Oh, the unloved upstairs dining rooms of Baltimore.
Rob Kasper's review of Canton's Yellow Dog Tavern, which appears in print in tomorrow's Live section, is on line now.
Fatefully, Rob chose to dine in Yellow Dog's upstairs dining room:
"While almost every seat was taken downstairs, we had plenty of privacy upstairs. We were the only ones there."
That ended up making a difference, particularly in the service he received.
I remember going to review Yellow Dog back in 2007, a few months after it opened, and worrying about that second-floor dining room. It is pretty, but no one seemed to want to go up there. I think the smoking ban changed everything.
Bluegrass Tavern, in South Baltimore, is one of the few restaurants I can think of that has thoughtfully addressed this problem. They put bar up on there second floor -- a full-time bar, always staffed bar by the front window. So hanging out up there doesn't feel like a punishment. The Waterfront in Fells Point is another.
Baltimore Sun photo/Gene Sweeney, Jr.