Waterfront Kitchen Mixes Old and New

We 've written about Waterfront Kitchen on numerous occasions, both on this blog and in our books. The incredible view from their airy dining room, the emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients in their cuisine, and the friendly atmosphere have always been a constant. The menu itself has changed over the years as each new chef has brought his own personal spin on the restaurant's traditions. Chef Cyrus Keefer, who's become well known in Baltimore for his inventive cuisine, is the current chef at Waterfront Kitchen and he brings a whole hosts of new ideas to the menu. We were eager to check it out. 

The Minx started off with the Strawberry & Basil cocktail made with basil vodka and muddled strawberries. I've finally come around to drinking gin in the summertime so I ordered the gin-based Cucumber & Lavender. Both drinks were light and refreshing for a warm day.

While our plan was to focus on some of the more popular dinner menu options, Chef Keefer had put together a special tasting menu for a group coming to the restaurant that night and he wanted us to sample some of the items. The pork belly pizzette was served on a soft crust topped with romanesco cauliflower, two kinds of cherries, and edible flowers from the BUGS greenhouse down the street. As we've mentioned in other posts, Waterfront Kitchen gets a great deal of their fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables from the Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students (BUGS) Greenhouse, which is on the Living Classrooms campus on Caroline Street. Kids from low-income neighborhoods develop social, academic, and creative skills by learning how to grow food. They also sell some of the produce at an annual farmers’ market event.

We fell in love with Chef Keefer's calamari when he was working at Birroteca, and it's still amazingly tender in this latest incarnation, served with baba ganoush made black by squid ink and a green olive insalada. The delicious house-marinated green olives are also available as a separate dish with some hummus, greens, and flatbread. Also on the dish are some of the edible flowers from the BUGS Greenhouse which bring a floral dimension to the dish I've never experienced before.

These shumai-style dumplings held a mixture of confit chicken and housemade 'nduja, a spicy, spreadable, pork salami. N'duja has become a new favorite thing of mine and this combination, nestled in a tender dumpling wrapper, took me to my happy place. At first glance, I thought the flecks in the sauce were grains of rice, but it turned out to be chopped up pieces of that tender calamari we love so much, Chef Keefer never stops inventing.

Okay, so now we're moving on to the regular dinner menu. We wanted to focus on the tried-and-true sorts of dishes that summer tourists might order, so we started with the clam chowder. This version of the New England staple has a bisque-like miso-enriched broth. The clams are served in their shells, and chunks of sunchoke, also called Jerusalem artichoke, stand in for the potatoes.

We had to try the crab cakes because - Baltimore - and we were intrigued by Chef Keefer's pronouncement that the cakes have no filler in them whatsoever. What they do have is plenty of lump crab and just the right amount of seasoning and another element that we won't give away. The result is a meaty yet light crab cake that's quite flavorful. The cakes were served with deviled asparagus, a subtle chorizo vin blanc, and a romesco sauce made with shishito peppers.

Our final entree was another New England classic, the lobster roll. The roll itself was the classic toasted split-top hot dog bun. From there, things take an eclectic turn as green curry and avocado sauce redolent of kaffir lime are tossed into the hefty pile of lobster meat and delicate pea shoots are sprinkled on top. Served with a side of French fries, this is a lobster roll that is a cut above.

Waterfront Kitchen's pastry chef, Kelsey Willis, is only 21 years old but she shows a finesse with desserts that belies her youth. Our dessert had squares of moist chocolate cake filled with a beer-flavored custard all enrobed in a classic chocolate ganache. Housemade Old Bay-seasoned caramel corn is sprinkled on top and the plate is decorated with white chocolate tinted in yellow and red, making the dessert resemble an abstracted Maryland flag. On top of all that, it tasted great.

We're happy that Chef Keefer is working at Waterfront Kitchen these days, giving us an excuse to eat there more often. Not that we need an excuse, it's just that we don't get to Fells Point as often as we should.

