A few days after I posted something about Sam Sessa's sniffing out Pazo's cupcakes-and-cocktails nights, I stumbled upon the same unlikely combo at another Baltimore restaurant.
I happened to be on the phone with Peter Mooradian, general manager of Milan, the new hipster Italian place in Little Italy. You know, the one that lists prices in dollars and euros?
I'd called Mooradian on a matter related to The Talk column I write, but I mentioned that I was also minding the Dining@Large blog these days. I asked him to let me know if he had any interesting restaurant news. Not, say, a two-for-one entree deal. But something unusual, like that cupcakes-and-cocktails thing at Pazo.
"Cupcakes and cocktails?" he said. He'd just done that at Milan!
It wasn't part of a weekly special a la Pazo, but the theme of a private party thrown last Saturday night at Milan. A customer who'd booked the restaurant's heated patio for a private party provided the cupcakes.
"She came in the afternoon and brought hundreds and hundreds of gift-boxed cupcakes," which were stacked in towers and pyramids. Mooradian didn't know where she'd bought them, but said, "They looked pretty classy. They were Fed Exed from somewhere."
There was no claim, as at Pazo, that the cupcakes were expertly paired with the drinks. But apparently there were not complaints as the guests -- there were over 100 -- washed them down with "fashion martinis."
So there you have it: a near-trend. (It's not official, by old newspaper standards anyway, until we get to three.)
Pazo's Angel Food Cupcake made with Creme Anglaise and Raspberry Sorbet, paired with La Vie en Rose made with Moscato d'Asti, Soho Lychee Liqueur, rose water and fresh rose petal. Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam