The Village Square CafeÂs outdoor dining features flower-filled planters, umbrella-shaded tables and an absence of traffic. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / June 10, 2009) |
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The success of eating places in the Village of Cross Keys has been spotty at best. The hotel no longer has a fine-dining restaurant, and its coffee shop doesn't have the cachet the old Village Roost did. The popular Cross Keys Deli disappeared.
Donna's managed to survive the bankruptcy of the bookstore it was in, and even flourish finally; but it wasn't easy. Truffles & Tea closed. And I'm not even sure I've named all the places that have come and gone.
So why do I think the new Village Square Cafe, which has just started serving dinner, could make it?
Most important, of course, it has a chef who can cook unfussy food with panache: Shawn Lagergren, formerly in front of the stove at Luca's Cafe in Locust Point.
Owners Roseann and Robert Glick have come up with a concept that should work here. The American menu is familiar and comfortable, the place is fresh and pleasant, and nothing is too expensive. The cafe has a liquor license. It offers free Wi-Fi, if you want to bring your computer, sit in the lounge area and sip a latte while you work. The outside seating is appealing, with flower-filled planters and umbrella-shaded tables, and no traffic but pedestrians.
I'm not totally enchanted with the looks of the interior of the place - it could be cozier, and I imagine the dining room gets noisy when it's crowded. But unless you want to do the chic minimalist thing (exactly not the look they're going for), it's hard to decorate any space totally successfully in Cross Keys.
You will be happiest with the food at the Village Square Cafe if you enjoy strong seasonings like garlic and heat (as in spicy) showing up in unexpected places. Lagergren is from southern Louisiana, and some of the food reflects it. There is an excellent New Orleans gumbo, for instance, with andouille sausage and chicken over fragrant rice. The good: The shrimp on top are large and perfectly cooked. The bad: They aren't integrated into the dish, and they were cold.
Louisiana even has a hand in the Maryland crab cakes, which are fat with lumps and have the proper amount of binder. But their Tabasco remoulade sauce will set your hair on fire. It appeared again on the tender, gold-crusted oysters; and I could have done with something milder.
The kitchen is proud of its hand-cut fries and piles them high on the plate of slider appetizers, the grilled steak sandwich and the crab cakes. They are great, but they come with gremolata, a very garlicky mix, sprinkled on. The garlic-Parmesan bread with the spaghetti is so garlicky it's bitter.
Still, the spaghetti and meatballs dinner itself is worth investing $11.95 in. The pasta isn't overcooked. It floats in a fresh-tasting marina sauce with fat, well-seasoned meatballs.
I didn't try the Black Angus Cheeseburger, which must be one of the most-ordered items on the menu, but I had the mini-version. It's one of the Trio of Sliders appetizers, and it was fabulous. The flavorful ground beef and ciabatta roll were both great, and the cheddar had melted into every nook and cranny. If I ordered the Trio again, I'd ask for three beef sliders.
Not that the ground lamb, with tzatziki and feta, and the pork barbecue sliders weren't good, but as a combination you couldn't help but favor one over the others.
Sandwiches are the cafe's particular strength. Grilled sirloin with grilled onions and mushrooms on a grilled sub roll is nothing short of spectacular. Arugula adds color and bite, and you can pretend to be getting your vegetables.
Non-meat eaters will find something to like on the menu. There's a grilled vegetable sandwich and a couple of vegetarian pizzas. But most of the dishes are protein-heavy. The ones that aren't, like the summer crab and corn salad, with roasted tomatoes, a little corn off the cob, arugula and scattered lumps of crab, didn't have quite the guilty appeal of the meat-and-potato dishes.
In its daytime coffee-shop mode, the Village Square Cafe offers a selection of pastries that aren't made in house. For dessert after dinner, ignore them and try one of the two produced in house: either the warm brownie with ice cream and hot fudge, or the excellent, creamy cheesecake.
As I said, the cafe has a liquor license, but don't expect much from the wine or beer selection. The idea is to offer a decent red or white at a moderate price to have with a casual supper. That's exactly what the list accomplishes.
The service was pretty good until the end, when we practically had to wrestle our server to the ground to get the check. The cafe started offering dinner only recently, so it may still be getting some kinks out. There were few kinks to be gotten out as far as the food was concerned, though. The Village Square Cafe is a welcome addition to the Cross Keys community, offering something a little homier than anyplace else in the area.
Hours: Open every day for breakfast and lunch, Thursday through Saturday for dinner.