Waterfront Kitchen
1417 Thames St.
Baltimore, MD 21231
(443) 681-5310


Posted on Minxeats.com.

Waterfront Kitchen + Sapidus Farms Oysters

Next Wednesday, January 20th, Waterfront Kitchen will have a dinner featuring Sapidus Farms oysters. This farm dinner will be the second in a series that showcases the farmers and growers with which the restaurant partners. There will be an a la carte menu with products exclusively from Sapidus Farms, but diners can also order from Waterfront Kitchen's seasonal dinner menu.

Dinner will be served from 5pm to 10pm; reservations can be made here or by calling the restaurant at 410.864.0215. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Oyster Recovery Partnership, an organization that supports projects that plant new oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. Whether wild or farmed, oysters keep the Bay clean in addition to being good eats.

We're not able to make the dinner, so we went to the restaurant early to try some of those oysters. Raised in the Great Wicomico River, in Virginia, Sapidus Farms' molluscs are plump and clean-flavored with a light brininess. We tried them on the half shell with a fabulous, just-tart-enough, pickled vegetable mignonette and a garnish of peppery-earthy-herbal nasturtium leaf.

We also tried some items from the seasonal menu, featuring the culinary magic of the restaurant's new chef, Chris Amendola. Formerly of the Bagby Group and Bookmakers, chef Amendola's creations are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the palate.

We shared an order of the roasted mushroom and ricotta ravioli with kale, brown butter, whey, and Parm. The dish was both delicate and hearty, featuring tender kale and earthy, umami-rich, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms over house-made pasta and ricotta.

The oysters in the fried oyster appetizer are not a Sapidus product, but still delicious in their delicate yet crunchy batter. Accompanied by tangy house-cured sauerkraut, lightly sweet beet remoulade, and pork belly, the dish is a lively combination of flavors and textures.

Neither Mr Minx nor I had ever tried fluke before, so we ordered the pan-roasted fluke with roasted cauliflower, pine nuts, brussels sprouts, and beurre blanc. The plate was almost too beautiful to eat, but we went for it. We noted that fluke tastes a lot like flounder--and that's because it is a flounder, commonly referred to "summer flounder." But I suppose it doesn't seem quite appropriate to use that name that when it's 20°F outside.

We had the rockfish, too.  Pan-roasted, like the fluke, it had skin that was delightfully crisp with moist flesh. And again, the dish was visually stunning. But rather than a buttery tender cruciferous veg accompaniment, this fish came with carrots galore: an outrageously smooth carrot ginger puree and a plethora of confit carrots. Dollops of hazelnut butter added a nutty complexity to the delicate sweetness of the carrot.

We passed on dessert this time, because too much of a good thing can sometimes be simply too much. Next time.

All of the dishes we ate yesterday are on the regular seasonal menu, so if they float your boat, make a reservation for any time. But if you want a more oyster-intensive experience, do check out the Sapidus Farms dinner next week.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Waterfront Kitchen

Waterfront Kitchen, the lovely Fells Point restaurant with some of the best harbor views in town, has a new chef. David Hynes may be from hipstery Brooklyn, but his culinary philosophy is very much in keeping with WK's classic vibe. According to chef Hynes, he enjoys making dishes that are familiar, but with his own twist on tradition. He's already collaborating with the restaurant's master gardener, Jo Cosgrove, who will be growing new and exciting ingredients in the garden and BUGS greenhouse down the street. We heard him request kaffir lime that evening, and can't wait to see in which dish he uses that aromatic ingredient.

Mr Minx and I were invited to a media preview of the chef's menu. We started out with passed hors d'oeuvres that included crab hush puppies and Korean pork belly atop crispy rice cakes and three of the cocktails from general manager Nicki Kern's revamped bar program. We tried both the Grapefruit Lush (Art in the Age Rhubarb Tea, St Germain, honey, and grapefruit juice) and Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (Espelon blanco tequila, agave nectar, habanero, Granny Smith apples, spices) and enjoyed both, particularly the fruitiness the habanero added to the latter.

For dinner, we had our choice of appetizer and entree. Mr Minx had the roasted cauliflower puree, which was lush and smooth, with distinct butter and lobster flavors in addition to the expected cauliflower.

I had the frisee lardon salad, which had a pleasantly unexpected twist.

The soft boiled egg had been lightly crumbed and fried, but was still lovely and molten inside. Rather than lardons, I received a slab of roasted bacon, and the greens were nicely dressed with a somewhat Caesar-y Roquefort dressing. I loved it.

I also loved my roasted Hudson Valley duck breast, which was cooked to a lovely rosy medium, its crisp skin flavored with a hint of five spice. The vegetables under the duck were called a caponata, but I'm going to be argumentative and say it was actually a ratatouille. No matter, the vegetables were crisp tender and nicely seasoned, and the gastrique of sherry vinegar and orange juice added a light piquancy to the dish.

Mr Minx had the rockfish, or striped bass, as they call it everywhere outside of Maryland. It was served with nicely caramelized brussels sprouts and topped with a raw fennel and apple salad that added a necessary hit of acid.

For dessert, we shared a trio of flourless carrot cake with bruleed cream cheese, raisin bread pudding, and chocolate mousse cake with a passion fruit sauce. The carrot cake was the most intriguing of the three, moist and rich, with ground almonds subbing for the usual flour. I also appreciated the crust on the bread pudding and the fabulously tart passion fruit sauce.

Going by what we were served that evening, chef Haynes is off to an excellent start. Check out his lunch, dinner, and brunch menus on the Waterfront Kitchen Web site and note that brunch is now served on both Saturday and Sunday, with bottomless mimosas or bloody marys. We hear rumors about an upcoming bloody mary cart, too, which would allow diners to customize their brunchtime libations. Personally, we want to wrap our jaws around that shredded duck banh mi, offered both at brunch and weekday lunch....

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sailabration Events

So what are you doing for the Sailabration on September 13th? Waterfront Kitchen is having two parties, both with harborside seats for the fireworks.

Sailabration Spectacular Cocktail Party

There's no better place to party during Charm City's Star-Spangled Sailabration Spectacular than with us on the harborfront promenade at Waterfront Kitchen. Stoked on great food and drink, surrounded by friends, you won't have to ask, "Oh say, can you see?," when the fireworks start. They will be bursting in air in full technicolor directly overhead. Join us for a great party. We're celebrating the good life, Chesapeake style, in this land of the free and home of the brave.

Party: 7:30-10:30 p.m. Fireworks: 9:30 p.m. Cost: $59.

On the Table
Buckets of Housemade Celery Salt & Cayenne Pepper Potato Chipswith Blue Cheese Dip
Buckets of Sweet & Spicy Applewood-smoked Bacon

From the Grill
Brown Sugar and Espresso Marinated Flank Steak Sandwiches
Grilled Onions, Housemade Steak Sauce
Soy, Orange and Ginger Marinated Pork Loin Sliders
Asian Slaw
Maryland Sweet Corn, Old Bay Butter

To be Passed
Mini Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Spicy Chicken Satay, Hoisin Dipping Sauce
Caramelized Onion and Gruyere Brioche Pizzas

Beverages
Local Beers and Wine

For tickets: EventBrite.

Sailabration Spectacular All-American Wine Dinner

Could there be a more fitting way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key's national anthem? We don't think so. Join Chef Jerry Pellegrino for a five-course, eight-wine All-American Wine Dinner, with seats on our harborfront promenade and a spectacular fireworks display overhead. Yes, it's the very same harbor from which the Star Spangled Banner was penned. And no, we won't mind at all if you break into a patriotic chorus or two during dinner. That's what the entire celebration is about.

