On Sept. 30, 1973, the first Eater's Digest, written by me, appeared in the pages of The Sun. I was a free-lancer, and the agreement was that I would get $50, out of which I'd pay for dinner and keep what was left over as payment for the column.
My new boss wanted me to start with Danny's, the fanciest, most expensive restaurant in town. I'd never been to Danny's; once there I realized that if my husband and I ordered at will, I was essentially going to be writing for free. My solution was to order from the pre-theater menu, which as I remember didn't cost much over $10 a person.
My boss wasn't pleased. Go back, he told me, and -- his exact words -- "order the good stuff." He knew, and he was absolutely right, that people then didn't want to read about saving money. ** They wanted to salivate with me over huge, juicy cuts of beef swimming in bordelaise sauce and stagger through peach melba "hopelessly smothered in whipped cream," as I said in the review that appeared in the paper.
The check for the second dinner came to around $50; I'm not sure whether I actually lost money in the end or just didn't make any. (I eventually got my nerve up and insisted on getting paid a flat fee -- $35 if I remember right -- plus expenses for two.)
When I started out I was very green, but I loved good food, I loved eating out and I loved telling people about it. (How green was I? The managing editor, taking a look at the raw copy of my first review, gently suggested that perhaps I meant Beluga caviar instead of Belgian caviar.)
I continued as the restaurant critic for the morning paper until the early '80s, when I switched to the Sun Magazine, and eventually gave up the column to work full time as food and home editor. I kept up with Baltimore's restaurants, though, by writing for the twice-yearly Dining Out guide (and sometime later also editing it). So for almost 20 years, one way or another, I've been reviewing restaurants for The Sun.
Now I'm back full time, and I get to do what I wanted to do two decades ago: Go to a luxury restaurant, order from the prix-fixe menu and write about it. My guess is that in 1992 most readers are more interested in splurging economically than consuming conspicuously.
By whatever name you call them -- early-bird specials, pre-theater, prix fixe -- ordering from these special menus is a good way to save appreciable amounts of money while sampling fairly haute cuisine in luxurious surroundings. What's the downside? You have to eat earlier than you may want to, usually 5:30 to 6:30 on a weeknight; obviously restaurants are trying to get customers in when business is slow. And portions are usually smaller than if you order from the regular menu -- something I like if I'm going to have several courses, but moderation isn't to everyone's taste.
Not all of Baltimore's top-of-the-line restaurants offer prix-fixe dinners. But I did find two -- one Italian, one French -- that are known for their handsome dining rooms as well as interesting food. The prix-fixe menus of both offer a choice of first courses, entrees and desserts -- many of them drawn from the regular menu.
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From the moment you arrive at the gilded doors of the Brass Elephant, a row house converted to a restaurant, you know it's zTC something special. Inside, the rooms are subdued, serene and gorgeous, done in understated colors with ornately carved teak paneling, parquet floors, crystal chandeliers and elaborate brass appointments. (The name comes from the elephant-head sconces.) Vases of gladioluses grace the marble mantelpieces. Tables are well-spaced and handsomely set with white linen and good china and flatware. Only the kitchen's tendency to put doilies between dishes undercuts the elegance of the table setting.
Don't expect to get the prix-fixe menu unless you ask. If you're tempted by the regular menu of northern Italian dishes, you'll spend between $15 for grilled chicken Vesuvio and $22 for an individual rack of lamb. (The price includes vegetables and a salad.) Compare that with the prix-fixe dinner, where for $15.95 you can get a first course, salad, dessert and coffee with that same boneless breast of chicken. It's marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic; grilled to moist goodness, and prettily arranged with grilled vegetables: a slice of eggplant, strips of sweet and green pepper and radicchio. (Although I'm not convinced there's ever any reason to grill radicchio.)
Other choices for a main course that evening were sauteed scallops, sirloin steak with green peppercorn or bearnaise sauce, grilled calf's liver, and sweetbreads. The fish of the day was trout -- delicious, but it was a dainty portion even for me. The small, delicately flavored fillet was crusted with herbs and crumbs and decorated with an elegant beurre blanc. Too bad the sauce was full of chopped, winter-white tomatoes.
More of those anemic tomatoes marred my otherwise flawless first course, a small bowl of fettuccine topped with slivers of smoked salmon and a smooth cream sauce. Not quite so successful was my friend's bit of polenta wrapped around escargots and chopped mushrooms; the dark bolognese sauce overwhelmed the other, less bold flavors.
All in all, a pretty successful meal, although I wouldn't have been so happy if I had spent a hundred dollars rather than 40 before tip. Then I might have raised an eyebrow at the large curls of carrot in an otherwise elegant green salad, the soggy fruit with the cheesecake, the not-quite-hot tea water, the glass of chardonnay served instead of the champagne ordered, the long wait for our check.
Oh well, it was our otherwise excellent waitress' first day. (I refrained from telling her it was my first day, too.)
Brass Elephant, 924 N. Charles St., (410) 547-8480. Prix fix offered Mondays-Fridays 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. AE,MC,V. No-smoking area: no. Wheelchair access: no.
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The large sign outside the Cafe des Artistes proclaimed "Prix fixe $14.95," but when we got the check we saw that the price had climbed to $15.95 a person without our being warned. The special menu is still a bargain, even though it doesn't include coffee or a separate salad course. Another plus: It's available from 5:30 p.m. to closing Monday and Tuesday nights.
The appetizer choices were limited to the soup of the day (that evening, cream of zucchini) or a small Caesar salad. But enough different entrees were offered to make me wonder why the waiter had to recite them rather than give us a typed prix-fixe menu.
They included steamed trout with spinach and dill sauce, linguine with duck confit, chicken breast in lemon butter and our selections: blackened redfish and roast pork loin with "port wine sauce and Roquefort cream," according to our waiter. (The Roquefort cream never made an appearance, which was fine with me.) The tender slices of boneless roast pork were the high point of the meal, their richness cut by the lingeringly sweet, wine-red sauce.
Everything we had fairly shouted with assertive flavors. The kitchen may well be able to produce dishes of subtlety, but we didn't happen to choose them. The Caesar salad was dominated by garlic and anchovies; the creamy soup was quite salty; the thick blackened redfish fillet, already spicy-hot, was flanked by a tomato coulis as strongly flavored as barbecue sauce. The butter was whipped with garlic and herbs; the excellent, chewy rolls, flavored with carrots and studded with herbs.
Vegetables were visually stunning: two carved slices of carrot arranged near an elegant little fan of zucchini, a smidgen of red cabbage and a small cube of potato gratin. (The thin squares of potatoes oozed melted Swiss cheese.)
A good, bold meal -- except for one of our desserts, where flavors ran too wild. This was a green apple mousse tart that had green apples and blueberries and a chocolate topping and red-and-green-decorated creme anglaise on the side. Stick to the other choice, creme caramel.
There's nothing understated about the food at the Cafe des Artistes, and there's nothing understated about the good-looking decor, with its forest-green walls, mirrors, shiny brass railings, salmon banquettes and bold artwork. I would quarrel only with the salmon-rimmed, rose-patterned china; such artistically arranged food deserves a white background.
The service was fine until the end -- as it was at the Brass Elephant -- when we couldn't get anyone to take our money. That's puzzling; you'd think they'd realize that the only reason we'd be eating at 5:30 (if we weren't reviewing) was because we had somewhere to go afterward.
Cafe des Artistes, 1501 Sulgrave Ave., (410) 664-2200. Prix fixe offered Mondays and Tuesdays all evening and Wednesdays-Fridays 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. AE,MC,V. No-smoking
area: yes. Wheelchair access: yes..
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