknight when we visited, though only the front room, which includes the bar, was seating diners. The two smaller (and, frankly, less inviting) dining rooms weren't in use, and Bicycle's sweet old back patio, appearing to be in peak condition, was waiting for nice weather to come and stay. Centro is the project of George Dailey, whose On the Hill Café in Bolton Hill has earned him many friends and fans.

"Level, a small plates lounge" is the formal name of a terrific little restaurant in the heart of Annapolis. Open since October 2009, Level hasn't been exactly languishing in obscurity; multiple awards and commendations have come its way, and it's earned them. There are wonderful things to eat here: a Cuban pork spring roll that we ordered, ate like maniacs, and ordered again; handmade gnocchi in a plate-licking mustard-and-garlic sauce; a simple satay featuring grilled Gunpowder bison, served with an agave marinade.

Late last November, Demi showed up, fully formed, on the basement level of Crush, like Athena having just burst out of Zeus' head. It sounded like a trick — that Demi was just a ruse to get overflow diners from Crush to move into an undesirable seating area. But this new lower level, we were told, was not "Demi at Crush," or any other kind of halfway gimmick; Demi and Crush, it was promised, were two separate restaurants: Crush above, Demi below. The truth is there is a tiny bit of blurring, some of it inevitable, at least for the short term.

Does Baltimore, and more specifically Fells Point, have room for yet another tapas restaurant? The Kali's Restaurant Group, which includes Kali's Court, Mezze and Meli, is betting yes. Its new place is Tapas Adela, now open next to the Admiral Fell Inn where the Petticoat Tearoom and Southern Accents gift shop were. The interior design firm Rita St. Clair Associates has come up with a clever concept, dividing the space into two distinct areas. The first is the high-energy room (alert: code word for noisy)

After closing in April for renovations, the 13th Floor in Mount Vernon's the Belvedere will reopen at 4 p.m. on Thursday, according to a press release. Unhappy with its inconsistent "experience," the Belvedere Restaurant Group (BRG, which also operates the Owl Bar) used the renovation period as a time to refocus the 13th Floor, on top of giving it a new look. For example: The weekend's live music (one of the bar's former issues, as it often varied in style and genre from night-to-night)

Earth Wood & Fire, a new restaurant in the Bare Hills section of Baltimore County, is testament to the wisdom of keeping things simple. The menu offers a handful of salads, a selection of small plates and a daily special or two. But the partnership at this new restaurant is serious about getting the basics down pat first. The square focus is on hamburgers and coal-fired pizzas. Earth Wood & Fire isn't trying to provide culinary adventures but to be a consistent and reliable everyday dining place.

One of the city's best-looking and most comfortable warehouse restaurants, Vino Rosina is still a tempting destination for the date-nighters who pour into Harbor East on weekends, a neighborhood that Baltimore diners have come to associate with high-energy, glitzy dining. The square-shaped bar remains a great place to start or end a Harbor East evening, even if you're not dining at Vino Rosina. Vino Rosina opened with "Top Chef" alumna Jesse Sandlin as executive chef in May 2010.

Hardly anything at Pabu grabs you by the lapels. The last and latest restaurant to open at the new Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore, Pabu calls itself an "izakaya," the Japanese name for a drinking establishment that serves food. The izakaya craze has landed big-time in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, along with the inevitable squabbling about what defines a true izakaya. Essentially, an izakaya offers diners a menu of small plates from which they can order over a long, merry evening, and there's traditionally an emphasis on savory grilled and marinated items.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar is rolling out a "Small Plates, Big Pours" promotion. Available through the end of May, the dealio lets diners mix seven small plates with seven over-sized wine pours "in the bar area. Yes to over-sized pours -- sounds like a plan for the "Real Housewives of Harbor East. " The small plates include sliced filet Mignon, shrimp scampi skewers, petite lamb chops, seared ahi tuna, lobster tempura, and New Bedford scallops. The Fleming's wine experts have chosen specific wines -- culled from the Fleming's 100 -- to pair with each of the seven dishes, but diners are free to mix and match.  "Guests could pick a pairing with a blindfold on and still would not go wrong with the seven wine selections on our Small Plates, Big Pours menu,” said Russell Skall, Fleming's Executive Chef, in the promotion's press release.

If you've been needing a reason to head down to the Wine Market, you got it. Every Monday through Thursday in March, The Wine Market in Locust Point is offering a list of delicious but lesser known wines by the glass at half price. Lucien Walsh, the Wine Market's wine director, spent all February sniffing out  some unusual verities for you to try. So, go. While we're talking about the Wine Market, we might as well remind you about happy hour, Monday through Thursday, 5 to 7 p.m., featuring $3 off a selection of cocktails, small plates and large plates.

Wine is the focus at Grand Cru, a bar in the charming food market at Belvedere Square. It's a good spot to sit and learn about new wines — chances are, Grand Cru's knowledgeable staff can help you find a new favorite grape. The selection of small plates, however, needs some of the particulars worked out. More of an after-work meet up than a first date destination, the setting for this lively bar is a sparse and industrial interior with exposed pipes. The kitchen/prep area is modern and warm, with accents of wood compared to the rest of the cold concrete and aluminum room.

Big Small Plates By Cindy Pawlcyn with Pablo Jacinto and Erasto Jacinto Small Plates: Appetizers as Meals By Marguerite Marceau Henderson Gibbs Smith / 2006 / $18.95 This highly accessible book features small plates drawn from countries throughout the world, including Greece, Italy, Spain and India. Aimed primarily at those in search of easy entertainment ideas, many of the recipes are light and sophisticated; others would make an excellent meal just for family. The Pappardelle alla Primavera -- wide noodles with asparagus, red peppers, peas and carrots tossed in a light cream sauce and topped with parmesan cheese and chives -- was an instant hit in my household.

Devlyn Ray is the new executive chef at Vino Rosina, taking over from Sanjin Renae . Ray's first menu, which will be introduced at Wednesday's dinner service, will feature a new larger plates section along with an enlarged smaller plate side. Also on the menu are 10 new artisanal cheeses, says Vino Rosina's general manager Joshua Barbour. What's on Ray's menu? Small plates include a Wagyu carpaccio with pickled shallots and horseradish carpaccio, lobster lasagna and a cheddar-garlic grits cake with lemon-parsley pesto, crispy shallots and a sunny-side  quail egg. Entrees include seared scallops with truffled risotto, crispy beet chips and shaved Parmesan; a Maryland rockfish with grilled romaine, browned butter and baked potato croquettes and butternut squash gnocchi.

Kit Waskom Pollard reviews Hersh's Pizza & Drinks in South Baltimore, which took over the old Rub space in November. The owners are brother and sister Josh Hershkovitz and Stephanie Hershkovitz. He's the chef, she runs the front of the house. On the menu at Hersh's: Thin-crust pizzas with plain toppings and fancy ones like prosciutto and argula or kale and pistachio; salads; a handful of small plates and a selection of fritti, fried treats like sage and anchovy fritters and prosciutto balls.