Tark's Grill

If you've never been to Tark's Grill before, let me warn you that it's not the easiest place to find. It's actually inside Greenspring Station, the little Cross Keys-like shopping area at Falls and Joppa Roads, not on the outside near Poulet. The signage is small, so keep your eyes peeled, especially at night!

We visited Tark's early on a Thursday evening, and it was already packed full of noisy people. I'm guessing many of them were regulars from before City Cafe owners Gino Cardinale and Bruce Bodie took over the restaurant. New ownership brought Tark's a new chef and new menus, all of which will be familiar to patrons of their Mount Vernon establishment. Chef James Jennings is doing double duty at both restaurants and is so far offering pretty much the same food at both, with a few exceptions. The menu will also seem familiar to patrons of The Food Market, as that restaurant's chef/owner Chad Gauss has run City Cafe's kitchen in the not so distant past and his influence is evident.

Seems complicated, but the food thankfully isn't. However, the menu is a bit puzzling. Similar to The Food Market's menu, there are multiple appetizer divisions like "Finger Food" and "First Bites," plus the less confusing "Principals." I'm not sure what the difference is between the first two categories, or why fried oysters and buffalo popcorn chicken are finger foods but warm brie flatbread and crispy calamari are "first bites." And why "first bites" is the second category on the menu. But maybe I'm the only one who notices these sorts of things.

There were four of us at this particular dinner. Two of us had already eaten two large restaurant meals that week and weren't necessarily in the mood for a third, but it was my birthday and neither of the other two people in our party was going to cook for me.... Rather than share apps and order entrees, as we normally do, we just ordered a mess of "finger foods" and "first bites" in two rounds. We started with the fried oysters, buffalo popcorn chicken, brussels sprouts, and Korean bbq wings.

The oysters were my favorite of the bunch. They were barely cooked on the inside and nicely crunchy on the outside. The bacon aioli was rich, and despite being under the oysters, didn't render them unreasonably soggy.

The brussels sprouts came in second. We are a family of brussels sprouts lovers and order them everywhere. We tend to enjoy deep fried ones best, because they are usually very crisp, but they're not particularly photogenic. The sprouts at Tark's were still very green, had a nice firm bite, and were well seasoned. They came with more of that nice bacon aioli.

The popcorn chicken, which was dusted with a powder made with Frank's hot sauce, wasn't particularly attractive, nor was it at all crisp, but the bits of chicken were nicely tender and the flavors were good.

The Korean bbq wings could have used a lot more heat (and sweetness, and garlic, and sesame oil, a trifecta of flavors that is fairly prominent in many Korean dishes) but they were well-cooked, with the meat coming easily off the bone.

We also had four "first bites." The warm brie flatbread with slivers of apple and a balsamic glaze was pretty good. The brie was melted but not messy, and the apple added a hint of sweetness and crunch.

The warm burrata and wild mushrooms was a miss, however. I love burrata, the oozier the better. Its rich cheesiness matches best with something bright and acidic, like tomatoes, for contrast. The mushrooms in this dish were surprisingly bland and under-seasoned, and the milky cheese simply added more blandness. Personally, I think something sharper, like manchego, would make a better foil for the mushrooms.

The Spanish shrimp--with mushrooms, garlic sauce, and smoked paprika--were tasty, if oddly-plated. Though the shrimp were large, the plate on which they were served was huge, and it took us a minute to realize the pile in the middle was comprised of chunks of bread and mushrooms. The bread was already saturated with sauce, and we had nothing with which to sop up the rest of it. (I know I'm not a professional chef, and you all probably hate when I do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'd 86 the mushrooms entirely, as they don't add anything to the dish, and put a smaller piece of bread under each shrimp. And use a smaller plate, and less sauce.)

It's hard to fault the calamari though. They were so very tender, with a light crisp coating. The Thai dipping sauce was a nice change from the usual marinara. An actual pleasure to eat.

Since it was my birthday, and the restaurant had been made aware of that fact, I got a free birthday dessert, which was a real treat. We were pretty full at this point so decided to do two desserts to share among the four of us. The vanilla creme brulée with fresh berries was fine and enjoyed very much by my father.

James' bread pudding with white, dark, and milk chocolate plus a caramel drizzle, whipped cream and berries, was indulgent. The pudding itself was tender and sweet and definitely large enough to share.

