Just when I was despairing of ever finding a decent cocktail in Baltimore outside my own house, I went downtown to meet some friends on Sunday afternoon and found two places that wet my whistle quite adequately.
The first is Burke’s, where I’d really only ever had beer to accompany the nice, old-fashioned food they serve. The drinks really shouldn’t have surprised me; everything about Burke’s is caught in a cocktail-era time warp from the pseudo-Tudor décor to the inexpensive, delicious, and decidedly unadventurous cuisine.
Exotic food seems to preclude a good mixed drink. Go to someplace that features things like sour beef and panned oysters and you’ll get an expertly poured drink every time. Head for the joints that don’t have decimal points on the prices next to the seared bla bla en croustade with asparagus tips, a light bla bla sauce and a dusting of bla bla, and the waiter will invariably come back to your table after mystifying the bartender with your order of an incredibly basic drink. At Burke’s this Sunday, I saw the waitress headed back in my direction and was getting ready to say “Oh, screw it, just bring me a gin and tonic” when she plonked my perfectly made and very-large-for-the-price gin rickey down on the table.
Since my friends were killing time before the theatre and I was killing time before—well, before more drinks, we stopped at the Hotel Lord Baltimore for a pre-theatre and pre-drink drink. At this point I moved back to the more standard Manhattan, but was nonetheless surprised by its quality—though the Lord Baltimore is obviously going for tourist dollars, as it rang up an awfully-high-for-Baltimore ticket of $6.00. Best of all was the chance to sit in the plush velvet chairs of the pretty old 1928 hotel, which has thankfully just been un-1985’d, while chatting over drinks and listening to a pianola that had been equipped with a roll of Gershwin favorites.
I’ve always thought the idea of having one’s own regular table at the local grand hostelry was one of the marks of true Sartorial elegance, and I’m very close to making that leap for the corner table at the Lord Baltimore bar.
The first is Burke’s, where I’d really only ever had beer to accompany the nice, old-fashioned food they serve. The drinks really shouldn’t have surprised me; everything about Burke’s is caught in a cocktail-era time warp from the pseudo-Tudor décor to the inexpensive, delicious, and decidedly unadventurous cuisine.
Exotic food seems to preclude a good mixed drink. Go to someplace that features things like sour beef and panned oysters and you’ll get an expertly poured drink every time. Head for the joints that don’t have decimal points on the prices next to the seared bla bla en croustade with asparagus tips, a light bla bla sauce and a dusting of bla bla, and the waiter will invariably come back to your table after mystifying the bartender with your order of an incredibly basic drink. At Burke’s this Sunday, I saw the waitress headed back in my direction and was getting ready to say “Oh, screw it, just bring me a gin and tonic” when she plonked my perfectly made and very-large-for-the-price gin rickey down on the table.
Since my friends were killing time before the theatre and I was killing time before—well, before more drinks, we stopped at the Hotel Lord Baltimore for a pre-theatre and pre-drink drink. At this point I moved back to the more standard Manhattan, but was nonetheless surprised by its quality—though the Lord Baltimore is obviously going for tourist dollars, as it rang up an awfully-high-for-Baltimore ticket of $6.00. Best of all was the chance to sit in the plush velvet chairs of the pretty old 1928 hotel, which has thankfully just been un-1985’d, while chatting over drinks and listening to a pianola that had been equipped with a roll of Gershwin favorites.
I’ve always thought the idea of having one’s own regular table at the local grand hostelry was one of the marks of true Sartorial elegance, and I’m very close to making that leap for the corner table at the Lord Baltimore bar.
posted by Daniel | 4:03 PM
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