Wye Oak Tavern: Waffles, Wine, and 26 Years of Wedded Bliss

For our 26th wedding anniversary, Mr. Minx and I spent a night in Frederick, Maryland. We made dinner reservations at Wye Oak Tavern, the restaurant located in the Visitation Hotel, a converted convent and school, in what used to be its chapel.  

The restaurant itself is quite striking, though I'm not sure tavern is the word I'd use to describe it. The space still looks very much like a chapel, with soaring ceilings and lots of white paint, stained glass windows and an altar. It's an impressive setting, but all those hard surfaces make for a noisy dining room. I'm also not entirely sure what the restaurant has to do with the famous Wye Oak, Maryland's former state tree, which met its demise in 2002. Perhaps there's a connection beyond the name.

Blurry because it was dark: taiyaki with smoked trout brandade.

We started with two appetizers, both of which sounded intriguing. The smoked trout brandade came with potato taiyaki waffles and smoked trout roe. If you're unfamiliar with taiyaki, they're little fish-shaped cakes, traditionally filled with sweet bean paste. Here, they were made with potato, which seemed an odd choice given that brandade already contains potato. Hot potato on potato action isn't necessarily a bad thing, particularly for carbophiles like us, but in this case, the little fish seemed a bit squishy to use as a base for a spread. The brandade itself was lovely, as was the smoked trout roe perched on top. I just wish the kitchen had resisted the urge to complicate an otherwise lovely dish with squishy little potato fish.

Only after looking at my photographs the next day did I notice that there had been a tiny spoon on the plate, presumably for scooping up the brandade. The restaurant was dark enough that neither of us noticed it during dinner. We managed with our forks and knives, like barbarians. And I am now realizing, as I write this, that the menu states there was an egg salad togarashi component to the dish, but I couldn't tell you where it was.

cold fried chicken liver pate with Twin Bears sourdough "waffle"

Our other appetizer was cold fried chicken liver pâté with "waffles" (quotes theirs). The pâté was molded into the shape of a fried chicken drumstick, breaded, and served with rectangles of waffle-like sourdough. (I am unsure whether they were mini waffles made with a sourdough batter, or slices of sourdough bread that had been compressed in a waffle iron.) It was an amusing presentation, and the pâté itself was quite good. Unfortunately, the waffles were quite tough. I suppose we could have left them whole, smeared each with half of the pâté, and eaten them with our hands, again like barbarians. Instead, we attempted to cut the waffles into smaller pieces—no easy task with the knives with which we had been supplied. Personally, I think a crisp piece of unadulterated toast would have worked better. And if they insisted on making the chicken and waffles connection, perhaps they could use a little brand shaped like a grid of squares to mark the bread. 

For our main course, we ordered the 14oz New York strip steak, cooked medium-rare, with brown butter béarnaise sauce. The steak arrived properly cooked, with a nicely seasoned crust. It was a good piece of beef, although, as sometimes happens with strip steaks, there were fatty and gristly sections that Mr. Minx found disappointing. The béarnaise was interesting, but I found it a bit too tangy. Most disappointing was the cheddar popover that comes with their steaks—a dry dark-brown shell, lacking in any cheddar flavor or the characteristic eggy airiness of the species.

We also ordered two sides: broccoli rabe and rigatoni arrabbiata. The broccoli rabe was aggressively garlicky. I like garlic, but this was enough to ward off vampires in neighboring counties. The rigatoni was perfectly serviceable, but the sauce was an arrabbiata in name only. Arrabbiata is supposed to be spicy—its name means angry, after all. This sauce was creamy, texturally closer to a vodka sauce, with none of the heat I was expecting. The pasta is made in-house, and the dish was tasty, but unexpected in a meh sort of way.

By this point, we were full, and there was plenty of food remaining. We packed up the steak, pasta, broccoli rabe, and béarnaise to take back to the hotel. Dessert was out of the question.

Service was pleasant and attentive throughout the evening. I'd mentioned our anniversary when making the reservation through OpenTable, and just about everyone wished us a happy one: the head hostess, the person who escorted us to our table, and our waitress. Even the couple sitting next to us joined in. They were celebrating their first anniversary. When they learned we were celebrating our twenty-sixth, the young couple asked whether marriage had been fun.

I looked at Mr. Minx. "Fun?"