Dinner: 6:30 p.m. Fireworks: 9:30 p.m. Cost: $159.

Reception
Chef’s Amuse
Domaine Chandon ‘étoile’ Rosé

To Start
Pan Roasted Rockfish
Chanterelles, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Corn & Thyme
Peter Michael ‘L’apris Midi’ 2012 (Sauvignon Blanc)

Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Sweetbreads atop a Veal Crepenette
Braised Fall Greens, Griottine Cherry, Sweet Potato
Martinelli ‘Bella Vigna’ Pinot Noir 2012
Martinelli ‘Zio Tony Ranch’ Pinot Noir 2012

Great Napa Cabernet
Fall Spice Braised Beef Short Rib
Truffled Potato Cream, Grilled Figs, Braising Jus
Axios 2003
Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Robert Foley Claret 2010

The Undeniable King of Syrah
Pan Seared Foie Gras
Plum & Rosemary
Sean Thackrey Orion 2010

To Finish
A Study in Chocolate

For tickets: EventBrite

Posted on Minxeats.com.

New Year's Eve at Waterfront Kitchen

Here's another dinner option for New Year's Eve....

Waterfront Kitchen is offering a five course feast including goodies like caviar, foie gras, and bacon maple pumpkin pie. You can see the whole menu here.

There are two seatings, 6:30pm and 9:30pm. The 6:30pm meal is $100 per person, or $135 with wine pairings. The 9:30pm seating is $125 or $160 with wine, and includes a Champagne toast and fireworks.

For reservations, call 443-681-5310 or visit Open Table. Waterfront Kitchen is located at 1417 Thames Street in historic Fells Point.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Greenhouse Dinner Parties with Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy

This just in from Waterfront Kitchen - a series of Moet Hennessey tasting dinners. some featuring Domaine Chandon champagne! We've been to the BUGS Greenhouse, and think these dinners will be amazingly fun!

The BUGS Greenhouse is a picture-perfect setting for Waterfront Kitchen’s brand new Greenhouse Dinner Parties, an intimate series of tasting dinners hosted by Moët Hennessy. Each evening will feature tastings of LVMH’s renowned brands, from superb Newton Vineyard wines to festive Domaine Chandon bubbly, expertly paired with a four-course meal by Chef Jerry Pellegrino. Special guest speakers will talk about the wines. Seating is limited, so reserve your spot early.

Place BUGS Greenhouse
802 S. Caroline Street
Baltimore MD, 21231
Cost $150 per ticket
Reservations Call 443.681.5310 or email sfaulkner@waterfrontkitchen.com for
reservations. Seating is limited and by reservation only.

November 21 Newton Vineyard Large Format and Unfiltered Wine
Special guest: Newton Vineyard viticulturist Raymond Reyes

December 5 Holiday Bubbles, with Domaine Chandon étoile Rosé and étoile Brut
Special guest: Domaine Chandon brand ambassador Kristen Brott

February 6 Valentine’s Bubbles, with Domaine Chandon étoile Rosé and étoile Brut
Special guest: Domaine Chandon winemaker Tom Tiburzi

March 6 Sparking Spring Cocktails by Domaine Chandon
Special guest: Domaine Chandon senior wine ambassador Ellen Flora

April 3 Newton Vineyard Current Vintages and Unfiltered Wine
Special guest: Newton Vineyard regional ambassador Rebecca Robinson



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Champagne Dinner at Waterfront Kitchen

This event is coming up on November 7th, and is sure to be a good time. Definitely get to the event early for a tour of the greenhouse. While the growing season will be largely over by that point, Jo Cosgrove will still have a wealth of gardening knowledge to share.

Kick off the holidays with Waterfront Kitchen and Moet Hennessy at a dazzling wine pairing dinner for a great cause: Living Classrooms' BUGS Program

You be the judge! See how beautifully Chef Jerry Pellegrino pairs dishes with such glorious wines as Newton Claret, Numanthia Termes and Chandon sparkling wines. It'll be a spectacular evening of tastings, live jazz and a live auction featuring a magnum of none other than Newton Puzzle 2005, with two tickets to an upcoming event, plus a private cooking class with Chef Pellegrino, a dinner cruise aboard the Lady Maryland and much, much more.