The original incarnation of Tark's Grill was a steakhouse--not our thing at all--so we're pretty pleased with the new version, at least concept-wise. I do think it deserves its own menu though, because I'm betting the Lutherville crowd is pretty different from the City Cafe's regular clientele (and The Food Market's). Perhaps it's not as necessary to offer 33 appetizers, 20 entrees, and 7 side dishes in the county? Or maybe it is. I'm sure Bruce and Gino will figure it out; they've been successful restaurateurs so far. I hope Tark's is a hit for them, as it's nice to have another locally owned, non-chain, restaurant in our neck of Baltimore County.

Tark's Grill
2360 W Joppa Rd #116
Lutherville-Timonium, MD 21093



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Best of 2015 - Part 1

We start off every year with a recount of some of the very best things we ate in the prior year. So let's begin 2016 (2016!) with a look back at some of our favorite restaurant dishes from last year.

February

I tried several varieties of fries at the Local Fry last February and enjoyed them all. I think my favorite, however, was the house version, the "Local Fry," topped with taco beef and spicy sauce.

March

It's hard to pick just one dish from the Oy Bay! dinner at Clementine to designate as our favorite. Everything was stellar that night, from the pickled oyster salad to the oyster stuffing-filled quail with squash and brussels sprout gratin, to the carpetbagger steak from Roseda Beef. (The quail is pictured above.)

April

No pic, but the slice of coconut cake I received at the Peppermill after our waitress accidentally dumped my destined-for-a-doggy-bag shad on the floor, was amazeballs.

A giant meatball at Pane et Vino, in Little Italy, was up there on the list of Best Meatballs I Have Ever Put in My Mouth (yes, there have been many). I was also pretty turned on by the steak and stracchino piadine, a quesadilla-like sandwich.

May

What wasn't terrific on B&O Brasserie's Spring 2015 menu? Not a whole lot. Loved the octopus tacos served with shells made from raw jicama, the juicy soft shell crabs (pictured), the flounder, oh, just everything!

June

Decadently rich and sweet, the corn creme brulée at New York's Quality Meats was meant to be a side dish, but served very well as dessert, too.

Jokers 'n' Thieves, Jesse Sandlin's new joint in Canton, delivered some edible happiness last summer, particularly in the form of a soft shell crab and waffle sandwich. The brisket and creamy Carolina Gold rice was a winner too.

The best breakfast of 2015 came from a tiny cafe in Charles County. Pancakes Plus served up these lovely eggs, plus grits, scrapple, toast, and surprisingly delicious coffee for about $6.

2015 was a great year for soft shell crabs. 13.5% Wine + Food's Cyrus Keefer served plump softies served with a corn congee that rank among my top five ever.

July

The beautiful carrots with harissa honey, goat's cheese, and hazelnuts at Robin Haas's new mostly-veg restaurant, Encantada, tasted as good as they looked.

This coconut pie from Bonefish Grill was all kinds of deliciousness.

August

We ate at Hersh's twice last year, and both times were blown away by the fabulous pizza. Pictured is the Tre Porcellini, a feast of porcine products atop a perfect thin crust. Mr Minx has found his pizza holy grail; a shame it's not closer to Towson.

We went back to 13.5% Wine + Food in August for a media dinner. There were so many tasty things, but my favorite were the pizzas, especially the French bread-style pizza topped with snails. I am a sucker for snails.

Best burger of the year award goes to Alewife. Chad Wells' Smoke Burger is a real thing of beauty. Chad's mac and cheese is pretty amazing, too, especially when used as a stuffing for eggrolls, or as a topping for duck fat fries. I also had the best crab cake of the year at Alewife, and more than my fair share of fine craft beers.

September

We found a Korean BBQ place more conveniently located than Ellicott City's Honey Pig--Be One, located in a shopping center between Maryland Ave/Howard Street, 20th and 21st Streets. Really terrific bulgogi, and an outstanding, crispy, octopus-stuffed pancake. Uh-maz-ing.

October

We had a fine meal at Bookmakers Cocktail Club, including what I felt was the platonic ideal of a Caesar salad. The brussels sprouts with candied bacon were also quite delicious, and Mr Minx couldn't stop eating his pappardelle with lamb shoulder ragu. I also discovered my favorite new cocktail there - the Federale, made with tequila and Becherovka.