The couple looked stricken. I hastened to explain that marriage isn't necessarily fun, because you don't spend your lives together floating around in a bubble of love. There are aging parents to worry about and eventually lose, beloved pets who get sick and eventually die, and all the assorted indignities and expenses of homeownership. A quarter-century of marriage involves a great deal of ordinary life, and ordinary life isn't always entertaining. I hope I didn't frighten them too badly.

The next morning, we discovered that our leftovers were perhaps the best part of the Wye Oak experience. The hotel offered breakfast, so we went downstairs for coffee and carbohydrates. I snagged an English muffin, and Mr. Minx took a bagel. Back in our room, we made sandwiches with the leftover steak and brown butter béarnaise. Cold from the refrigerator, the sauce had firmed up into something resembling a flavored butter, and its tartness was much less pronounced. It was excellent on the steak sandwiches. I also combined the leftover broccoli rabe and rigatoni, which we ate alongside our sandwiches. The combination improved both dishes, although the garlic remained enthusiastic. At least we were both equally offensive.

So what did I think of Wye Oak Tavern?

I have mixed feelings. The restaurant is certainly ambitious—it is run by the Voltaggio brothers, so that is to be expected—and there were some very good flavors on our plates. The brandade and smoked trout roe were delicious. The chicken liver pâté was tasty and cleverly presented. The steak was properly cooked, and the service was friendly. But I kept wishing the kitchen would stop trying quite so hard. Both appetizers suffered from their waffle-y accompaniments, the arrabbiata lacked its defining characteristic, and the broccoli rate was excessively garlicky. The chapel is an impressive space, but it's also loud, and the atmosphere doesn't quite match the restaurant's name. 

I miss Volt. Very much. 

The best part about our dinner was getting two hearty meals out of it—I'm all about repurposing leftovers. Oh, and Mr Minx's dirty martini, intriguingly flavored with a "pizza tincture" that we simply must reverse engineer. 

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Worst Dishes of 2015

If Robert Sietsema can do it, I can, too.

Thankfully, we didn't encounter too many truly awful restaurant dishes. We did have a couple of less-than-good dishes, and even a generally bad overall experience.

Barcocina, in Fells Point, is the recipient of not one but two slots on the Worst Dish list.

Elotes are a popular street food in Mexico, consisting of grilled corn slathered with mayonnaise and sprinkled with cheese, chiles, and a squeeze of lime. The elotes at Barcocina were allegedly coated with ancho cayenne butter, queso fresco, and lime zest, but tasted of nothing. And, this one medium-small sized ear cost a whopping $6.

The "Barcocina dip" was also a fail. Billed as "an Oaxaca queso fundido," the oddly fluffy cheese-based dip contained rubbery and flavorless bits of chorizo and an overcooked poached egg that just kinda sat there on top until we chopped it up with a knife. Additionally, the tortilla chips were minuscule, making it rather difficult to scoop up a significant amount of dip.

The avocado panna cotta served at David Burke's Fabrick in NY was also a disappointment. I expected something novel, a somewhat firm, gelatinized, mousse perhaps. What I got was a bowl of mediocre guacamole with salsa and sour cream, and a side of overbaked chips that had been glued together with cheese, making them impossible to use as dippers. For $10, I might not have complained, but for $16, I expect a lot more than mediocre. Yes, NY can be expensive, but over the years I've had some really terrific food there for not a lot of money.

Le Garage also served up a couple of real bombs when we visited the restaurant in March. (We did end up going back later in the year, after Andrew Weinzirl took over the kitchen, and had a much better experience.) The dishes in question were appetizers that looked and sounded better than they tasted.

The pretty salad above is actually an octopus "escabeche." Generally, an escabeche involves cooked seafood marinated in an acidic mixture. In this dish, baby octopi were cooked until quite tender, then absolutely overwhelmed with a lime-based concoction. Other elements in the dish--celery shavings watermelon radish, and bizarrely, blackberries and raspberries--offered pretty color and some texture, but not enough flavor to counterbalance the unpleasantly assertive dressing.

Our other appetizer was better, but not by much. The pork belly was too crisp on the outside, and the black stuff, an "olive candy," supplied salt, but not much else. Pretty, but seriously unbalanced, flavor-wise. It was as if whomever had composed these dishes hadn't bothered to taste them.