Food: ***
Service: ** 1/2
Atmosphere: ** 1/2
[Outstanding: **** Good: *** Fair or uneven: ** Poor: *]
Donna's managed to survive the bankruptcy of the bookstore it was in, and even flourish finally; but it wasn't easy. Truffles & Tea closed. And I'm not even sure I've named all the places that have come and gone.
So why do I think the new Village Square Cafe, which has just started serving dinner, could make it?
Most important, of course, it has a chef who can cook unfussy food with panache: Shawn Lagergren, formerly in front of the stove at Luca's Cafe in Locust Point.
Owners Roseann and Robert Glick have come up with a concept that should work here. The American menu is familiar and comfortable, the place is fresh and pleasant, and nothing is too expensive. The cafe has a liquor license. It offers free Wi-Fi, if you want to bring your computer, sit in the lounge area and sip a latte while you work. The outside seating is appealing, with flower-filled planters and umbrella-shaded tables, and no traffic but pedestrians.
I'm not totally enchanted with the looks of the interior of the place - it could be cozier, and I imagine the dining room gets noisy when it's crowded. But unless you want to do the chic minimalist thing (exactly not the look they're going for), it's hard to decorate any space totally successfully in Cross Keys.
You will be happiest with the food at the Village Square Cafe if you enjoy strong seasonings like garlic and heat (as in spicy) showing up in unexpected places. Lagergren is from southern Louisiana, and some of the food reflects it. There is an excellent New Orleans gumbo, for instance, with andouille sausage and chicken over fragrant rice. The good: The shrimp on top are large and perfectly cooked. The bad: They aren't integrated into the dish, and they were cold.
Louisiana even has a hand in the Maryland crab cakes, which are fat with lumps and have the proper amount of binder. But their Tabasco remoulade sauce will set your hair on fire. It appeared again on the tender, gold-crusted oysters; and I could have done with something milder.
The kitchen is proud of its hand-cut fries and piles them high on the plate of slider appetizers, the grilled steak sandwich and the crab cakes. They are great, but they come with gremolata, a very garlicky mix, sprinkled on. The garlic-Parmesan bread with the spaghetti is so garlicky it's bitter.
Still, the spaghetti and meatballs dinner itself is worth investing $11.95 in. The pasta isn't overcooked. It floats in a fresh-tasting marina sauce with fat, well-seasoned meatballs.
I didn't try the Black Angus Cheeseburger, which must be one of the most-ordered items on the menu, but I had the mini-version. It's one of the Trio of Sliders appetizers, and it was fabulous. The flavorful ground beef and ciabatta roll were both great, and the cheddar had melted into every nook and cranny. If I ordered the Trio again, I'd ask for three beef sliders.
Not that the ground lamb, with tzatziki and feta, and the pork barbecue sliders weren't good, but as a combination you couldn't help but favor one over the others.
Sandwiches are the cafe's particular strength. Grilled sirloin with grilled onions and mushrooms on a grilled sub roll is nothing short of spectacular. Arugula adds color and bite, and you can pretend to be getting your vegetables.
Non-meat eaters will find something to like on the menu. There's a grilled vegetable sandwich and a couple of vegetarian pizzas. But most of the dishes are protein-heavy. The ones that aren't, like the summer crab and corn salad, with roasted tomatoes, a little corn off the cob, arugula and scattered lumps of crab, didn't have quite the guilty appeal of the meat-and-potato dishes.
In its daytime coffee-shop mode, the Village Square Cafe offers a selection of pastries that aren't made in house. For dessert after dinner, ignore them and try one of the two produced in house: either the warm brownie with ice cream and hot fudge, or the excellent, creamy cheesecake.
As I said, the cafe has a liquor license, but don't expect much from the wine or beer selection. The idea is to offer a decent red or white at a moderate price to have with a casual supper. That's exactly what the list accomplishes.
The service was pretty good until the end, when we practically had to wrestle our server to the ground to get the check. The cafe started offering dinner only recently, so it may still be getting some kinks out. There were few kinks to be gotten out as far as the food was concerned, though. The Village Square Cafe is a welcome addition to the Cross Keys community, offering something a little homier than anyplace else in the area.
Village Square Cafe
Address: 66 Village Square, Village of Cross KeysContact: 410-433-2233, VillageSquare.com.Hours: Open every day for breakfast and lunch, Thursday through Saturday for dinner.
Food: ***
Service: ** 1/2
Atmosphere: ** 1/2
[Outstanding: **** Good: *** Fair or uneven: ** Poor: *]
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I've been there and the food is great! I love the atmosphere - it's very relaxed.www.villagesquarecafe.com
hjr76 (07/02/2009, 12:03 PM )