And it's all for a great cause. Proceeds will support Living Classrooms' BUGS kids and celebrate Waterfront Kitchen's donation of a brand new greenhouse for the program. Come at 5 p.m. if you'd like to tour the greenhouse with expert gardener Jo Cosgrove. See you there.

Date Thursday, November 7, 6:00 p.m.
Place Waterfront Kitchen 1417 Thames Street Baltimore, MD 21231
Cost $125.00
Reservations Email sfaulkner@waterfrontkitchen.com



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Galen Sampson's Farmstead Grill

People who were sorry to see The Dogwood in Hampden close will be happy to know that owner Galen Sampson didn't retire. Rather, he's working on a new restaurant, this time at the Shops at Canton Crossing. Farmstead Grill, slated to open spring 2014, will offer locally-sourced ingredients at affordable price points. “We don’t think diners should have to pay a premium for locally sourced food,” says Farmstead Grill COO and Executive Chef Galen Sampson. “At the same time, we believe that farmers who work so hard on our behalf should get their due.”

Sampson just spent a year working  as an apprentice team leader on an 800-acre farm in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the process he learned how to work more closely with farmers to lower costs while increasing quality in the restaurant kitchen.

The 200-seat Farmstead Grill will be located across a leafy green park from Farmstead Shack, a carry-out kiosk with 30 outdoor seats. Menus and beverage programs for both restaurants are in development. Now under construction at 3501 Boston Street, the Farmstead restaurants are part of the new urban development, The Shops at Canton Crossing, and will open in spring 2014.

Farmstead Grill and Farmstead Shack are owned by Charles Nabit and Michael Klein of Mission-Driven Dining II. The pair opened the restaurant Waterfront Kitchen in Fells Point in 2011. “We’re excited about the prospect of expanding the marketplace for locally sourced dining,” says Nabit. “And we’re looking to create a concept that can be replicated in other places.”



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cooking Classes at Waterfront Kitchen

In July, Mr Minx and I attended a cooking class taught by Jerry Pellegrino of the Waterfront Kitchen. It was held on the Promenade, on a perfectly perfect evening, and we had a blast. So we can heartily recommend his upcoming classes, all held on Saturday, September 28th. It promises to be a full day of fun, but you can opt for spending just part of the day with Chef Pellegrino.

All three cooking classes are hands-on and taught outdoors by Chef Jerry Pellegrino on Waterfront Kitchen’s Promenade in historic Fells Point at 1417 Thames Street, Baltimore, MD 21231. Reservations are required and seating is limited. For reservations, contact Sara at 443-681-5310 or sfaulkner@waterfrontkitchen.com.

7 - 10 a.m. Fells Point Farmers’ Market Cooking Class

Meet Chef Jerry at the restaurant at 7 am for coffee, than walk with him to the Fells Point Farmers’ Market where he will purchase fresh, seasonal ingredients from area producers. Stroll back to the restaurant to pop the corks on some special sparkling wines and cook an inspired brunch. The cost is $59/person.

1 – 4 p.m. Promenade Fish Grilling Class

Enjoy a lovely waterfront class outdoors, while learning the secrets of how to grill fish properly. Chef Jerry offers professional tips and tricks, along with delicious food and wine. It’ll be a perfect fall afternoon. The cost is $65/person.

6 – 9 p.m. Promenade Beef Grilling Class

Learn about all those excellent cuts of beef you’ve been wondering about, and how to expertly grill them. Chef Jerry shares professional tips and tricks, along with his simple methods for grilling perfection, all with tastings of delicious food and wine. The cost is $75/person.




Posted on Minxeats.com.