Back in February, we visited Frederick for a preview of their Restaurant Week. Mr Minx and I were in different groups that hit different restaurants. Our experiences were largely positive, until we hit the last restaurant on the list. JoJo's Restaurant and Tap House is generally favorably reviewed, so I am willing to chalk up our dismal culinary experience to an aberration. A deconstructed yellowfin tuna "taco" was an insult to tuna. While the fish itself was fine, the accompaniments--tomato tempura, avocado, cilantro lime sour cream, and something billed as "Dorito dust"--just didn't work. The "dust" didn't even taste like Doritos. Another dish, a chicken and spinach burger, was suitable only for someone with a bad headcold. It had no flavor, which a sick person wouldn't notice. Both dishes made us sad.

One last loser: I have to admit that the food at World of Beer, which opened in Towson in September, was pretty decent. However, the noise level was so ridiculously loud, even painful, that our experience there was downright unpleasant. We're not willing to go back.

So, yeah, we could have done much worse. But we're still hoping for fewer bombs in 2016!



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Frederick Restaurant Week

To kick off Frederick Restaurant Week, which runs March 2nd through the 8th, a special media event was held to preview some of the dishes diners can expect from participating restaurants. The festivities began at the Frederick Visitor Center where we were introduced to a sampling of hard ciders produced by Distillery Cider Works. First we tried the sparkling Celebration Cider, a blend of modern and vintage apple varieties which produces a mildly sweet hard cider akin in flavor to champagne. Woodberry is made specially for Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore using a blend of heritage apples and aronia berry juice. The combination of tart and sweet complements many savory dishes served at the restaurant. Finally, we tried the Winterfest which is produced in a similar style to ice wine to create a more full-bodied hard cider.

After the libations, we were ready for our walking (and eating) tour of Frederick. To stay on schedule, we were divided into groups of three. The Minx and I split off into separate groups so we could cover as many restaurants as possible. With so many restaurants and so many dishes on the tour, I'll limit my comments to a few favorites, but there is a slideshow below to give you a visual tour of the items we tried.

The cream of crab soup at the Cellar Door was a welcome surprise. Most cream of crab soups taste like wallpaper paste with some crab thrown in, but Chef Richard Belles's soup is a true crab soup slightly thickened with cream. Pleasantly spicy with ample pieces of crab throughout, I would like all cream of crab soups to taste like this. The Cellar Door also offered the lone dessert I had on the tour: a strawberry banana cheesecake fritter. Not too sweet, the flavors were nicely balanced and, of course, anything tastes better when it's fried.

Over at Firestone's Culinary Tavern, the Nordic Cod was a nice balance of flavors and textures. The mild fish sat atop slices of fried fingerling potatoes and a light soup of mint oil, ginger root, and nasturtium leaves. The combination was light and savory all at once. The entire menu at Firestone's will be available for Restaurant Week, so you can build a three-course meal to your liking. Up-charges may apply for some of the more expensive dishes.

The Minx sampled the Irish Nachos at Bushwaller's, an Irish pub. Sidewinder potatoes replaced the traditional tortilla chips, which were covered with jalapenos, red onion, cheddar cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, and Irish bacon. Bushwaller's is also offering the entire menu for Restaurant Week.

Brewer's Alley served crispy Brussels sprouts that were roasted with kielbasa, dried cranberries, and spiced pecans and covered with a roasted poblano-honey vinaigrette. The grilled vegetable stack featured eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash layered atop a crispy goat cheese fritter and balsamic onions, with red pepper coulis and basil pesto. The whole creation was served with an arugula salad. The Minx was torn as to which of these was her favorite dish of the day but is leaning toward the vegetable stack.

We all met back at JoJo's Restaurant and Tap House where we were treated to a Session IPA. a deconstructed yellowfin tuna taco, and a chicken and spinach burger. The taco was adorned with "Dorito dust," tomato tempura, avocado, and cilantro lime sour cream. The spinach added color to the ground chicken burger, which was served on a slider bun with crispy fries.

We had a pleasant afternoon taking in the welcoming hometown vibe of Frederick and sampling food from some of its finest restaurants. For those who are not familiar with Frederick or who do not go there frequently, Frederick Restaurant Week is the perfect opportunity to take a drive and check out the growing culinary scene there without hurting your pocketbook.

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