I’ve been remiss in feeding the blog with food posts, so here’s a rundown of where I ate on short trips to Baltimore, Charleston, and Indianapolis in the last six weeks.
Baltimore
Dooby’s is a coffee shop and all-day café with a real kitchen, serving traditional breakfasts and pan-Asian dishes from pork buns to street noodles to banh mi. It’s all very, very good, and the space itself is fantastic. They use Passenger coffee and both the drip and espresso offerings are solid, although I would quibble that the milk foam on the espresso was a little oversteamed. The breads they use are really spectacular, from the brioche on their breakfast sandwiches (with a bright pepper jam) to the crisp French bread on the banh mi. We spent probably six or seven hours there, eating, drinking coffee and tea, and writing. I’d probably skip the pork buns just because the pork belly was so fatty, even though I loved the glaze and the spicy mayo on it and even the buns. The breakfast sandwich was way beyond what I expected, though, with eggs made to order – and my over medium egg was indeed over medium, with a warm runny yolk that ended up all over my plate and a little on the counter because I’m a mess – and that outstanding brioche. I preferred their food and coffee to that of Baby’s on Fire in the same neighborhood; their drip coffee was underextracted and much their food is microwaved, although it’s a cool place, with some new and used vinyl on offer.
The Mount Vernon Marketplace is a fantastic food hall with a solid variety of food and drink options, although I wish they were open past 9 pm on a Friday night. Fishnet’s Baltimore Bomber sandwich is their signature item, fried white fish with lemony mayo, onions, lettuce, and cheese on a crunchy French bread roll. They fried this exceptionally well – it was deep brown and crunchy but not greasy or heavy at all, and the breading held to the fish throughout. The fish itself was fresh but had no flavor and the texture wasn’t ideal for deep frying, as it seemed to fall apart within the breading. That could have been just the particular fillet I got, though. Don’t skip the French fries, which were also exceptional; it’s rare to get fries that ungreasy, and they were salted properly. Around the corner is Slurpin’ Ramen, which does does a great shoyu broth, the shining ingredient in the ramen. The noodles were more average and didn’t have great tooth to them, but they did absorb the flavor of the broth well. The shrimp were clearly very high quality, tasting just of the sea, and the soy egg was also very well done.
We stayed at the boutique Ulysses Hotel in Mount Vernon, which has two bars of note, one inside the hotel and one attached but not owned by the hotel itself. The cocktail bar Coral Wig is the latter, located on the right side of the hotel, accessible only from the outside. They have a Filipino-influenced cocktail list that’s heavy on the rum, although their best offering is the Banana Hammock, a banana and nutmeg-themed take on a margarita. Within the hotel, Bloom is a more traditional bar with a broader assortment of liquors but less appealing house cocktails, and the very kitschy décor didn’t work as well for me as the upscale tiki vibe of Coral Wig.
Allora was the big disappointment of the trip; pitched as a Roman osteria, they’re serving pasta out of the box in sauces I could (and often do) make at home, and the gelato dessert was, in fact, Talenti brand. I saw them scoop it. No disrespect to Talenti, which makes a fine sea salt caramel, but I expect better at a fine restaurant.
Charleston
Renzo has a small menu of homemade pasta dishes and pizzas from the owners of the Faculty Lounge, with a focus on local produce and natural wines. The pasta is the real star, with a menu that’s constantly changing but that always features a couple of dishes of house-made pasta. We had a malfatti alla carbonara that was among the best dishes of that type I’ve ever had, even though it wasn’t completely traditional. The sauce was delicious but it was the pasta itself, perfectly al dente with actual flavor to it beyond the sauce; I’d try any pasta dish these folks served after eating that. We also tried a margherita pizza that was perfectly solid, closer to New York style than anything Italian; I might be underselling it a little because it doesn’t fit perfectly into a regional style. We also had a fresh tomato salad that I imagine is very seasonal, but we were clearly there at the height of tomato season.
Legend Deli is a fantastic little sandwich shop just off the campus of the College of Charleston with a menu designed by Tyler Hunt, the former sous chef at Husk. I tried the G.O.A.T., a turkey sandwich with whipped goat cheese, onion jam, arugula, and roasted red pepper mayo, but the standout ingredient was actually the crispy sourdough bread, which hit that nostalgia spot – it brought back memories of having a sandwich (usually tuna) as a kid and having the bread toasted just to that point where it was just all crunch.
For coffee, Second State seems to be the best option in town. The coffee I got, which I think was their Colombia Black Condor, was good but roasted a shade darker than I like, so I didn’t get many tasting notes other than some cocoa.
Indianapolis
The Eagle is a “food and beer hall” with an extensive menu of southern cooking and they’re known for their pressure cooker fried chicken, which did not disappoint. I went with the quarter dark, because I have actual standards, along with spoonbread with maple butter and collards as the sides. The collards were outstanding, and while the spoonbread was sweeter than I would normally like, it was a good contrast to the salty fried chicken and the salty and slightly tart collards. The chicken and one side would have been a better portion, as I only ate about half of the spoon bread and a little more of the collards, but I didn’t realize how large the sides where when I ordered. They also offer a five-cheese mac and cheese and horseradish mashed potatoes, both of which the bartender recommended, but that sounded way too heavy and I was determined to eat something green. They do also offer a solid craft beer selection, local and national.
Los Arroyos is an upscale Mexican restaurant and bar with a lot of overdone “margaritas” – seriously, that’s a simple enough drink, stop putting berries or habaneros in it – but a credible, fancier take on Mexican food. I went with ceviche after several days of heavier fare from food trucks and The Eagle, and the table shared a serving of guacamole, both of which were solid-average – better for freshness of ingredients than the recipes, with very fresh avocadoes in both dishes.
Commissary Barber & Barista is, indeed, a barbershop as well as a café and a bar, using coffee from a variety of small, third-wave roasters. I did not get a haircut, but I did get a macchiato, where the coffee part was excellent but the milk was overfoamed and spooned on rather than poured on – it’s a minor thing but I think the pourable foam offers the best texture and blends a little with the coffee itself. The barista was playing Slowdive’s Souvlaki, which is definitely worth extra points. The coffee there was better than what I had at Coat Check around the corner, where the milk was even more overdone and the coffee itself was too tangy, which is usually a function of underextraction.