November

We had some nice tacos at Empellon Taqueria in NY, particularly those stuffed with pastrami. The Brussels sprouts tacos were delish as well.

Everything at  Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen, also in NY, was well-done, from the duck-stuffed buns to the soup dumplings. But my favorite was the flaky scallion pancakes filled with sweet and savory slices of beef.

More NY eats: Best fish taco ever, the fried skate on a blue corn tortilla at Mission Cantina.

We ate a lot of ramen this year, partly because it's increasingly available, partly because we were writing about it. This cold ramen dish served at Ivan Ramen on the Lower East Side, called hiyashi chuka, was a little soup, a little chef's salad, a lot delish.

We celebrated Ejji Ramen's 1-year anniversary with some Kobe beef. The real stuff, from Japan. It was served very rare, basically just seared. and was so tender as to melt in the mouth.

December

At a charity dinner on #GivingTuesday, we had various Thai-style dishes created by Zack Mills of Wit & Wisdom, Cyrus Keefer (formerly of 13.5% Wine Bar + Food, now at the Baltimore Country Club) and Dooby's Tim Dyson. While everything was delish, my favorite was Cyrus' take on pad Thai, using tender squid as the noodle component, with a delightfully fatty sausage link on the side. It didn't taste like pad Thai, but the flavors were boldly delicious.

Also in December was a visit to the Corner Charcuterie Bar, in Hampden.

We tried several unusual dishes--an octopus "burger," ostrich tartare--but I really fell in love with the fried house-made pickles. A melange of different veg, like radishes and cucumbers, each with its own different pickle flavor, all lightly coated in a crisp batter and served with a ranch dip. A perfect bar snack.

That's all for 2015. Hope you ate as many good things as we did!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Dining In New York, May 2015, Part 1

It had been a year since I'd sniffed and eaten my way around New York, and high time I did it again. So I made arrangements to go up one Friday morning to check out as many restaurants and perfume counters I could squeeze into a quick 30 hours.

I planned to begin my scented tour in upper midtown, so I wanted to eat lunch in that neighborhood. Quality Meats is on 58th Street, just down the street from Bergdorf's. Despite being primarily a steakhouse, they had a number of interesting chopped salads on their luncheon menu. The salad varieties included classic, green goddess, roasted beet, Mediterranean, and Eastern (pan-Asian), all of which could be topped with one's choice from a list of proteins. I went with the roasted beet salad (baby beets, radicchio, frisee, arugula, and toasted walnut vinaigrette) with seared yellowfin tuna.

Arrestingly plated, the large portion of bitter greens and beets was topped with perfectly cooked tuna. While the salad itself could have used both more dressing and more seasoning (thankfully there was a tiny salt cellar on the table), I thought the tuna was nicely seasoned and appreciated the subtle hint of cumin.

I also tried a side of the restaurant's signature corn creme brulee. I had originally also planned to order ice cream for dessert, but the brulee was sweet enough to stand in for that course. Extremely rich and creamy, the generously-portioned custard was more cream than egg, and the burnt sugar topping added a pleasant bitterness.

Much later that evening, I found myself wandering through the West Village. Not having made a dinner reservation left my choices wide open...or as wide open as they can be at 7pm on a bustling Friday night. I remembered enjoying Harold Dieterle's Kin Shop on my last trip to NY; at that time Mr Minx and I sampled several outstanding items. A quick check of my OpenTable app revealed that the next available reservation wasn't until 10:30pm. Undeterred, I walked up 6th Avenue anyway to try my luck. I scored a seat at the bar where I enjoyed a fragrant Siamese Smash (Heaven Hill bourbon, calamansi, yuzu, lemon bitters, & thai basil) while perusing the menu.

I ended up ordering two appetizers. The first was a steamed peekytoe crab & spicy pork crepe in a coconut broth with chili oil and fresh herbs. The light rice flour crepe was wrapped around a sausage-like cylinder of pork and crab and set atop a gorgeous broth redolent of coconut and fish sauce. A side order of sticky rice was employed to soak up all of the delicious juices.

A special of crispy lamb ribs with a crab dipping sauce served as my entree. The four ribs were small but meaty, lightly crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. They were lightly seasoned, but when eaten with a bit of everything else on the plate--sauce, herbs, pickled onions--the flavor shone.

I find that eating alone at a bar can often be amusing. First I got a laugh from a guy showing off his brand new Apple watch...which refused to work in the restaurant. Money well spent. When he left, he was replaced by a Latino man with a very heavy accent. He seemed to think that Kin Shop was a garden variety Thai restaurant and that he could get pad Thai with chicken. If he couldn't get pad Thai with chicken, could he get something else with chicken? If he had examined the menu at all, rather than playing with his phone, he would have seen there was not a single chicken dish on the menu. Equally amusing was that the bartender, who doubled as our waiter, insisted that not only could he not get pad Thai with chicken, he could not get pad Thai. But pad Thai (with shrimp) was clearly available. (Perhaps not so clearly, as it was spelled "phat" Thai on the menu.)

After dinner, I walked in search of gelato. There are actually many places to get gelato in the neighborhood, but all of them had a line out to there. I stepped into Cones, on Bleecker Street, and opted for Argentine-style ice cream--helado--instead. Similar to gelato in that it has a lower fat and calorie count than American ice cream, helado is still decadently creamy. I enjoyed two flavors, sweet potato studded with bits of brie cheese, and corn, both richly sweet.

For sure, my sniffing adventures weren't nearly as satisfying as my eating adventures on this particular day.









Posted on Minxeats.com.

Bonefish Grill Towson

We'd heard good things about Bonefish Grill; their Bel Air outpost has been an oasis for locals in a town that's practically a culinary wasteland. So when we heard that a Bonefish Grill was opening in the new Towson Square project across from the mall, we were pleased that northern Baltimore County would be getting another upscale restaurant, albeit part of a chain.

The restaurant opened on February 16th, but we were invited in for some pre-opening festivities on the 12th, a late lunch/early dinner that included a few of the restaurant chain's hierarchy as well as county executive Kevin Kamenetz.

We started our tour of the restaurant at the bar. This area takes up at least a third of the restaurant's space and includes both family-style high-top seating and some private booths in addition to the bar itself. The whole restaurant is done up in pale, warm, neutrals, with minimalist decoration that includes an abstract representation of the restaurant's fishbone logo on one wall, and a couple of curved wooden structures that resemble a fish's ribcage.

We tried two non-alcoholic beverages, a blackberry smash and a lemonade. As we sipped our libations, we enjoyed a few passed apps in the form of the restaurant's famous Bang-Bang Shrimp (crispy shrimp tossed in a creamy spicy sauce reminiscent of the sweet sriracha mayo used by sushi restaurants) and delicate roasted mushroom flatbreads with caramelized garlic and a hint of truffle oil.

After a time, we were seated and brought the first of four dinner courses. First was an ahi tuna taco served in a crisp wonton shell. (This dish, from the specials menu, would ordinarily include three tacos.) The tuna was very fresh, and we liked that it came with some pickled ginger and wasabi-infused guac.

Next up was a sample of the restaurants cilantro lime shrimp salad, consisting of greens tossed with corn, black beans, and feta, topped with two large shrimp. The shellfish-allergic can have the dish with grilled chicken, instead. In fact, Bonefish Grill is happy to accommodate diners with all sort of food allergies and even has a separate gluten free menu.

For our entree, we tried ahi tuna topped with "pan-Asian sauce," Chilean seabass with mango salsa, and a chunk of tenderloin with truffle butter. I'm not a tenderloin fan, but I did enjoy the aggressively-seasoned steak, which overshadowed its two more delicately-flavored companions.

The best course was dessert. We each received a veritable tub of chocolate creme brulee that would ordinarily be a generous portion for two diners. The creme, which was touched with Grand Marnier, had a more milky pudding-like consistency than the creamy richness of the usual creme brulee, and I was more than ok with that. Alongside, we had a not-too-sweet espresso martini with a tasty sugar-and-chocolate-shavings-encrusted rim.

Overall, the meal was a good representation of the restaurant's offerings - a little fish, a little meat, pretty good beverages and desserts. Bonefish Grill's ambiance is upscale, but the prices are reasonable. We think it will be a popular addition to the Towson restaurant scene, and will definitely be giving stiff competition to Bahama Breeze across the street.

Bar Menu Special Offer

From now through March 15, you can get a complimentary taste of one of the IN + ON bar bites (which start at an affordable $4) Bonefish Grill. Download the coupon at this link: https://www.bonefishgrill.com/offers/complimentary-bar-bites-coupon





Posted on Minxeats.com.